Hi Mark, You might also check out kitchen design considerations in the Liveable Housing Design Guidelines They suggest for Gold Level that: (A) The kitchen space should be designed to support ease of movement and adaptation with: at least 1200 mm clearance in front of fixed benches and appliances (excluding handles); and slip resistant flooring. (B) Floor finishes should extend under kitchen cabinetry to enable cupboards to be removed without affecting the flooring. Where fixtures cannot be easily removed (e.g. ovens which are built in) the floor finishes should not be continued. And for Platinum (highest) Level that: As for the gold level except that the kitchen space described in (A) should be designed to support ease of movement and adaptation with: at least 1550 mm clearance in front of fixed benches and appliances (excluding handles); slip resistant flooring; and task lighting installed above work spaces. These standards are being considered for incorporation into the National Construction Code (BCA). They will not appear for a few years yet, but by considering and incorporating these principles now it may future-proof the house to some extent.

2500 x 900 or the 1000. Aim for 1100 - 1200 between benches.

Planned Island (in the design photos) is square 1.2mx1.2m. From the back part of the kitchen, there is sufficient space to move it even 1.2m away. If we make the island smaller, there would be more room on each side for passage (current 0.72m), but even if we make it just 1m, that would only add only 0.1m on each side (bringing it up to 0.82m - enough to pass, but a bit tight in terms of looks, how it makes nice big open space appear crowded). And the island would be rather small so not really worth it.

My suggestion for the whole kitchen, is to keep a bank of pantry cabinets next to the fridge, staring from the left a flat corner pantry that has "L" shaped shelving plus a pull out food pantry between it and the fridge. An under bench oven, the MW would be in the open shelf wall cabinet with kettle and toaster etc in the corner under the MW The sink, DW and rubbish bin in the Island which would have a taller panel as shown to cover any mess in that clean up space I've added a bench height table next to the island, this could be dropped to table height if wanted. I have continued the wall cabinets on the wall across both the kitchen and dining, I haven't sectioned the cabinets but they could be a combination of doors and open shelves. I have also extended floating lower cabinets at a depth of 400 across the dining space with the same bench top as used on the kitchen cabinets This will give you great storage to allow you tuck your appliances and food stuffs into when not in use,. You can also use a deep drawer to pop certain appliances into if that fits and suits how you use your kitchen You can also store a broom in the "L" shaped pantry with dust pan and brush fitted to the inside of the door, the "L" shaped shelving allows for this Click on the images to open them