The manners here are French: carved corbels, panelled sides, lantern pendants, and in this Glen Waverley kitchen not one island but a matching pair, both dressed in Aboda’s Volakas, alabaster white with grey veins running on the diagonal. Even the splashback defers, giving up its centre to a window. A carved mantel continues the etiquette in the living room. Then the main bathroom drops the French entirely for the warm honey of Travertine Classico, wrapped floor to ceiling, with a round stone basin resting on white marble.