Whatever you do never plant a gum! They have no place in suburban areas! The sooner the council realises that these trees kill people the better! We have had two gum trees fall on the back of our house now, one in 2012 and one in 2014. We are so lucky that myself, my husband, three children, three dogs, five Guinea pigs, two parrots and one bearded dragon were not injured. It's just a miracle not once but twice! I still don't know how we escaped unharmed. The gums do not have a stable root system and they grow very shallow, they get to the point where they just fall over. And the scary thing is they fall silently. They are not called 'Widow Makers' in the bush for no reason. I like the Tuckeroo tree, not sure of scientific name. They grow with a straight trunk and keep their foliage in a straight and symmetrical line along the bottom and grow hiding their branches. Essentially they look like a large mushroom. They are green all year too. I think they get to about 6 metre or ten if they have to reach for the sun.

Hi iggs85. I see your point re cost and how you think it may look. I'll attach a photo of one of my semi-recessed basins in stone. We had to use semi-recessed due to space restrictions as well. The benches are 440. Are yours narrower? I did Google stone benchtop offcuts. eBay has some in marble and granite. There appear to be businesses that do sell offcuts. Anyway, I think you would certainly be able to find a beautiful laminate you like. There is such a wide range. There are also some that look so much like stone. Will you have vanity cabinets/drawers under the benchtop? If so, what are your thoughts there? Same laminate or different? Have you visited any shops yet to look at samples?

Agree with some of the ideas already mentioned of artwork (maybe 3 small framed prints or photos hung vertically given the light you intend to install?) to fill the wall space, tiered stand with fruit, cook books on one shelf and the other can be used for storing stationery, mail etc using a stacked set of drawers (some nice ones available at the stationery/office suppliers). You can hang removable hooks inside the door for keys. I'm not a fan of having "stuff" (papers, keys) on bench tops as it quickly turns into a dumping area and in a thoroughfare, things end up on the floor as people rush past. Best of luck - your kitchen is gorgeous by the way!!

As you know I love your kitchen, so I would use the kitchen cabinet colour in all the back wall of the shelves. Change the granite tops to also match the kitchen. On one of my previous houses I found that the bar wall was too high tho paint a solid colour so I got a curved laser cut art work to make it more of a feature. Took a photo from the internet to show you because I think if you fid something similar it would work. In your case I would get the 4 panels done and paint the little one against the wall. This way you will introduce the kitchen colours but also keep your timber. You would need to have the bar top overhanging slightly because the front would now be slightly wider. Also I think you could get away with leaving the black granite at the back.