had thought white but am worried it might be too stark i have a black glass door fridge not sure whether to go black and maybe a light shade of green for majority of cabinets with a black bench top

What sort of floors do you have? What shape is your kitchen and where is the fridge? I think an all black kitchen is most suited to a large space with a lot of natural light. If you have that it will be fine. :) In a small space without natural light, it may look dark and the black gloss may be a little overwhelming. If you have a kitchen with a defined back wall, another wall to the left/right and an island, you might want to put the gloss fridge and cupboards all down the side wall and on the island, and use a contrasting colour for the other cupboards. Perhaps a timber or grey timber look laminate and off white to warm up the space and bring in a bit of light. Depending on what you do and do not like as well as what is going to be reflected, a mirror splash may bring in a little more light as well. Goodluck with it all.

White-matte cabinets (flat panel, not shaker) and white bench (or maybe epoxy sealed marine ply??...siriuskey can tell you about that), mirror splash. Love the ceilings. I personally would go for a modern, stream-line, no handles, integrated appliances look. This space has real potential to be very cool, even with the slate. It doesn't need any more more texture or darkness. This is a nice kitchen, you should be able to sell it on ebay.

Thank you everyone for your responses. I’m still undecided - I have a few weeks to consider what to do. The bench top salesperson showed me some photos of the few people who have added a small amount of benchtop stone to add some height (and it’s always because of a busy 60 x 30 patterned tile that the owners want to keep perfect) and in her words it looks ‘dicky’. Not least because the tile sits flatter against the wall than a 2cm thick slab of benchtop. It leaves a pronounced lip of 1.5cm where tile meets benchtop addition Then there’s the safety concerns mentioned above about flames near stone which I had not considered. Big reader - I love your maths but I’m only 150cm tall. Even with a low bench and oven height of 94cm (my oven’s lowest height setting) plus 70cm of tile between the bench and overheads, the cupboards are already 14cm above my head. This barely makes them usable for me even now! Adding another 15cm instead of the 10cm, while looking lovely and keeping the pattern intact, means my short-arse self will have real difficulty reaching anything safely. Every cm counts when you’re short! But I do appreciate your input!