I took no offense to your comments at all. I'm not swayed either, nor biased by the laminex group. I'd myself go with the lexicon 1/4 to get that perfect match to your interior, polar white is very Starck, like paper, and I beleive is still in the core range??? As for the tab top handles, they are probably what your calling finger pull, if so they will be mounted on the top side of the door and you just use a finger to pull out the lip and they are almost invisible. THe next best thing to a shadow line or finger grip detail. If this is the case, that's why the warranty is void! The joiner will need to shave mm off and slightly rebate this handle to close properly. Any cutting not a vinyl panel voids it's warranty, as it's like cutting open vacuum sealed salami and returning it for refund! Anyway they can avoid this by excluding this handle from offer, or anticipating its selection in the process before ordering doors, so they can reduce the door height by 10mm to accomodate etc, etc. I'm not sure why the warranty is less than the vinyl door than the painted ones, I think your referring to colour tech painted doors? There is also crystal gloss wi a polyurethane finish. Lastly, albedor and tesrol are Australian made vinyl doors, albedor has an extensive profile range of doors, one of the largest, a strong reputation and their service reps are well informed so specifiers always have a great relationship with them. Tesrol I like because they have great provincial accents or accessories like their capping moulds and elements to make a traditional kitchen quite grand a scale, usually only an optin for cashed up kitchens. They are based in NSW, but even in Melbourne, they always met our needs, although slitly dearer. And laminex doors, take the lead off both of those companies, and made here also. They have a very strict quality control, and although vinyl is not their primary product, they do well for service. There are many more worth mentioning, but I myself always ask the joiner who they order through, and ask for their vinyl brochure to select from. If they are not made in oz, then ask for another product, or another joiner. No sense in saving cost on a product which relies heavily on warranty guarantee, replacement and service will be met easier and quicker locally than imported, and more important, our strict standards are regulated to monitor the use of arsenic and formaldehyde, and is not adhered to in many imported door ranges.

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 :)

Yours do look very nice but don't forget there are 1000s of homes with laminate bench tops with cook tops sitting directly on them. Don't think that the sides of a BBQ get hotter than a wok burner. I do like your first pic, the more compact one. What would be the approx cost sans BBQ?

Hi siriuskey, In answer to your previous question, no we are not having as big of an oven/cooktop shown in the design. Ours will be a 60cm induction cook top, with a 60cm built in oven underneath. I'm guessing this is just the picture they have in their design software. It seems a bit distorted anyway. At this stage we are not sure if we will be repainting the kitchen & dining space. I guess it depends on what colours we go for, as it was only recently repainted. It is really only the one wall in the lounge room that is still natural wood, the remainder of the house has been painted in the light grey. The previous owners had already started to organise the reno, just before we bought the house. So we have a 'custom' flat pack that they order, to replicate the current kitchen layout. They choose StyleLite for the doors in either Frost or Arctic (http://stylelite.net/product_info.html) and it is a high gloss. One of the kitchen companies is happy to take away our flat pack and modify it to suit our new design. This would save us money on cabinet costs and get it out of our way. So, for these reasons we are keen to stay with the white cabinetry. Originally we were thinking of a black stone top with a little metallic flick in it (http://www.caesarstone.com.au/colour/6100-night-sky) but we are now considering a less stark colour like a grey (https://www.silestoneusa.com/color/marengo/) which would be perhaps more of an industrial style look? All of the poles in the lounge room, dining and kitchen are the blue colour, which we are keen to keep if possible so that the entire space has some continuity. Plus with cream coloured carpet, we don't want to repaint the lounge room ones! They are different colours in the other rooms. Having said all this, we are open to ideas and plan to take our time getting the design and colour scheme right, so we don't make it too modern and detract from the feel of the house.