Hi Trish, Glass splashbacks can be any Dulux paint colour. As long as you have good lighting like led strip lighting under overhead cupboards you can use the glass splashback to show your personality. Laminex Diamondgloss laminate for the cupboards in a light colour will brighten up your kitchen. This project we used dark edging to the cupboard doors and recessed drawer pulls to make it a bit more interesting rather than it all being the same colour. Regards Jane McDougall ARBV 14988 alsoCAN architects 1/52 Burnley Street Richmond V3121 Ph: 9421 3433 Mb: 0413 332 874 www.alsocan.com.au

Hi Cathy, Yes, I think you would be fine to have matt black cupboards near your oven to help hide it a little. You will probably need to balance the black with having it elsewhere - maybe even your overhead cupboards, if it connects to the oven tower(?). Plans would make it easier to comment. I would tend to avoid bringing in another colour (such as blue), though you can use a marble tile or textured white tile as your splashback to reinforce the colour scheme. Good luck with the decisions - it's a very exciting time. I'm happy to have a look at your plans if you can upload them. Regards, Cathy (Bespoke Home Building)

Not being involved in kitchens, apart from cooking dinner, I think a waterfall is lovely either side of an island. I don't see any benefit apart from aesthetics. Price may come into it. I think you'd have to be careful if it is a smaller kitchen, as depending on the size of benchtop, it could take up valuable space, but in a bigger area they look great.

Hello again, thank you for the input. I've taken it all on board. Regarding the island, we will be sticking with Knights Grey but if we choose a very dark floorboard, we will then switch to Timeless Grey (which happened to be one of the swatches I'd picked up anyway!) to avoid that sinking effect. Thanks for the tip. I won't be able to get back out this week to check the Dulux Raku colour, did I mention that I'm getting around with a 1 month old and 2 year old? They are totally dictating my schedule! Ann I'm not sure exactly how they get half strength. I just have the understanding that paint looks darker on a wall than it does on the sample card so to always opt for a lighter shade to counter that effect. So to avoid the Snowy Mountains colour looking too dark, I will go for a half strength. Worst case, I figure, is that it will just be a touch lighter than what I'd expected. There wasn't consistency between the three separate Snowy Mountains cards that I ended up with so I guess it's to be expected anyway. Thanks for sharing your experience Antonia, it's good to know it works. Today I went out to Beaumont Tiles to try and find a tile like the one I attached to my original post. This was surprisingly difficult to match and I've borrowed a sample of the closest match from the store to mull it over. The colour seems to work quite well against all my samples but I'm worried about the wavy edge and how it will appear on the wall when grouted. On the one hand I'm worried it will look too busy or untidy, on the other hand I think it could be a winner because it could add some depth or interest to an otherwise boring subway tile splash back. I've attached the tile against my samples and also Tranquil Retreat (half strength) wall with Vivid White trim. Please tell me what you think :)