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 Lil, I believe your original plan works much better than the revised version. While the notion of ideal working widths is great, the larger problem here is the post. I worked on a project very similar to this last year where a post could either be connect to, or separate from the island. What we found was that by separating the island the space between island and post became very awkward. It's not enough of a space to comfortably walk through or be seated at the island in front of. Instead of your room feeling open and generous in proportion, it is going to start to feel cramped and awkward. We have a kitchen in our showroom (Kitchen Studio Tauranga NZ) with a 6ft gap between bench and back wall and it works wonderfully. It allows someone to work at the sink and a second at the island with ease. Stick with the original plan. It will feel a lot more spacious, without compromising work flows.

Full residential underbench drawers are better for you, less noise. Not many options though. Sub Zero has 610 and 760mm https://au.subzero-wolf.com/en/sub-zero/counter-refrigerator Fisher Paykel has 900mm (855 to be exact) https://www.fisherpaykel.com/au/kitchen/fridges-freezers/built-in-refrigeration/cooldrawer-multi-temperature-drawer.RB90S64MKIW1.html Both has customizeable front panel (I am sure sub zero can, f&p pretty sure you can do it, just like their dishdrawers) Going commercial, you have more range, built like a tank, and more noisy Adande is the top range drawers, Best available for commercials, they have double sided one as well, you can push and pull from either side Turboair / Polar is another option for more drawers. Williams / Skope only has the 2door - 3door - 4door type but they look very commercial, mostly stainless or glass door only.

@Mc10 - We are also recirculating - and we are venting this through a gap in the kickboard where we will eventually also install a mesh / metal grill to keep bugs out etc. When the extractors in full flight it does throw out quite a breeze so make sure wherever you decide to vent isn’t somewhere that will annoy people who are sat - luckily where we vented is into where people just walk though. We hardly lost any storage if you look at the pic I posted what looks like the first drawer at the top is what we boxed in to price clearance and access - I think it was about 15 cms - not that significant as lots of storage space elsewhere.