I completely love the twirly bits, and the window trim. It's unique, special and shows the family within has a sort of fun spirit. If you would be more comfortable with a cottage that looks more "regular", then take it off. But please don't! For some color and inspiration, google French provencal fabric images. I can completely see a little black metal bistro table and wood slat back chairs on your porch with a cloth of one of those fabrics. I would paint it a light dusky blue, with white trim and mid-charcoal accents around the windows and the corner pieces on the front porch. Although the yellow with the blue would be quite right too! The front walk looks to be in good condition. You can do a stone overlay on that, letting a small portion of the stones hang over the straight edge, to give it a little more rustic look. It looks like you have a good collection of Queen of the Nile lilies (guessing here). Were they blue on blooming? You can create some slightly larger and curving beds in the front, and transplant some within it. I would add lavender and rosemary in a mix with those. For some grey and texture, put some lambs ears (a perennial) along the outside edge. Check your local growing zone to see what will thrive in your area! Lucky you. What a find!

I've been playing around with a pantry location. Originally, I was going to move the pantry into the laundry with some custom shelving and cut the laundry space in half. Now, Im thinking of cutting into the study area and building a wall there, and converting the new space into a long and narrow walk in pantry. Either that or build half a wall and put built in shelving in the study. Building the extra wall will reduce the need to cover in the door way that is currently in place and instead utilising it. Thoughts? p.s. this isnt too scale.

No, no and no. Once timber is painted it is really hard to get back to the original. Give it a thorough clean, live with it for a year, and then decide if it still needs to be vandalised to fit your contemporary aspirations. It seems so strange that you have purchased a house that is almost 100 years old, with lots of light and period charachter, and which has had lots of people live in it before you bought it, and they never needed to paint the timber panelling. If you paint your timber panelling then the people who live in your home after you have sold it will curse our current contemporary trend of whiting out all our timber. While you are the new owner, you are also the custodian of this piece of history, and sometime in the future you will be selling your period home to new custodians. Once this current contemporary trend fades then do you plan on repainting it to fit the next current contemporary trend? Love your period home for what it is, and please don't vandalise it to match contemporary trends. Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls.

I love the wood . Its the rest that needs the work IMO -- particularly the carpets . Nice in themselves , but very dated . Also its a bit hard to tell the exact tones because of the lighting being on , but I suspect the white of the walls is too white , but also I personally don't like the walls and ceiling being done the same tone either . The roof and mouldings I'd keep in a sharp white , the walls I'd go an English white or Spanish white or even a slightly reddish tinge ( but not pink if that makes sense ) to reference the warmth of the timber . In fact , that's probably a lie -- I'd be more likely to wallpaper -- the bedroom in say light yellow flowers on an offwhite paper , and the carpet would work then ; the lounge in a burgundy and gold striped paper would be the schizz haha , and again the carpet may even live another couple of years !