I think we are going to use the white subway tile to keep the budget down as I priced new tiles and it would blow out the budget. Really like the contrast grout idea to add a bit of texture and pattern. My partner is a builder and he loves the reclaimed wood shelf idea as we have a lot of spear old wood left over from the renovation. We have made a dinning table and fire place mantel from it already so it would tie in really well.

Hi there nicndrew -- wondering if you ever solved your venting issues if you went ahead and put your range into the fireplace. We have a similar issue - 140 year old victorian and the only realistic plan we can come up with for a new kitchen design is to put our range into an existing fireplace. Our floorplan is constrained by a stairwell as well as a couple of weight bearing walls so we need to work with what we have...I am hoping we can vent up and out the side of the house -- four flues in this chimney but the kitchen flue is closest to the exterior wall. The contractor is coming to take a look on Saturday but would love to gather some suggestions before then.

Yes benches are counters .... thanks for clarifying yoboseiyo! we have no high cabinets for the kitchen at this stage, we plan to do some kind of shelving but are waiting until the new "counters" and range are installed to get the feel for what we go with. Hard to get a photo at present as we are mid reno, the cabinetry is all installed....with no bench top yet.. we have our old cooker in the dining room and the new big range in there too as the area its going into is being tiled. The range will be the dominant feature in the kitchen so once that and the counter tops are in I'll take some pictures Organised Chaos!

Led lighting running on both sides of each of the beams - you can buy it in strips. I would go for a bright white but you can even get it in colours and or changing colours. I would also do the same along the floor under the cabinets and perhaps between the upper cabinets and bench top.