I agree with Luke there , some wood can break up large white areas to good effect. We are building a small houseboat too and white will be the dominant back drop to keep things light and airy . Our wooden vanity top in the bathroom ( recycled Tasmanian Oak flooring ) is what we used. The seating was treated in a similar manner. A work in progress. This will be similar to our kitchen area.

it doesn't matter..I have a galley kitchen and my oven is a wall oven up high..as one wall is wall to ceiling cupboards..and is pretty much opposite the stove.. just be mindful that you've got enough space to open the oven door..our width/walkway is 1300mm or there about between the wall cupboards and bench.. and a wall oven means you don't have to bend low to open the oven door..

Hi sydneymidge if you get your Kitchen renovation company back, they can make you an appliance cabinet to sit from bench up to and below the first three overhead doors. Your cabinetmakers can also match this new unit to your existing material's finish. There are also a couple of ways that you can consider to set up your appliance cabinet door. This can be done as a Tambour roll up door, or as three panel bi-folds that open and fold to the left wall with or without pocket, or as 2 Coplanar doors, or done as a lift-up-flap using something like the Blum Aventos HL mechanism; here your cabinetmaker will be able help you by also discussing each of their benefits and drawbacks. Hope this helps, Malcolm, Compass Kitchens.

in a tiny kitchen i think it would be better to have open counters and hide the unused appliances if you don't like them sitting on the counters but imo it's very rare that when entertaining guests that you will not need to use the kettle and in my kitchen the dreaded corner cabinets are ideal locations for big appliances and mine were purpose designed with 450mm bifold doors (the whole corner cabinet is 1050 x 1050 instead of 900 x 900) and i can easily hide all my appliances when not in use.. focus on base cabinets with drawers and add extra shelves in wall cabinets instead of any complex storage