against advice we kept our very dated brown tiled floor and with white walls and new white cabinets and some modern art to add some contrasting colour we're very happy with the results but if your cabinets are in good condition i would prefer to keep your vintage cabinets and especially the copper hood and improve the lighting in all the rooms with the usual light walls and furnishings and add Solar Skylights, modern lighting over the servery counter and lightweight coloured steel framed furniture instead of the wooden chairs (Ikea has tables and chairs in Oranges and Blues?) and with coordinating teatowels, art and accesories would add a surprise colour to contrast with all the tiles

the challenge is to make the tiles look part of a new fresh look without discarding anything just for the sake of fashion but, if the cabinets need replacing, perhaps it would also be a good time to rearrange them to gain better access to the stove etc and new base cabinets to match the darker brown tile colours would be my choice but prefer to keep the white counters and any wall cabinets in white with the thick counter edges to retain some of the original style

Hi girlguides thank you for your comments. We love the copper rangehood too, but it isn't very funtional, needs refurbishing and a fan/filter insert to eliminate cooking fumes. At present it only vents into the roof cavity. I love the idea of two tone cabinets would definitely keep in character with the rest of the house. We have considered removing one of the brick pillars where the current wall oven is located, centreing the cooktop and installing the wall oven where the pantry now sits. Also present location of pantry is very close to window which restricts the light into the kitchen. An option to extend the benchtop under the window has also been considered. It's amazing what else surfaces when suddenly a fridge /freezer needs replacing. So appreciate your thoughts.

be careful your new fridge doesn't make the whole house look like it needs an upgrade and a plan of the kitchen with measurements and existing stove, sink, doors and windows will invite suggestions for a new layout

Hi there,

good for you keeping the tiles and very much hoping that you keep the copper range it would be worth having it revamped and ducted out through the roof this works far better than circulating in the hood. without the whole view of your kitchen it's hard to see what might work in a different layout, do you know if the tiling goes under or just up to the cabinets, I can see by the sky light that the kitchen is dark so I would be looking to lift the kitchen with white cabinets and benchtops. Your copper range hood would really look amazing with a white kitchen and be a big feature. As mentioned the cooktop and range needs repositioning and if you can find a better space for the pantry that would allow more light . cheers

Love the brick floors, definitely a "keep me". I agree with a rearrangement of the kitchen , and also love the copper hood....but yikes.....into the ceiling space? Is that legal/dangerous/fire hazard? Definitely either through roof, or ducted through roof space and outlet in the eaves. This saves the roof structure being compromised.

Hi Suzanne, Forgot to mention we also have an early 80's single story brick and timber house which we love. We had to do a total on our kitchen as we being the third owner of the house the second's was very hard to live with and even the first (Architect designed kitchen layout was cramped and dark, blue tiles, blue suede effect wall, blind and blue glass hanging light etc etc. and a brick bench.

Are you a willing to post a couple more photos including the other end of the kitchen and the room that the bench opens into. Because the tiled floor is multi coloured I would try to keep the cabinet colour simple and one colour. White is still a favourite but possibly consider a pale grey (grey and beige are great together.

One more question is your house 2 story hence the small skylight.

Some photo ideas following the first 3 are before and after of our place cheers

We have/had matching wall oven brick spaces, they take up so much space, and you appear to have about the same amount of wall space for tall units. First thing I would do is to install a velux skylight in the kitchen, that would make a very big difference, it appears from the photos that your kitchen area has been made darker because of the under cover area outside the kitchen window

Love the dog and your house, your bricks are much nicer than our Sandstock. Would you have a floor plan of the kitchen. The large opening is looking into what room? as I think the dining is in the room behind the wall oven and it has a lot of natural light cheers