Hi Neryl, A great little project that you can get a lot of satisfaction from. I wouldn't treat this room in isolation and instead look at making sure the rest of the house influences your decisions. There are some great suggestions here. My thoughts: - Replace floor tiles and tile the walls to the underside arch of the window. Use a white Johnson tile in brick format with black grouting, very economical. - No curtain on the window but I like the idea of the shutter, or use a film on the window but only if privacy is an issue. - Paint window frame white - Paint the rest of the room a feature colour - something rich and in keeping with the house. From the door handles I get the feeling the house is 30's/40s??? This will warm & tighten up the room with class. Could be a deep grey or green. - New wall hung vanity unit, keep it simple. Caroma have a great vintage range that are timeless, not faux replica. - If budget permits, a new toilet suite. Porcher have some economical models from discontinued lines, like the older style Cygnet. They come with the full warranty and are close coupled to reduce cleaning in nooks and crannies. - a new light fitting - say a simple frosted sphere, almost like a cotton ball. - a wall hung mirror in frame rather than anything contemporary. - wall mount everything including the toilet brush. All the best, and enjoy the transformation! Rebecca

You could remove all the 'chipboard' sections and any other existing timber boards where you want to lay the new boards - and lay the new boards straight on the joists and bearers so they will be at the same height as the dining room. I'd lay the new boards in a shape so you can surround it with an edge in parquet boards (any timber type) or just an edge board in another timber colour. My husband has just removed old cypress boards in our kitchen and replaced with new ones for the same reason as you - marmoleum over the boards stuck with black tar and cork over all that. The job of removing the marmoleum in the family room almost killed us so we weren't doing it again. Plus it gave us the chance to level a joist. Also, a lot of the heavy duty sanding was done before laying. As we had the same timber to insert we integrated the boards into the dining and family - great to have one level and looks great but big issue is matching the floor finish as we did a custom lime-wash 4 years ago (replicable) but it appears the UV in the last four years has darkened the water based polyurethane top coats so the new boards will still look patchy for a while. Now wishing we'd done a parquetry border as this issue wouldn't be a problem!

Hello, annb! No, not really :-( It will be part of a mini reno later this year, so I still have time up my sleeve. So many of the decisions (like flooring, paint colours, finishes etc) have a knock-on effect, that I need to decide on everything before I start. I think I need to get a cork flooring expert to come and look at our floors and tell me what is and isn't possible in terms of changing the colour of the existing floors. I still think Smartstrand carpet will be the choice for the carpeted areas. But who knows.....I'm feeling quite paralysed to the point of losing confidence about changing anything. I might need a professional to help me decide !

Spotted Gum is a great hard wearing timber with a Janka rating of 11. This means it is high density timber and won't dent as easily as softer timbers like American Oak. A polyurethane finish is the hardest and most durable timber floor coating and it comes in gloss satin and mat. The lower sheen's are more forgiving if you you have pets and young children. Bamboo is another hard product but only comes in short lengths so you would need to take that look into consideration when selecting. Some clients don't like the look of the short boards and consider it a cheap look. Others prefer the longer floor boards of timber. If you do choose bamboo make sure that you find out the coating used and whether it can be sanded and re coated down the track, as all timber and bamboo floors will need a touch up especially if you have pets. Some bamboo floors can not be sanded due the coating used. Hope this helps. Our website may offer some inspiration. Good Luck http://budgetfloorsanding.com.au/