I've had a couple of Smegs (admittedly slightly older versions) in various homes and they were both rubbish ovens, continually needing expensive repairs. Miele was very good, up to 5 years old and no repairs required, but smaller internal dimensions. Recently upgraded in present house to an AEG pyrolytic with telescopic runners......really thrilled with it !! Early days as it's not quite 12 months old. I use the benefits of the telescopic runners all the time, pyro cleaning is a breeze.

Our island is 900 depth, 2400 wide, with a sink in the middle (opposite the cooktop), which works well for us. Plenty of prep area either side of the sink (mind you, it's a single undermount sink, about 500mm wide, with no drainboard). If we were going to use the island for actual meals, ours is only deep enough for a person either side of the sink. So, if you're thinking of having the island as a dining area, go to the 1200 depth. Just walk around it to clean it. On the other hand, if the island is going to be for prep, and a place for guests to prop up a glass of wine and chat while you're getting dinner, 900 is fine. Our dishwasher is to the immediate left of the sink, and we have pull out waste bins underneath the sink. We have 1200 mm space from island to the wall side and the range top, and about the same to the other ends. Our fridge, which isn't huge, is in a 900 mm+ cavity which would be big enough for a deeper fridge. It's in relatively the same place your fridge is, and works fine there. Hinges are on the non-kitchen side of the door, so it opens into the kitchen. Cabinets beside it are a bit more in depth, so fridge and cabinets line up nicely. 850 for your fridge seems reasonable to me. I wouldn't put that study where you have it: I think you'll need all of that butler's pantry for butlering type storage. My 5 cents worth based on new house, new experience, absolutely no kids in the equation!

I would highly recommend AVOIDING a siemens oven. We bought a normal oven, along with a combo steam oven, about 6 years ago. The whole time we kept getting faults on our steam oven and after every fix the error would come back, or a different error code would pop up. After 3 years the top heating element fell loose because the screws holding it in place completely rusted and left a hole into the oven cavity. The oven had to be replaced, which was a nightmare to organise, but we eventually got them to agree/organise. Another 3 years down the track and we have had the same issue with the rusted cavity top! I have since found other reviews stating the same issue. We had issues with our siemens gas cooktop also, however in fairness, after a service technician fixed those it has performed well enough. You would expect, paying so much, that an oven would last more than 3 years. We designed our new kitchen around these appliances, and our other oven will now not match a new steam oven. They have offered us a refund of our originally paid price, which is far less than what the oven costs now. I'm extremely disappointed, we will be left substantially out of pocket and with an oven that does not suit our kitchen. Aside from that, their ovens don't even cook well - things don't seem to crisp up as well as they used to in my much cheaper previous oven. Don't be fooled by the sleek design like we were.

Hello Northstar 1 thing to remember when choosing your lights .If you want the light down choose a down facing lampholder, dont drop them to low as the GLARE from the globes in your eyes every time they are on is annoying as, every lit pendant you showed had an incandescent globe so if your going to use Fluro globes they will look worse.LED globes with a cleeear glass would be best. Avoid carbon filament even though they look great its a low light output. Depending on your budget take a look at Mondoluce on line they have some amazing glass pendants from Italy and in multiple sizes.