Please ladies, enjoy your kitchens - you have to live with them all day every day. Unless you are thinking of selling in the really short term then have what you love - the next person will probably replace it all anyway, especially if you plan on being in your home for even 10 years. Kitchens are changing so much with all the new technology and products coming on the market. Mcctrish more photos of your kitchen would be helpful, I really can't comment too much with the photo you have provided, but I have just totally redone my kitchen (all for me) and I intended having a glass splashback but when the time came, I found it was just too plain and would do nothing for my kitchen. I think with the glass, you need to have a stunning feature colour to make it effective. That was my problem, there was no colour I could have to make it 'sing'. Look at photos on Houzz and you will see that glass splashbacks are the feature of kitchens. Start with the splashback before you decide anything else. Also, if you are just replacing your doors, are there any other fixed panels in the room that will be replaced also or will it be necessary for them to stay, which will then affect what you choose.

Thank you all for your advice/feedback. We have opted to have a display cupboard built in the same colour as the other kitchen cupboard but with glass doors and half the depth. We loved the recessed/niche walls so having them built in to the hallway walls to make the kitchen/living room area appear slightly bigger plus they will look gorgeous haha! I will post pics in a couple of weeks once they have been installed.

Emulsion is a water based paint that you use on your walls but you can use it on furniture if you sand and prep properly. I use it on pieces that need a reasonably tough finish but you need to sand it to get an interesting finish.

Thanks for your help guys. The builder contacted us today during the installation of the ducted A/C and advised us that we have to drop the ceiling 200m to accomodate the ducts (unless we want a huge bulkhead across the kitchen/living area. SO the gorgeous high ceiling is (unfortunately) no longer an issue. It is really frustrating that they only just figured this out! :-/