Congratulations, really good bones, lots of nice natural light. I was a bit unsure if you were about to do kitchen laundry. The current kitchen looks neat and tidy but here are a few thoughts if that is what you are about to do. I love bamboo floors. Would be good to see what they look like. Some thoughts Structurally are you able to take out the two kitchen walls that enclose the kitchen from the living dining. Leave the entrance wall in creating an open plan living dining with either a peninsula or an island bench with breakfast bar. Keep that area closed from rest of the house as is now to save on your heating cooling costs. Can you locate the laundry into the current mud room and perhaps expand that room - though functionally it is a long way from the rest of house. It may pay to get a building designer to help you. The fee would be worth it. Especially if changing structural features like walls. Court yard - are you able to put a roof over it then you would be able to walk to games room under cover depending how much access you would like to that room and how frequently you would use it. However you would behave box gutters and they would need to be able to take high volumes of rain Good luck and keep us posted with updates.

For any coating to adhere properly to the floor it will need to be sanded back completely. Lime washing the floor is always an option, but it is more expensive. White floors will always show more dirt and will require more maintenance to look their best. The floors you have would look beautiful sanded and polished. Staining the floor slightly darker is always an option as well. For help with your decision take a look at our floor sanding blog. Enter staining floors or liming into the search. Different looks can be created by choosing gloss or stain finishes as well. http://budgetfloorsanding.com.au/ Hope this helps with your decision.

It would be much more cost effective to work with the slate. Image sent by mazgardiner looks great. If the home was purchased for rental purposes, the plinth could be painted white, benchtop and splashback tiles painted (much cheaper than replacing) to blend in with slate colours. If you are going to live in the property, sometimes it's best to live with how it is and replace later when you have better understanding of what you want. Good luck with it all!

Changing flooring in open plan is always a difficult challenge and the light carpet is the bigger problem because of the contrast cutting up the pure Scandi vibe. Pure white kitchens are always cool looking I think you have 3 kids and your kitchen will warm up when you get the coffee machine, kettle, chopping boards wooden looking accessories in there and on the bench topwith a couple of green plants, fake or not. Take a trip to Ikea or browse their catalogue and website - their stylists are a great inspiration. You don't have to get your stuff from there but they are very clever at layering. When we go we always take a camera for those little touches which makes scandi look so clean and fresh. Invariably when I get home I have something similar I can repurpose. Dump the office vertical blinds I agree! they have to be the ugliest thing ever invented. If privacy is not an issue leave the window bare. And what's with the 1980s old fashioned security screen across the kitchen window? No Scandi ever had wiggly diamond flyscreens! Loose that too. Whoops that sounds a bit harsh :-) Funny thing about living somewhere is - after a few weeks you won't even notice, I have lived with the same damask wallpaper in the hallway for the last 30 years - its back in fashion again. I spend all of 10 seconds walking down that hallway, I think everything gets a bit precious when it comes to picking things all at once, better to let the space evolve as you live in it.