I'd do the island black but not the overhead cabinets.

Get the professional sander guys in to repair the living areas and kitchen but don't go too dark with the stain as it will kill the lovely grain in the matai. I'm thinking a couple of tones richer than the timber knots showing in your photo, definitely no yellow tone at all. In NZ stepping on to carpet especially in a kiwi winter is so much nicer than a cold floor board shock!!! A nice area rug for the lounge and you're done.

Hi Jess, Unfortunately it probably wont stop doing this, as the timber join is butted together that join will always move given the nature of timber. A solution but might not be a cost effective solution would be to router the underneath of the join out with timber and glue in some more timber to help hold the join (a patch kinda thing) this will make the join stronger (assuming this hasn't already been done) Then we only recommend either a oil or wax finish if you want it to be left with a natural look or we apply a clear epoxy resin finish, this is a very good product (about 2-3 mm thick) and it lets the timber move a little and the product moves with the timber rather than crack like the lacquer seems to do. We pretty much always have the same result with kitchen benches when it comes to the sink area and joins. The main cause I see happening is that the timber moves (and it will never stop moving) and then if the lacquer is not flexible it will split open causing a spot for moisture to get in and under the lacquer making it go all funky like that A easier option would be to sand the tops and apply a oil and keep maintaining it, then you will never get the funky cloudy stuff happening, but you will need to do some research on what product are best and available where you are Good luck :-)

Modern, sophisticated and lively were the key deliverables for this city suburb townhouse. The overall scope involved an upgrade to the open plan kitchen, dining and living areas including flooring, wall colour, curtains and kitchen joinery. Modernising the space through new colours and materials was the focus, without having to extensively rearrange the layout. This Mt Victoria Kitchen is now a refreshing, well functioning and lighter space. The well balanced combination of timbers, light marble tones and splashes of colour and pattern, such as the soft blue, hexagonal splashback, bring a delicate energy to the top floor. Before: After: Creating access to storage on both sides of the lounge facing island bench. The cupboards behind the dining table are minimal looking and tucked away to appear as panels, but allow for extra storage behind. The open timber shelves create an area for book storage and display, which improves the view from the lounge/dining direction. This breaks up what otherwise would have been a very deep, unusable storage if it were only to be accessed from the kitchen side. Before: After: Open timber shelves above the island on the end, offering a more accessible storage from the dining side of the room. At the same time this was a great opportunity to add in an extra area for display to further improve the view onlooking the kitchen. Before: After: The new kitchen design included tweaking small areas of cabinetry and maximising the available space, whilst also incorporating design features that didn’t compromise any of these functional gains. Before: After: Even with a sloping ceiling and staying within the existing footprint, the new kitchen looks fresh, the space is more streamlined and is easier to use. Before: With the number of corners in this layout it was important that storage space wasn’t lost in these areas. After: Using speciality corner fittings that rotate and extend to improve the access to the deep corner spaces was a must-have solution here.