@ sally wastie....Would have loved those pine kitchen cupboards....before they were painted. Had I a strong yen for :a bit of colour"...(and I do love colour), I would have had a new glossy multi coloured counter top, probably something very striking and then oiled the pine cupboard doors There were no work benches in the kitchen of my 1920s all pine cottage ( always say that the kitchen was an afterthought since it is positioned just of a hallway and consisted only of a sink and a wood burning stove.) I built a small bench/table using VJ pine slats I'd removed from elsewhere and then put a thick pine top that curved out from the small straight bench to form a little round kitchen table..Then came the fun, I painted the benchtop and table a datk teale colour, gave it a flecked faux marble finish and a couple of coats of high gloss waterproof varnish. Nothing terribly amazing but it did give the old...'kitchen space' a bit of a lift. Had a larger round kitchen table with a formica top and timber legs...so gave the table-top the same teale treatment as the bench and it now lives on the veranda that came a few years later. Yes! Teale of any shade always looks good with timber. The only pity was that the kitchen walls and ceiling here were terribly smoke stained and had been painted a really horrible pre WWII green. Begrudgingly, I repainted the walls but used a bright orange/yellow to complement the dark teale colour ( this particular yellow is a good colour to keep the flies out) and, in keeping with the era of the house, I installed a built in dark timber kitchen hutch found at the dump shop. The kitchen is the only room to have been painted and repainted....but still have the dark timber parquetry floors. If you get tired of all timber a few splashes of bright colour in well-thought-out places do not go astray. If you have vertical timber panelled walls and you are feeling hemmed in... a good trick is to stain a small section of panels a darker wood colour or with a coloured stain to shift the focus from all the timber. or you can bleach the timber panels lighter. This idea can create interest extending ceilngward from behind a furniture piece...say low display cabinet...or just in a section of wall. You enhance the all timber 'look' with an eye -catching timber panel of another timber hue...like having a mahogany panel set in a light timber wall... Just a few ideas for those feeling a bit claustrphobic in an all timber house....understandable, not all of us aspire to live in a log cabin...but if carefully accented, an all timber interior can be extremely impressive and will not date. This is a pre-digital shot of the glass panels I had installed in the wall around my bed head...its really faded PIC but you can get the idea. Looks better today since the glass has been decoratively frosted with patterns. The sunroom behind the bedroomThis is also a pre-digital PIC showing the little timber kitchen bench with the teale table top. The end and other side of the bench is stained timber. This little table seats 3 or 4. Pity you can't see the old parquetry floor here. Old formica table given a lift with a Teale coloured painted top...there's no room for it in the ' kitchen space'. Amazing what a little lick of the right colour can do in an all timber house.

THANKYOU all so much for your input!!!!Its been so hard to get my head around...but its confirming for me the look and the relaxed feel that we are trying to achieve.I don't think we could go far wrong with whitewashing or painting the pine, which will once again lighten up the space..just painting the roof has made a huge difference. Lexicon is such a great white!!!!Yes I am considering art work to bring colours together and also the brick wall colours..... Thankyou also for the pics...so helpful!!!

Definately get an engineer and council permits (if required - I believe most do) for structural work. Insurance is not likely to cover any non-permitted work.

In Victoria try Chippey’s, in NSW try carpen3 but any good carpenter will be able to help you achieve what you are after.