I probably would steer away from black if you want to keep the country theme

Hi I just thought I would leave a comment about the visibility of joins in reconstituted stone such as Caesarstone tops on islands longer than 3 metres. From a patern point of view; by selecting a style that has a fine grain certainly helps with reducing the visibility of a join. As for the join itself, the technology and tooling used to make such joints has come a long way in the last 10 years; therefore if you use a Kitchen Manufacturer who uses up-to-date stone fabrication methods, then such joins can be next to near invisible. Below is a kitchen we made with an Island that is over 4.3 metres long and has a join through the centre; where the join actually has to be pointed out to be seen. We have seen Kitchen Manufactures use the two height method but you really don't have to do this to achieve a long island. If you would like a long island, then you should not be put off by having to have a join; careful selection of your material, manufacturer and planning can achieve great results. Hope this helps anyone reading this article and the comments above.

" How wonderful it is online that now we can all see what amazing ppl are creating. We always have had amazing ppl making such things, but usually reserved for family keepsakes, or nanas specialty. Put down the iPhone and pick up a craft I say!" ~mldesign0401 Indeed. I'm often gobsmacked at what people can do. And it's great to see the process in pictures. I do spend a lot more time looking at others creations the actually doing something myself! One of the traps of everything shared online. I do love seeing the creations that didn't go as planned too! So funny. It's great that people have the sense of humour to still share their "failures". At the end of the day, there's more benefit in the process of creating right? At least they had a go.

900mm is still 'standard' however I quite often do 950mm for my clients. It is not a difference that will stand out as wrong, and is really more in proportion with the heights of people today. Some things to consider / look out for with the increased bench height: - often the joiner might try to put the extra 50mm into the kickrails as it is cheaper & easier for them. This DOES look disproportionate so I would definitely recommend paying the extra $ to put the height into the cabinets instead. - If you are having a free-standing stove not all of them are able to be adjusted tall enough to suit a 950mm benchtop, so check the specs carefully. You may end up needing to build a plinth for the stove to go on. - Be sure to ask for a filler to go above your dishwasher, otherwise you will end up with a sizeable gap between the top of the dishwasher & the underside of the benchtop. - The distance between any overhead cabinets & the stove top is dictated by standards, so an increase of 50mm in the bench height will result in the overhead cabinets (if you are having any) also being 50mm higher.