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

Once again, thanks everyone for your thoughts. The idea of a skylight is definitely on the cards - the glass doors are something that we just like on all the other doors, with the toilet just being the question. Also, a skylight might be a bit beyond our DIY (sky-tube maybe less so?) and trade work down here takes time (I'm not just in Snowy Mountains rural, but then down a country road 25km, plus another 2km of uphill dirt driveway, and the trades don't always show willing) - things we can't do ourselves take time and frustration. What Maguire Architects says about heat loss is important to us though (thus the double-glazing, storage heaters, etc.), so I've particularly taken that on-board. As for IKEA (jajlynn, Belinda)... jajlynn, that kitchen looks fantastic. I love those overhead lights - they really suit the style. Brisbane IKEA did delivery to Sunshine Coast, but the cost was pretty exorbitant, and they wanted to charge that each time more of the ordered stock came in. It got so frustrating having an incomplete kitchen, waiting for stock, we eventually brow-beat them into sending the stuff from a Sydney store (something they were very unwilling to do, even transfers between stores). They sent whole cupboards by Australia Post, slathered in standard stamps - it was weird. But it got done, and it got put together. Before and afters below Belinda, I'll be honest with you: as much as the IKEA kitchen is better than the Mitre10 kitchen, instruction-wise, you're gonna swear. You're gonna have to paint over the blue when you're done. ;) Just remember, when you're swearing, and probably at each other (assuming there's an other here - otherwise, at yourself and everything else), but it's just a kitchen - you'll get it done, it'll look great, you'll be justly proud and you'll want to do your next one (maybe not straight away though ;) ). That's why we're doing stuff here straight away in the new house - it gave us confidence to do it or learn trying. Now if you'll all excuse me I've got to get back to swearing at pantry wall cabinets, at my partner, at Mitre10, at the government, at that thing over there whatever it is, and at cursed fate that placed these suddenly-discovered slightly-wonky walls between me and happiness. ;)

Hi Paul In apartments, the killer for layout changes are always drains, then water supply, then load bearing walls. Before you consider doing any changes to the layout, I would advise you to locate the drains (pics would be good) as they will likely restrict you. The drains are important for obvious reasons but also important is the fall (ie downward slope) of any drain you wish to install in a separate location. It means you have to take into account more height the further away from the existing drain you go. It is likely that your existing laundry trough/basin has a drain going down to the floor, and this is going to interfere with the proposed ensuite entry location. Ditto if it is going into the wall. The big one is the new shower. It will need to have a 50mm waste (drain) in the centre of where your washing machine now is.... and the question is where is it going to go.... I would suggest swapping the vanity and shower over to access the existing trough waste if it is large enough. In a lot of these older apartment buildings, the waste sizes are down at 38mm, which is not going to drain fast enough for a shower. If your existing waste is that size, you will need to have a hob to the shower as it will fill up, and you will also need to check health regs to see if it is allowed in your state. To get the drain for the new ensuite vanity and new laundrette sorted, I would punch through the new kitchen wall and run drainage along the wall behind the new cupboards and around to the existing kitchen sink waste. This will give you plenty of fall and a place to hide the pipes. For the new basin to the existing, you will need to see if you can get it around to the existing basin waste in the bathroom adjacent by running it around and under the bath. Cheers

I have a separate guest toilet without windows using a ceiling extractor fan - not a problem. I also have internal cavity sliding doors to bathrooms and toilets and love how they give extra space and options regarding placement of items. Another location alternative for you may be between the cinema room and the kitchen, depending on what you had planned for that extra space in the kitchen. Two metres is a wide hallway, if that is what it is? Ours is 1.3 which is considered wide (as we need to accommodate a wheelchair which has to turn into doorways). An advantage of a very wide hallway is it gives room for extra furniture placement such as bookshelves, linen or other cupboards if needed. I don't see a linen cupboard or pantry cupboard in your plans. Something else to think about is future proofing - try to cover future possibilities with regard to function, as making structural or fittings changes later can be more expensive, and may come at a time when you can least afford it (e.g. injured, disabled, children, aging or other such people visiting your home). Lives change, sometimes over time, sometimes in an instant, and suddenly the doors are not wide enough (especially the toilet door!), or the walls are not strong enough for a weight-bearing rail, and a host of other things. We put 900cm doors as a minimum and it makes life a lot easier, including moving furniture in and out. Universal Design principles are worth a look. Sadly these considerations are currently considered special or optional, although there are moves to change that, so that builders and architects will consider these things as standard.