Check out St Vinnies, lifeline etc. you can pick up some lovely old dressing tables, a quick sand, some gloss paint and some new handles is all you need. You can buy ceramic shells and other beachy Nic nacs that are great for holding jewellery etc. Beachy artwork / prints, of course, would help. Can you post a picture of your room. Good luck Karen

It would be great if you would post photo of brick and wood you've chosen Also Please go lighter colour roof eg basalt All studies show black roofs increase heat inside and out (urban heat island effect) and are bad environmentally and increase energy costs for cooling home. Personally I think black roofs should be banned

Hi Jodie and okLouise! Thanks so much for your feedback. I was considering an island bench just to try space out the kitchen area a bit - the only issue with this option is that we'll need to do a bit of rework on the jarrah floorboards due to the gap left once the internal wall is removed. This is definitely something we're considering, I'm just cautious that it could be a tricky exercise (acquire the fill in sections of floor board, have a tradesman secure them/nail them and arrange sanding / oiling of the small section). I'm also a little cautious that the fill in section of flooring will stand out like a sore thumb... but we'll weigh this up and make some phone calls to see how tricky this would be. Sadly we don't have a floor plan. I'm going to sketch it up in AutoCAD once we've taken measurements of the entire house - this might take a bit of time though, so we thought we'd just start by measuring the kitchen / lounge first. Without trying to confuse you, the rest of the house is: - dining room through the internal opening (no door) right of the kitchen - internal door opening to hallway and bedrooms/bathroom opposite the kitchen - laundry on the wall on the RHS of the kitchen (from the views provided) And you're quite right Jodie - I was hoping to have the range hood as a feature! I think it will suit the style of kitchen that I'm going for. See the inspiration photo below: I am not entirely sure whether to go with dark cabinets because the space is so small, so I'll most likely stick to white (I know, safe and boring) but the overall style of the kitchens is what I'm going for.

I am sorry you feel anything said to you was "rude". I am sorry I couldn't find a way a way to explain how serious the matter is in a way that you like. This conversation was for your benefit, to help you and your neighbour avoid bigger problems later. Please try to understand that. So you say you are in Canberra? Canberra has heavy clay soil. Your structural engineer friend cannot say the wall is good without talking about the drainage. Drainage is an important part of the structure. Correct drainage is even more important where there is heavy clay soil. Canberra does not have 'council approvals'. So I am not sure what it is you think you have when you said it is "council approved". Please respect that I am saying this because it is important. I am not trying to be negative and rude. It is important for you and for your neighbour that the wall is built correctly. The pictures look wrong. That is why people talked about it, instead of simply answering your question about how to make it "not look ugly". No proper drainage is visible behind the wall as shown in the diagrams provided in a previous reply. The idea of drilling drainage holes afterwards is wrong as explained in a previous reply. No-one is trying to be negative and rude. Everyone is trying to help you complete your build safely and correctly so that you and your neighbour do not have bigger problems later. I hope it works out alright for you and for your neighbour.