Hi MJ, what a sweet cottage. I'd go for a thermal roller blind in the kitchen as it'll allow you to get your views and light, privacy of an evening and help maintain heat inside in winter - they're also easier to keep dusted roman blinds. In the bedroom, I'd go for a double railing with sheers that let light in during the day and then thermal and block out curtains to pull across of an evening. You would be able to pick up continuous thermal or block out curtains at Spotlight/Lincraft fairly cheaply - I like the continuous as you can have your curtains as full as you like). I wouldn't worry about lined curtains again as they're just far heavier and a pain in the butt with the amount of dust that both layers of fabric collect. I've got the thermal continous curtains in our bedrooms and have machine washed them and they were far less trouble when I was hemming them. In terms of thermal efficiency of your windows look at secondary glazing options - Magnetite, Ecoglaze and Justrite off options that you might find worth looking at (beats pulling out windows and replacing them).

It might be worth while to consider the rest of the space also. Your breakfast bar/kitchen is located quiet closely to your dining table so depending on your kitchen space (apologies, I can't see too much of your kitchen from the photo) you might want to think about the overall style you want to achieve for you entire open plan space, and select pendants that would work for both your kitchen and dining. This is a project I worked on recently that shows how two different types of pendants can work harmoniously in the one space that is most similar to your kitchen and dining set up. Keep us posted on what you decide!

Hi Kristy as your dining table is going to be not only in close proximity to the kitchen but running parallel to the island I would decide whether you want pendant lights over the island or a pendant(s) over the dining table. One area or the other needs to be the feature in terms of your lighting. If you have both then each loses its impact. Downlights with surrounds that are as close in colour to the ceiling colour as possible so they 'disappear' are ideal for general lighting. Put them on dimmer switches. LED strip lighting along the kickboard of the bookcase or the kitchen island could be gorgeous and create ambience. Wall lights that simply wash the wall with light or throw patterns on the wall are lovely and as already mentioned, table and floor lamps can be a major decorative feature in any space. If you'd like more information, I've written an ebook available in the iBook store. Bright Ideas for Lighting Your Home by Jenny Williams https://itun.es/au/on5e_.l

If you are in New Zealand, I have often found great lights (and a big range) at Lighting Plus. When I was putting my house on the market I put three of these: http://www.lightingplus.co.nz/lighting/pendants/contemporary/jaga-bcopal-1light-pendant.html over my kitchen benchtop, and they looked just gorgeous. So gorgeous in fact, that I have already bought three new ones in advance for when I upgrade the kitchen lighting in my new house. They also have these : http://www.lightingplus.co.nz/lighting/pendants/contemporary/hudson25-whitegold-1lt-pendant.html or these: http://www.lightingplus.co.nz/lighting/pendants/contemporary/trumpet35-pendant-blackgold.html  if you like the look of the internal gold under the shade. There are also others similar. I have also found some great lights at : http://www.edenlighting.co.nz/collections/pendant-lights . All of these are very affordable. However if you want to go really high end, and you like NZ timber lights, you can't go past : https://www.davidtrubridge.com/collection/lighting/  Just my 2c. Enjoy.