... Photography really isn't my thing, but I'll take on board what you've said and look at how others photograph their work....
Hi Steve....when you make an effort as good as this, a few simple tips will help to take a better photograph to do justice to your work. Yes, you can spend a fortune on equipment, but you don't have to! Get a piece of fabric which has a good contrast to timber - don't use natural browns and fawns, but go for a simple black, white or dark grey - but whatever you choose, don't choose a shiny cloth as it bounces light around too much and causes patches of glare on the subject. Then simply use a few piece of adhesive tape to tape it to the tiles and drape it down over the worktop.....that will give you a seamless backdrop and base to take your pics on, and can easily be rolled up for storage.
The simple trick is to make the background as featureless as possible, and with a high contrast to the colour of your timber.
Get that right and your half way there....then you can start thinking about light. On a fine day, there's few light-sources better than your garden - you can always drape your backdrop-cloth against a garden shed, or something!
Les