We've just had the same dilemma, we also have underfloor heating. We've decided to go with grey wood effect porcelain tiles which can be used inside and out. Apart from concrete, porcelain seemed to be the only option we found. I've been told they are very difficult to damage, although obviously not impossible, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I have ceramic tiles in my utility room and they have been cracked twice but the porcelain tiles in my bathroom have been fine despite a few bottles being dropped on them.

Hi there, what a lovely kitchen ! I would suggest a roman blind for the smaller window, with either eyelet curtains or wave curtains for the patio doors, you could have them so that they stack to the right hand side, given that this is an access point to the garden. Colourways wow there are loads out there and you can have them treated to repel kitchen splashes etc. warwick can offer this at no additional cost; I think if you are going for a plain then consider a leading edge border for the curtain and a border at the bottom of the blind or the sides ; options are limitless!! Ian Mankin have lovely stripes which always look nice - good luck with your choices

Photos would be helpful

Hi Jonathan - thanks! Unfortunately for height reasons I can't put a pergola up. Neighbours won't like it as our patio will already be 30cm above the lawn.  On the height of the surfaces, I wonder if I ought to just accept a higher worktop height. This will block the view of the garden a bit, but with a BBQ and maybe pizza oven in the kitchen area, the height will unavoidably be higher then the walls anyway. So a higher wall perhaps isn't a problem (and would look tidier when viewed from the garden anyway). Do you have any specific thoughts on the lighting options? Seems like an infinite set if options. I made the model in Sketchup with a plugin called vray. . Borrowed a friend's machine to do it.. I'm not sure I've got a great render from vray, but it was the default settings. Plenty of YouTube tutorials.if.interested, I'm no expert at all. Thanks