I never love open shelving in a modern kitchen they are dust and grease traps but I would hang horizontal glass front cabinets and paint that wall some awesome color ,run your backsplash up to bottom of window all across. If you have space make the island top larger and paint out the other wall of cabinets to match main ones. The island top could be something much different than the others

Not keen on tiles ... prefer a smooth surface with no grout lines to try and keep clean

has anyone completed a garage to bedroom conversion and can share photo's please?

Hi Helen. I thought I might share photos of my kitchen- which happens to be on a farm- as the layout is very similar to yours. We planned to do white subway tiles (and still might as we are just doing the bathrooms with the tiles and will see what we have left...) but used clear coated cement board as a temporary measure and find it quite serviceable as we haven't finished the kitchen. We did the open shelves first and then added bits and pieces of shelving afterwards. These are white washed Douglas Fir. The shelves just below the temporary ply bench top (going to do polished concrete benchtops later) are lined with galvanised tin. The lazy Susan in the corner cupboards are really handy! Hope these photos might be of interest. It's a very serviceable kitchen work in progress!