It must depend what you cook. I don't do fried, spitty type dishes and the grout around the largish tiles in my now 10 year old kitchen is as good as new. I rubbed car wax into the freshly laid grout lines, same as I did in the bathroom. It also depends on how much light bounces around your kitchen, glass being so reflective shows up smears with light on it. Just above the kettle in the first photo is a good example. Each to their own, I'm a non-glass girl whenever I can get away with it.

Hi, Bronwyn - love your kitchen :) We are planning a complete kitchen renovation and love the two choices that you have for the cabinets fronts. Seeing you did your kitchen about 4 years ago my first question will be of durability :) How do both finishes feel - plasticky or more like real wood? For the Voxtorp I will have only wall cabinets (no drawers) of it and wonder with the integrated handle - does it align well (I tend to have OCD and if there are no even will drive me crazy :) ). Thanks :)

Thank you siriuskey. Yes that's what I was referring to, but I think I wasn't giving credit to the island sink, which would also serve for food prep. I was thinking about efficiency from my perspective. Euro bins next to sink in island, would be beneficial for ease of handling waste. Another consideration is: when using cooktop and extraction fan, will noise from fan interfere with person in study? Also, will steam from say, boiling water steam bother anyone using the study desk? I am not trying to throw cold water on the plan by my questions, I'm merely trying to imagine diff scenarios so as much as can be taken into consideration is. I have a glass splashback behind induction cooktop and a very effective extraction fan; however, when a large pot of water is at full boil, the glass steams up something chronic and I have to constantly wipe it and the underside of exhaust fan or else water drips down onto the cooktop (and any food I'm cooking).

Oh no - does the black bother you? I basically just need induction and hopefully something that's reliable. It's on sale at the moment and does seem to have a lot of great features for the price but not knowing much about the brand I'm nervous about the quality and having issues with repairs. I do like the idea of the whole bench being white though as the cooktop would be the only black and I'm not sure if I'll regret it if I don't try it. So hard to decide! (First world problems!)