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. :)

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!

Hi Davina, either way would look good, so don't stress about it too much. This is a similar set up to our kitchen and I went with A & B both tiled and haven't regretted it. It looks generous and is more practical. Tiles are best around food prep areas as they are easier to clean than a painted wall ... you think that the splash back is what gets the most dirty but the walls around it get their share of splashes as well. In terms of suggestions for tiles - we went with a white textured subway - boring I know, but classic. Using a darker grey grout to match your bench would look good. All the best with your renovation!

Hi everyone, I'm planing to make my grandma a surprise and do a makeover to her apartment. I'm facing multiple issues. I'm overseas and in her area can't find any architects/designers on Houzz, so I'll need to find inspiration and when I'm going on holiday in few months organise with a local contractor. One other issue, it's an old communist type of apartment, with heaps of walls and small rooms, which I'd prefer to keep this way, otherwise I'll need to involve engineers and so on. I'm thinking to do mainly bath and kitchen (apartment layout 4-kitchen; 7-bath), the rooms are fine, maybe some new fresh coat of paint. For kitchen I'm thinking to put a barn style door, they seem to be in fashion and will save some space. One issue here, kitchen will need to have some sort of eating area as well, maybe a small collapsable table I was thinking, although, it will make it harder for her. There's concrete floor, which I'm planning to keep as it is, maybe put some clear epoxy or repolish it, with some white cabinets? What are you guys thinking? Bathroom wise, I'll need some advice on the bath tub area. At this moment, there's a nice iron tub with cast iron legs, I believe that with bit of love and new paint it will look nice, or remove it completely and put a walk in shower with nice glass wall? Thinking of having vintage tiles laid and some white tiles on walls, maybe similar to subway ones, or square? Probably will go with a lot of white stuff as there's no natural light coming through. Thanks in advance for your input!