I love the color you have on the wall by the patio doors. I'd go with that all over if you want the space to feel warm. Or, if you want the rooms to feel cooler, you may want to go with sky blue or a calm green. The right shade of green brings in your outdoor plants, which looks very nice when you are looking out through the windows. Your flooring would look fine with any of these choices. Grey is another color to consider. I personally do not like it, yet is is quite popular now, especially with contemporary interiors.

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. :)

We are planning a new house, and have chosen a soft grey melamine kitchen with perfectly plain cupboards, and darkish handles with coppery hightlights. The bench-top is a new ceramic tile type of material in a slightly darker grey/concrete color, with coppery highlights through it - very nice. We have discussed having the center island a darker color as this is very visible from the dining room, and thought it would be a nice feature. There will be a copper colored Formica under the servery for a highlight, and the cupboards facing the dining room on each end of the unit will be the darker wood or melamine. The only thing we have been offered to use for the cupboards and each end on the unit is charcoal wood grain finish melamine, but now we are getting cold feet. Has anyone seen this used, and would it look a bit cheap...? Would it cost much more to use a proper wood...? raewyng

i changed my setting to OZ as i was told there are not a lot of kiwis here on the forum to give advice:) hopefully some wonderful aussies can help me:)