I would have your bench top supplier cut a thin batten of timber in the same 40mm thickness, and fix this as a front to a white melamine shelf. For a couple of reasons. Melamine is easiest to keep clean, whereas a varnish or oiled timber will require constant maintenance and resealing if it is used often, it will discolour and even with the sealant it does not like moisture, being natural, all timbers expand and contract in temp changes. Melamine is stable, and won't be seen from the viewpoint, and the timber front will make it look more substantial. Secondly, this thickness will be necessary to avoid shelf deflection, where lengths over 900mm will commonly sag under weight. Reinforcing your shelf with timber battens will avoid this, and the timber edge strip again hides it. If all this seems a little too hard, just invest in solid timber shelves of around 40mm, but have the tops laminated.

Hi everyone, sorry for the delay in replying! So many thoughtful suggestions, thank you. I haven't yet got around to taping out the kitchen, boundsgreener, but I hope too soon. Even just pacing it out has made me realise you're all right, there's no way a G shape will work. The space at the sink surrounded by the benches would be less than one metre. So that's good to realise now! I can't do banquet seating as there's a window behind the table. The wall behind the buffet unit is structural so we can't remove it (and I'd imagine it might get expensive too!) So what I'm thinking now is more a revamp/update with the current layout, but still moving the fridge across and creating a pantry, plus an appliances garage (love that term!) in the corner. Oven, sink and dishwasher in the same spots. This will still give more room for dining as the fridge won't be taking up space on that side of the kitchen. I'm now worried about losing the bench space that the buffet unit gives us, though. It was going to be offset by the extra G shape, but as that's gone and there won't be any room for the buffet (though I'd love to keep it as an island on wheels, hazzaran!) there will be less bench space than before. I like the idea about a wooden benchtop to save money, Pazz, but is it practical? Won't it get lots of bacteria in it? I'd still love some natural stone in there somewhere, and was thinking of those beautiful hexagon marble tiles they have on the Block. That might be cheaper than a caesarstone benchtop! I am not a big fan of laminate, though, for some reason it always really looks really plasticy to me. Thanks again for all your great advice and for helping avert a layout disaster! I really appreciate all the advice.

they are listed at the end of the article as timber look tiles floor tiles World of Tiles -TIMMAR 159M - timber look porcelain tiles

Herringbone pattern has lots of cuts or jagged edge. Better to run it between walls and finish at a defined edge. If shelves aren’t hitting range then you need to go to ceiling, it won’t be cheap. Alternatively put a stacked tile border around the herringbone and stay under the rangehood and continue the border as the rest of the splashback along benches Use silver colored grout not white or it will look grubby. Nat tiles cheap tiles are not particularly uniform. You will find slight size and thickness variation with all cheap tiles.