Hi Bekkyboo7, if you like the idea of plants - depending on your taste you could go for something sculptural like a String of Peas or a ZZ Plant or if you're a keen cook go for herbs - there's even hydroponic kits that are designed for kitchen benches such as Aerogrow hydroponic systems or try something in a macramé hanger (just watch the weight - growing medium can be heavy when wet).

clintandvic - are you very minimalist, private people? a lot of the solutions above seem very impersonal - and, while your current artwork might have special meaning for you, it could be found anywhere. I'd go for either the round or cheaper 'floating'-style bookshelves. I definitely wouldn't have a mirror backing for anything on which you are likely to put books (or heavy decorator items such as vases) - too easy to accidentally break the mirror! (I'd be filling the bookshelves here with cookbooks - but that's me), but it seems you don't really envisage books on the shelves? But most of all . . . this is your home, and it seems to be the corner of the kitchen, so close to the heart of your home? Even if you go with the shelves, don't fill them with this season's trendy decorator items - save the space for meaningful objects from your life together! Frame and display all sorts of personal items (not just photos - though I am also a fan of the idea of making it a photo wall): festival or sporting event tickets, maybe framed with a very small poster (you can even find and printout original ads for events from the internet); that crafty thing you bought when you were both away for a weekend . . . don't be afraid to make this space about you, rather than what you think it should look like - and it will make a great talking point to share with guests . . . How much more interesting would this wall look if it featured framed clothes from your wedding/the day you met/your favourite holiday together? These Houzz articles have some great ideas about the sorts of personal things you can use as decorator items around your home: https://www.houzz.com.au/magazine/8-everyday-treasures-and-how-to-share-them-stsetivw-vs~44492547 https://www.houzz.com.au/magazine/9-everyday-items-youd-never-think-to-frame-stsetivw-vs~45495730 and https://www.houzz.com.au/magazine/20-inventive-ways-to-decorate-with-your-holiday-souvenirs-stsetivw-vs~25913013

I'm looking at my Dining space, which is 5400 x 3500, and realised it is bigger than the space in the post. @charlotte you will really have to take a measuring tape to a furniture shop and make sure you purchase appropriate sized furniture. May be a four seater dining table than can extend to six. Maybe a two seater lounge with two single chairs. Again proportional to space. Then if required you can push lounge chairs against the walls and extend your dining table for inside gatherings. Choose colour and texture to add interest and maybe the clear dining chairs as in the attached photo. Make your room interesting with great furniture, then no one will notice the compact size.

Daphnemaria, the cost was $12,000.00. That was for the veneering of the benchtops and splashback. I have a large kitchen and I had been given an estimate of an entire kitchen replacement, with polyurethane cupboards and engineered stone benchtops, of $38,000.00, not including stove and sink. As it was, I kept my existing stove and sink, but had I opted for an entirely new kitchen, I would have had to replace them, which would have added another $5,000-10,000 I suspect. So for my purposes, I think it was a reasonable cost, only took three days, with virtually no mess or disruption.