My answer is based upon what I see on my jobs, which often involves a collaboration of ideas based upon client needs and desires. I don't always see the practicality in what people are asking for, but we try to give people what they want. I will usually speak up if I see a train wreck coming, but for the most part kitchens are based upon individual client feedback. Here is a top 5 list of what clients have been asking for: I have seen a lot of kitchens drawn with two islands. Not sure where this trend started, but of course this only works in very large kitchens. I personally would rather see an island and an eating area. The two island concept is for familes that do a lot of large scale entertaining. It works well for catered parties when a kitchen staff is present. A lot of clients are asking for wine refrigerators, in addition to regular refrigeration. Sometimes these units are in the regular kitchen triangle, sometimes in side rooms or butler's pantries. Glass tile is very popular right now. There are great looking, newly introduced options at the tile stores. Also, clients are seeing these options and bringing pictures of various glass designs and asking, " where can we put this". I do like the glass trend, it's a very practical choice for backsplashes and creates a nice transitional look. Kitchen faucets are being introduced with great new features. The pull out faucet is very popular and always on client's wish lists. There is also the newer "touch technology" which I think was made popular by the various cooking networks. Moen has what they call MotionSense, which basically is a sensor that is activated by a touch or a wave of the hand for " hands- free" convenience. Finally, I get many clients asking for a blend of styles. Right now we are just finishing up a kitchen where the homeowner wanted a vintage/modern feel. She had a beautiful, restored vintage stove that she felt strongly about re-using. I was actually surprised at how well this turned out. It's really my favorite thing in the kitchen. There are many modern elements like cork flooring, two dish washers, huge fridge and freezer all combined with this shiny, white vintage stove. It worked, I was surprised. That's my top 5 list. I look forward to seeing other ideas. Thanks for the question. Charmean Neithart

The tiles are not offensive..most people are choosing white with white anyway. Given the items you want to keep I would simply replace the bench top, add a new wider longer mirror, that fills the space where you currently have the tiles and if you are using laminate it can only be an above mount sink. If you are doing stone or timber then you can have an undercount sink. I would possibly consider taking off all the wall tiles and find a more natural tile to work with your floors and then add a lick of paint to freshen it all.

Hi everyone - just an update on our bathroom. Thank you again for all the suggestions. As all renovation projects go, we started with a basic touch up with tile paint and repainting the vanity; the tile paint was a disaster. To be fair it is very humid in Cairns at the moment, however the instructions were to leave it longer to dry. In the end we have ripped out both the floor and the wall tiles, we have reduced the height of the roman bath to a step in shower (we tiled straight over the shower floor with mosaic tiles). We managed to get a second hand vanity in fantastic condition, are replacing the shower glass from higrove (thanks for the tip) and even got some brand new tiles from the dump shop for $15.00. We thought we would try our hand at rendering and we are very happy with the effect of getting rid of the besser block walls. So for colours we have grey floor tiles, and white wall tiles. We are up to the wall tiles now and very excited about showing you our bathroom renovation which fingers crossed should be finished next week. Thank you again for all your comments. I have learnt a good lesson on weighing up the benefits of using what is existing in the space, to starting again and look for DIY tutorials on YouTube.

You are kind to say that, Julie. Hubby also washed and polished the floorboards in the two rooms we decided to retain. They look much better as well. This has been fun project; don't quite know what I'll do with myself after it's completed! :) although, in saying that, there is the garden here to keep us occupied...!