Firstly...are you sure they are jarrah and not som other more exotic timber? If you are fortunate enough to have a genuine 1932 built cottage I say "Don't Do it!" Just look at the beautiful timber in that floor! It would be sinful to paint it. I have a 1924 cottage with beautiful hoop pine floorboards all from the day it was built. My suggestion is to have the boards sanded and polished. I would not even dare go near them with polyurethane. I have turned back the clock and used the methods of the period of the house...a mix of pale boiled linseed oil and kero. Put it on with a mop or a deck mop or a wool mop leave it soak in. Re-do and leave it soak in,,,( you won't get patches...the floors will just soak it up.) Third coat, add a bit of turps to the mix as a white ant deterrent. Then, when the floors look like they've soaked up enough, get a big old fashioned string mop...if you can find one...or use a deck scrubber and old towels...or even a wad of new ones...100% cotton...its worth it, and rub off as much of the surplus as possible...wear sox so you will notice when the sox do not get oil stained anymore. First go is a long process but you will be really pleased when the floors have had several "drinks". After that you could get just an ordinary floor varnish or oil or just a sealant. Some of the modern wood treatments are really good. Then, every so often do the boards over with your "Oil Mop". You will never find timber like that again and, in my experience, it adds to the value of the house big time. Do what you like to any gyprock and plastered walls but PLEASE love your floorboards and any natural timber...especially from that era. I've been in this old cottage for 32 years. Everyone wants to know where I sourced the "new" floorboards", and who did I get to make my silky oak windows! Hope that helps.

Hmm potentially although I suspect I couldn't reach to the back of it. Definitely not to do the alternating coloured panels I initially wanted but maybe with a roller on a pole....thanks for your suggestion, will look into it!

Hi helendyjak, New colour for 2017? Trends are interesting. I encourage clients to chose colours they love and then I specify a range of those colours to match their space. Trends are great but if you follow trends when painting spaces they will also date quickly and in architecture that can become very costly and wasteful. Now having said that; trends - to answer your question... spaces are filling up with teal (more last year) and shades of green with links back to art deco. Your comments on colour making space smaller are interesting. Did you experience that? I like to get people to start using colour in small transitional spaces so they experiences how it makes a space feel more intimate and makes all the items in that space "pop". It might make the space feel smaller (this is very subjective as bold colour tends to be) the room is still physically the same size but it might have more personality with the bold colour (again subjective.... :) Thanks for the input. Much appreciated.

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.