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clintandvic - are you very minimalist, private people? a lot of the solutions above seem very impersonal - and, while your current artwork might have special meaning for you, it could be found anywhere. I'd go for either the round or cheaper 'floating'-style bookshelves. I definitely wouldn't have a mirror backing for anything on which you are likely to put books (or heavy decorator items such as vases) - too easy to accidentally break the mirror! (I'd be filling the bookshelves here with cookbooks - but that's me), but it seems you don't really envisage books on the shelves? But most of all . . . this is your home, and it seems to be the corner of the kitchen, so close to the heart of your home? Even if you go with the shelves, don't fill them with this season's trendy decorator items - save the space for meaningful objects from your life together! Frame and display all sorts of personal items (not just photos - though I am also a fan of the idea of making it a photo wall): festival or sporting event tickets, maybe framed with a very small poster (you can even find and printout original ads for events from the internet); that crafty thing you bought when you were both away for a weekend . . . don't be afraid to make this space about you, rather than what you think it should look like - and it will make a great talking point to share with guests . . . How much more interesting would this wall look if it featured framed clothes from your wedding/the day you met/your favourite holiday together? These Houzz articles have some great ideas about the sorts of personal things you can use as decorator items around your home: https://www.houzz.com.au/magazine/8-everyday-treasures-and-how-to-share-them-stsetivw-vs~44492547 https://www.houzz.com.au/magazine/9-everyday-items-youd-never-think-to-frame-stsetivw-vs~45495730 and https://www.houzz.com.au/magazine/20-inventive-ways-to-decorate-with-your-holiday-souvenirs-stsetivw-vs~25913013

I prefer pic 1 due to the lighting and the warmth of the timber aspects. However, I agree that there is too much open shelving and would put a full sized mirror on the cupboard over the basin - only in show homes are peoples' cupboards full of nicely spaced expensive bottles of hair products! Mine are always just full of "stuff". Also, I find pic 2 just bland and uninteresting - and it highlights one of my BIGGEST pet hates - the placement of the toilet paper! I have yet to meet anyone who is able to be sitting on the throne, and reach backwards, either over their shoulder or under, to easily reach the toilet paper, and it would fill me with fury several times/day! IMNVHO, toilet paper holders should be placed either to left or right of toilet at just above knee height while sitting - anywhere else and it becomes the dreaded gnashing of teeth at Form over Function!

And to answer your question siriuskey. Yes the front room has been opened out into a verendah. This room got really hot in summer so wasn’t working as another living space. We’re restricted to what we can change at the front of the house as we are in a heritage area. We can make changes without a DA if we don’t change the front of the house. Agree we can change a lot with a wooden house, but I think we’ll be restricted on reusing windows. All our casement windows are original glass from the 1930s so won’t be to modern building code. If we move them, they’re gone. However replacing with modern glass would bring more light into the home. We’ve put fans in all rooms and always have the French doors open in bed 2 so light and ventilation haven’t been an issue. Might become so if we put a moody teenager in there though!