So true Interior blank. I don't know why white needs to equate to cheap looking in Australia. I drool in envy at some of the stoves in the US. Beautiful styling, retro looking, they have it all. You know what I'd like is for someone to be able to say exactly what needs to be done to convert their appliances to our electricity, or plumbing.

Portpiro, my oven came with the house. I must say I do like the way it cooks, but steel is just too hard to keep looking non smudged etc. in my last house I had a Bosch wall oven - that was the best oven I ever owned and if I ever replace the current smeg I would go back to a Bosch. We have white Westinghouse fridge freezer, no complaints good fridge that suits our kitchen and our needs, our stainless steel which I gave to my parents when we moved was also Westinghouse .. I am pretty sure they are Australian as well...so that is a bonus

Your kitchen sounds lovely and leans to modern classic - you could go for all walls in a warm light olive, tan or deep rust so that your kitchen pops and your black lounge is the a grounding element - using cushions in the same colour pallet as your wall on the lounge. OR Block colours out with a feature wall using a bright clear colour - yellow, green, orange and counterbalance the wall the majority of walls in soft warmgrey that will help ground the lounge and again pick up the feature colour and the grey in cushions. OR Ditch the lounge and go for something in a softer colour as black can be quiet hard and keep your walls white and let your art make your space modern.

I think your kitchen is lovely and I wonder if black would look somehow too heavy? Stainless has been around for a while and continues to be popular and your other appliances are stainless. Rangehood too, I'm not sure about a black stove under a stainless rangehood. If there's a trend for black now and you're not really loving it and you're not planning to change other things to coordinate with it, I think stainless is just fine.