sounds like lots of colour going on. What colour are your window treatments? what about timber chairs which pick up the flooring & colour in your bench top (stained IKEA style or bentwood) & then some grey accessories... its about your eye matching the same colour for uniformity. does that assist.

i reckon to get rid of breakfast bar and extend the bench but replace with 1 or 2 tall pantry cupboards. at the other end move the doorway along to center of wall. on the other side of kitchen where the oven is i would have pantry halfway along and bench the rest of way to fridge with oven under bench and stove top. you could even have a builtin microwave in the pantry area.

Tribbletrouble, thanks so much for the info, it's great to know that there's a bit of a black trend happening, as the black accessories... Handles, lights, sink, legs were what we really liked when choosing but now seeing it all together it's taking a while to get used to. Like you said though. I probably just need to get the furniture and laying done. Really appreciate your thoughts, links and suggestions :)

Thank you.