Hi! I hope you are well. I think it would be a good idea to give a bit of colour to the kitchen. I am agree with you to choose a wallpaper for the window wall. There are a lot of wall covering to choose...what is the style that you are looking for? I have a few ideas that maybe can fix very well in the kitchen. Contact me at any time and we can discuss about different options of wallpaper for your kitchen. Regards, Carmen.

Flooring should be light. I'm not sure how a bamboo floor would work. Did you end up going ahead with the kitchen plans? What did you go with?

Your layout for you kitchen looks really good and would fit well with the mixture of black and white cabinetry. With the lament bench top, we would suggest melamine (entry level cabinetry) or acrylic bench top, which can come in high gloss feature or matt. The matt surface would go lovely with your choice of bench top, and acrylic is also a affordable cabinetry material. Below are some examples of how Reno4u has incorporated both black and white cabinetry together, without making it to dominantly dark. We feel as if these examples would be perfect for your layout, and depending on if you want more black cabinetry or white you can go either way. This design above is an example with more black than white, can be made matt or gloss with different handles/splash back and wallpaper. With a u shaped kitchen similar to yours, however from the pictures you provided your style may include different design below the island bench. Another kitchen designed by us which shows more white than black, with a bar built in which may suit your design better. We hope this helps you, please feel free to call us on 03 423 9067 and we can provide a free quote for materials and kitchen design, and help you finalise your design further. :)

Teal sounds beautiful for your splashback, I love vibrant and bright colours in the kitchen - you never see them enough! I think your worries are right as well, dark carpet and a dark bench would be too much darkness - a lighter benchtop would work well with the other colours! Marble is a classic for benchtops, but depending on how you did the wood, it wouldn't look fake at all! What did you decide on doing?