I think your benchtop material choice really depends on how both you and your husband live and what level of natural wear you are comfortable with showing. Natural wood benchtops to me are very similar to natural stone or stainless steel. The surfaces will naturally age and show use, scratches and imperfections much more than say a caesarstone if it's a high use area but some people love that look and it goes well with an industrial or natural style. My wife and I thought long and hard about it but realised we want the benchtop to look as new and clean each time as possible so opted back for caeserstone (Ocean Foam) which hid small stains and dust :)

Hi ucheokeke1 colour matching to the tile should be relatively simple as already explained. However even if you find the right paint colour, unless you ask for optically clear glass (known as Starphire glass in Australia) your colour will be skewed by the natural green skew of ordinary glass. If you can source a coloured glass splashback that's close to your chosen colour from a standard range you will be OK with normal glass. If there is nothing similar in a standard range, the only way to ensure true colour representation is to pay the extra for optically clear glass. I hope this makes sense.

You can get slim range hoods that generally fit into the wall cabinets ours were approx 40cm deep which housed the complete operation, our plumber ran a 6 or so inch flexable ducting into the roof cavity and out under the eaves. Most brands make these. A photo would be helpful. https://www.thegoodguys.com.au/omega-52cm-undermount-rangehood-oru50x?CAWELAID=620013790000422290&CAGPSPN=pla&CAAGID=21711678566&CATCI=pla-376401441757&gclid=CjwKCAjw0qLOBRBUEiwAMG5xMNN63iJr0n0Bnxf31-Gt0t5s0vERt_lOwOYkC6uzovf9TDWwawry9RoCgxQQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CLOv9erawdYCFc0slgodE5oLHg Where we didn't have wall cabinets we had tall boxes of stainless look laminate built up to the ceiling which contained the extraction unit, which was approx 30-40cm's and extraction ducting cheers

I want to do the same to free up a ‘stretch’ of bench space, rather than having only small work areas in the corner and ends of our small L shape. I am talking stove top only as oven will be in a tower with microwave. That means the cupboard underneath can utilise the whole space, albeit with relatively small door (430mm). We would have to offset the range hood on the adjacent wall due to window position but have been advised the modern hoods are powerful enough to extract steam without necessarily being positioned absolutely over the hot plates.