Hi Barry, I personally don't think the large blank space lends itself to a piece of art. It's up too high and contrary to your thoughts, it wouldn't be the feature you'd hope for it to be. Besides, the money you spend on a piece large enough, would be better spent on a smaller, higher quality piece mounted at the correct height (eye-level) that would compliment another part of your home. Getting back to the blank space, have you considered using a timber veneer for the wall cabinets? Something that would work with your bench, and then you could use the same veneer as wall panels to continue above the blank space over the cupboards. Perhaps you could even incorporate led strip lighting to give it a little more wow factor. Timber is great because it adds a layer of warmth to the polished concrete and dark cabinets. Good luck, and keep us posted! Would love to see which way you go. Cheers, and have a great weekend. Steve

Hi kelly. can see you are going for a classic kitchen that transitions between traditional styles such as provincial, hamptons and a slightly more modern take on them. your island will be hero, and it's bespoke finish will make or break the whole room. The layout is quite practical, although the abundance of bench space used as a seated area will undoubtedly clutter up your prep space and designated walkway around it when stools come into play. as for the fluted columns and turned legs, I do like them, however the Georgian blocks (your pyramids) which are referred to as rosettes, regardless of the design, are perhaps not being used to best effect on your rangehood area, and in fact, are better used either side of the adjoining wall cabinets. They are typically used in place of fillers, which go between Walls and cupboards, and symmetrically flank a show cabinet - ie glazed display cabinet, a function cabinet such as a sink or cooktop/oven unit. i have designed many provincial kitchens including the schots showroom in Clifton hill, and have many years experience in applying these ornaments to otherwise simple kitchens to great effect. I am a kitchen designer, and from my stance, the proportion is what is not working for me. the island is going to dominate, but it will feel somewhat domineering to the kitchens detriment if it is not suitably complimented by same scale cabinets around the perimeter. In these style kitchens, the trick is to emphasise and highlight the main function areas, the cooking zone, typically by over scaling the rangehood with a nice mantel, rangehood cabinet or mouldings, the sink, and the storage or prep areas. Your rangehood cabinet needs to be wider, wider than the cooktop, and as important, the glass doors either side need to be narrower, regardless of storage, they will look grander, and have more impact with the fluted column either side of these. Also, varying depth is important, the side glazed cabinets should be standard -330mm and the rangehood deeper, and higher, so it stands out dramatically, make it 450mm deep, and 900mm wide, irrespective of the cooktop width. I encourage making it higher, so the capping mould on top of the glass cabinets abut the rangehood cabinet, and the central rangehood capping then stands out framing the focus, it also makes your ceiling appear larger. if your render is representative of your layout, align the top height of the glazed cabinet with the bulkhead, and then the rangehood unit to the ceiling, then actually run the ceiling cornice around that to provide an illusion of high ceilings! i would also consider lowering the side cabinets with Undermount lighting to illuminate your workspace. Do the same highlighting your sink, by flanking the cupboard with the fluted columns, perhaps even protruding it 100mm, so the stone bench top enjoys a beautiful stone edge on show. It also allows your tapware hob more generous space. The Columns will then make sense, and link into your dramatic and over scaled island. Your designer can easily modify this render in 15 minutes or so, and show you just how proportion alters an image, and will instantly provide insight to a successful aesthetic, or whether you want to rethink the layout. Last tip, when you kitchen has one plain wall with upper cabinets, but others are left without any, I would suggest considering tiling up to a bulkhead on adjacent wall,s perhaps a subway, or marble hexagonal small tile like a penny round, it will provide balance to both style and surfaces. good luck. ML

there are so many options, I would need to see the rest of the layout. eg what does this area open up to? in which direction? what is the door next to the fridge? does it lead to a room or a butlers pantry or just a walk in pantry? If you could have a butlers pantry then you could eliminate some of the cupboards in the kitchen area and open it up so aesthetically it looks bigger, more open. Then your butlers pantry will need to be fitted out with cabinetry in order to make up for the space. It also depends on how much cooking you actually do, speaking form experience and having a kitchen layout same as yours above; all the cupboards above on either side of my cook top have gone yellow and are no longer white and glossy. Yes, I have 2 pack and they assured me this wouldn't happen but being someone who cooks 6 out of the 7 days that's what happens. I too have the same sss range hood and that is continually dirty from all the steam, oil etc. The people who did my splash back made a mistake and did not take it all the way up, so that area between the cupboards, where your range hood stands, the wall is continuously dirty from the steam and oil and very hard to get up there and wash it all the time. If I were to design again, I would put in a range hood that is double the size of your cooking area, so that the cupboards are well away from all the cooking. Then again if you don't cook continuously then you shouldn't have a problem. If you have the room and you are able to extend the cupboards along that wall that your cook top is on, that's where you could put a double cupboard with long glass doors that sit on your bench top for display of nice glassware etc. The glass display cupboards give an elegant finish to the kitchen. The other option is that I have been involved in some kitchens (this is if you have the money) that install a sink, cook top and oven in the butlers pantry. This way all the prep work is done out of sight. So when entertaining your kitchen will be clean and tidy, no body sees all the dirty prep work and the oven, cook top and sink in the kitchen are for only warming things and small tidy ups.

I haven't used AEG but i always check where the product is made? Not just where the head office is based. Also, have you looked at productreview.com.au. you never really completely know if reviews are real or fake but if you read enough of them you can get a reasonable idea. I recently replaced my oven and induction cooktop and chose Neff, never heard of them before i started looking but they had a good deal on the oven and i would have to say is the best oven i have ever used. I had a bosch prior and had a few issues. They are actually the same company but bosch is the lead in, Neff next level up, then if money no limit, Gaggenau. Good luck, its a big decision.