Thank you for your suggestions and ideas! I love some of the more daring/colourful ideas, but I don't think I'm, personally, bold enough to go with such a contemporary look. I'm going to stick to a traditional/modern style and use large (4" x 8") white subway tiles and dark grey grout. I'm thinking of using a dark grey paint around the kitchen walls and then a lighter shade around the rest of the room, with maybe the dark grey on the wall behind the TV too. Will be a few more weeks before that's all done, but I'll post a picture when I eventually get there. Thanks again!

We are thinking maybe a terazzo tile of some sort- one that integrates the red, black and white, and beige (from the wood floors adjacent). This could pull it all together, for one cohesive room! See images.

Why don't you have an L shape and use the area under the window also for your sink and a couple of extra units? you could add shelves on either side of the window? Not sure why your fridge has to go at that end? might be best at the other end? As Sarah, suggests, get full height cupboards, and put the microwave in one of those, so that you're not losing so much space. Extra storage is probably more useful than having the microwave on display? It can easily be put on a shelf within a cupboard. (Our isn't even in our kitchen, but then we only use it once a week or so... so really depends) I'd also suggest drawers to the bottom of your units instead of cupboards.

We are replacing our 1980s kitchen. The design is here: https://my-kitchen.howdens.com/plan/gjE37205200087fl We want to use these tiles: http://www.toppstiles.co.uk/tprod44325/batik-patchwork-grey-tile.html It's a large surface area so we are quite keen not to go overboard, possibly haunted by the fact every wall is completely tiled from top to bottom in the current kitchen. The questions are: 1) Can we use the tile as an upstand of sorts, and only tile up to two tiles high (about 20cm)? Or would it be better to tile the whole area between the worktop and the wall cupboards? Should the tile height increase around the sink or will it be OK to take it all the way round at the same height? Will it be OK without a tile trim? 2) What colour sockets should we have? Can't decide between stainless steel or standard white? TIA!