@ sally wastie....Would have loved those pine kitchen cupboards....before they were painted. Had I a strong yen for :a bit of colour"...(and I do love colour), I would have had a new glossy multi coloured counter top, probably something very striking and then oiled the pine cupboard doors There were no work benches in the kitchen of my 1920s all pine cottage ( always say that the kitchen was an afterthought since it is positioned just of a hallway and consisted only of a sink and a wood burning stove.) I built a small bench/table using VJ pine slats I'd removed from elsewhere and then put a thick pine top that curved out from the small straight bench to form a little round kitchen table..Then came the fun, I painted the benchtop and table a datk teale colour, gave it a flecked faux marble finish and a couple of coats of high gloss waterproof varnish. Nothing terribly amazing but it did give the old...'kitchen space' a bit of a lift. Had a larger round kitchen table with a formica top and timber legs...so gave the table-top the same teale treatment as the bench and it now lives on the veranda that came a few years later. Yes! Teale of any shade always looks good with timber. The only pity was that the kitchen walls and ceiling here were terribly smoke stained and had been painted a really horrible pre WWII green. Begrudgingly, I repainted the walls but used a bright orange/yellow to complement the dark teale colour ( this particular yellow is a good colour to keep the flies out) and, in keeping with the era of the house, I installed a built in dark timber kitchen hutch found at the dump shop. The kitchen is the only room to have been painted and repainted....but still have the dark timber parquetry floors. If you get tired of all timber a few splashes of bright colour in well-thought-out places do not go astray. If you have vertical timber panelled walls and you are feeling hemmed in... a good trick is to stain a small section of panels a darker wood colour or with a coloured stain to shift the focus from all the timber. or you can bleach the timber panels lighter. This idea can create interest extending ceilngward from behind a furniture piece...say low display cabinet...or just in a section of wall. You enhance the all timber 'look' with an eye -catching timber panel of another timber hue...like having a mahogany panel set in a light timber wall... Just a few ideas for those feeling a bit claustrphobic in an all timber house....understandable, not all of us aspire to live in a log cabin...but if carefully accented, an all timber interior can be extremely impressive and will not date. This is a pre-digital shot of the glass panels I had installed in the wall around my bed head...its really faded PIC but you can get the idea. Looks better today since the glass has been decoratively frosted with patterns. The sunroom behind the bedroomThis is also a pre-digital PIC showing the little timber kitchen bench with the teale table top. The end and other side of the bench is stained timber. This little table seats 3 or 4. Pity you can't see the old parquetry floor here. Old formica table given a lift with a Teale coloured painted top...there's no room for it in the ' kitchen space'. Amazing what a little lick of the right colour can do in an all timber house.

Timber with timber can work brilliantly, and it's in keeping with the mid century style you want for your home. This room (below) is a little similar to yours, albeit with less of a pitch to the roof - the large feature lighting helps to break up the expanse of timber on the ceiling. You have a lovely open plan area, so I'd be inclined to use rugs to create zones and a cosy feel. Rugs reduce the impact of a large expanse of flooring material. They have the benefit that you can swap things around to change the look and layout at little cost. I think one trick may be to define your "walls" carefully, and paint these before you go with a new floor. This should give you a sense of whether the timber is overwhelming, and how to balance it. E.g. You might decide it works best to paint the kitchen cupboards to white, to give you a more seamless look and work with your new counter tops. If you want to experiment with the "paint ceiling" approach - gulp, it's a big one!! - then maybe that small section above the kitchen bench, at a different angle to the rest of the roof, could be the spot. It seems to have the same horizontal line as the wall, so even if you don't like the painted look for the whole, you might be able to get away with blending this into the walls. Best of luck!

Unless you live like animals, carpet does not 'harbour' a single living organism. It's a scientific fact. It's your bed that harbours organisms. Carpet acts like an air filter for dust, waiting for you to vacuum it out. Timber flooring allows dust to be constantly stirred up into the air in the home unless you vacuum and mop daily. At the end of the day, go with what you like- carpet in bedrooms and not in high traffic areas is logical. I've manufactured carpet for years and wholesale carpet and hard flooring. There is a lot of misinformation out there about all flooring types. Happy to answer any queries.

yvonne.. re sanding cupboards I had mine professionally sanded because they were looking worn. timber is American Oak and it really didn't lighten very much by sanding. so depending on your timber you might not achieve much. i would change a few upper cabinets with glass doors, white perspex or remove a few doors, paint the back of shelving and hang wine glasses or whetever and break the load that way. I replaced my range hood with a pull out chrome one and that in itself made a difference nt tying in with the chrome handles. see pictures. maybe you could paint the legs or reupholster the stools to white...all part of the kitchen.