Hi Sam, I know where you're coming from, I too wanted to buy such a beautiful ornate table for my new home still under construction but it just wasn't going to look like it matched the modern home I wanted to put it in. I also wanted to feel like it could be used as most kitchen tables in a home are used, especially for me living on a farm, for eating or repairing something on some newspaper etc...impossible to do on such a beautiful table, you would ruin it to see it scratched !!! Not to put a damper on your tastes but your home will look so much better and have more style if you continue to try to match what you already have and that's at least a stunning kitchen that you've shown us all on this forum. If you think of the style and colour of your kitchen everytime you want to buy something or decorate, it will hep ground you to keep it similar. I understand there are people who say it's nice to have countless pieces of furniture that are all different in some way, as it can look like you acquired them along your journey in life but I think that this mixture of designs and colours doesn't gel in a modrrn house very well at all, perhaps a quaint old cottage but not a modern home with a lovely kitchen like you already have!!!

Keeping things cosmetic will mean that. Angled dwarf wall will need to stay, if not refaced. With terra-cotta tiles that look to be laid around your joinery, your footprint will remain, and replacing doors won't address the side panels of the wall oven Adjoining the cabinets, as to replace this, you need to uninstall the back units adjoining them, so it is almost a rip out and refit. The alternative is paint. Without correct and proper priming products and aplication, this is risky, doors and end panels are quite easy, hoer adjoining wet areas or heated panels, unless you use the right product things can go wrong. Fr light, all horizontal surfaces boulder reflect and bounce light around the work surface, so light, stone is great, but will cost what a new kitchen would, if your painting cabinets, a stone top may be an over capitalization, replacing your doors with new and a laminated top would have an overall improved aesthetic instead, and save stone for a future new layout. That's not to say the bar top couldn't be. I would use this dated feature to create a new one. A stone waterfall or slab end as their known would help draw your eye down to your floor, and provide a contemporary element to clad. Go with a chunky stone edge build up, say 60mm and then it will frame the back wall area to display a feature material, in this case, I suggest a horizontal timber plank. Yu could do a laminate, but a pack of engineered flooring will provide the character aswell as durability, choose something that ties into your floor, and this could be used elsewhere as a feature. Re tile over your spalshbackin, and if you go with all white cabinets, consider a patterned or aggregated white counter, with lint cabinets, then a stone to in a solid white, to stand out against the patterned laminated benches. Or opposite for te same reason, the bar top is what will be touched and stone does that, so an interesting pattern, pebble or grain would add to the interest, and plain white laminate in the practical space will juxtapose this. I would think of using a vinyl (thermolaminated) profiled door, something simple. Like a square shaker style door, both modern and classic but not old fashioned. It will create focus in the kitchen and again front he simplicity of the Benchtops, The splash back could be anything, but subway are great I agree, there is also a DIY acrylic sheet from laminex called metaline which can be installed right over tile, you can even co yourself or have the cabinet maker do it. It has the appearance of a glass splash back with great colour choices. There is a pewter or grey metallic like argente perle, which would tie in your stainless appliances making it overall modern and clean. Good luck?

I thought I'd close this discussion with a picture of the stools I chose - thank you Tribble for suggesting the Jack Stool. I went with these and absolutely love them!! Charlie from Ancora Designs was very helpful.

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.