I can only speak from experience of tiles and Karndean. We have two dogs, live in the country, we and the dogs are in and out all day. The dogs both used to slip even on terracotta ( back in the old days), and, i'd be worried about shiny tiles, especially with larger dogs that could slip far more easily and cause themselves damage. The tiles were dark and had to go, as they showed up the dirt. The grout was the biggest problem, as it was easily stained, and just not practical with dogs. We swapped to Karndean around 5/6 years ago and haven't looked back since. It's simply the best, unscratchable, hard wearing, versatile, easily cleaned surface ever. We live in an old cottage and it had to fit in, so we went with Van Gogh, a floorboard effect look, complete with etched woodworm holes! Love it.

Hi, we at Dual Designs are often designing kitchens up to the ceiling. It is usually because of the client requiring more cupboard space, along with making sure the design will suit their beautiful dream kitchen. We have designed cabinets up to the ceiling in large and small rooms, both work really well. It mainly comes down to person taste, some people would never leave a gap at the top, with the 'dust trap' word mentioned. Others who don't mind a gap would often say they can't reach high units and don't want to use a ladder. We always consider both the practical side along with the design and give an honest assessment to help our clients. I would think taking the cabinets up to the ceiling can work though a good designer will confirm this for you, so I hope that helps and good luck

We had granite worktop with upstand and no splashback in our previous house and I can honestly say it never bothered me; the painted walls were easy to wipe clean and even refresh with a bit of paint when some stain got stubborn (that happened only once!) The thought of grout in the kitchen terrifies me...! :)) We now have glass for splashback and I think it's the best! (I don't have any better pics of our old kitchen, at the time I wasn't into photographing interiors). My advice is not to go for tiles, just keep it simple and clean. Good luck!

Can anyone recommend a good matt varnish for original victorian pine floorboards? We used bona mega matt last time, but we need to re-sand as our dogs have completely scratched the floors. I know with the dogs we are going to get scratches, but we perhaps need a more industrial strength product this time to try and avoid damage as much as possible. Any recommendations?