The minimum is 1219mm. By the way in your new design do you have a landing space to the left or right of your oven? If you opt for less distance maybe your designer should do some research on ovens that have doors that open side ways instead of top down.

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

Thank you for your comments. I really appreciate your help. I think we are on the same track. The rugs I have brought home have fought with the terracotta colour plus the busyness of the small tiles. I did come across this picture on Houzz, which I think looks good. What do you think? It would need some of that burnt orange from the chair upholstery as well as the aubergine to tie in but I liked the dark border line, it matched with the grout.

Hi there, I moved into my house 18 months ago and I still cant figure out how to deal with the dining table as its in an awkward place.I know the table is too big at 2m long, but until I know exactly what will work unfortunately I'm not in a position to buy/try anything else.I'm thinking my best option would be to have a booth style seat against the island and either a 1.8m table off-centre to the island Or a 1.6m table centred.Would it look weird to have a dining table off centre to the island, or would it be weird to have a 1.6m booth seat (centred) against a 2.1m island?If anyone has any suggestions / tips it would be hugely appreciated(and apologies for the mess)Thank you