You are absolutely right! There are a group of people around here who really do like her paintings and that's what encourages her...and helps with her depression...better than taking pills! Been giving this further thought. Since she has no particular style at present maybe she could group the 'like' paintings in smaller displays here and there in 3s and 5s and some in casual bundles hung by the corners without frames. This might, for the first idea, look more like an attempt at decor and with the 'bundles' might tempt visitors to want to lift them up and see the others hidden underneath... she might be flattered at that and without seeming too eager to sell may achieve a triple positive...one for her self esteem, one seeming like decor in an painter's house and another, also decor but like a casual placement of works maybe waiting for frames...maybe trying to decide which to frame..( which to reject)...all sorts of little suggestive placements that could serve several purposes. For decor alone I like the idea of different profiles and coloured frames that suit each painting, the idea of smaller uneven numbered groups of "like" works...say the trees ones or the beach ones or the flower ones for example...and I also like the idea of stragecally pinned up bundles...maybe with a pin on the wall (if you don't mind holes) or on a nice thick string hung across the surface with paper clips or a bulldog clip... and a jar of brushes and/or tubes of paint nearby on a shelf. Empty frames casually hung in bundles also serve as decor. That's the only way I would have multiple paintings and "art things" on a wall. I understand about galleries showing several styles and artists together...sometimes, if the gallery owner or director..."has a clue", (surprising how many do not). he/she would be insightful enough to display the different styles so that the adjacent works complement each other and so more people would like more works. Amazing buying a work and then on getting it home, thinking you'd been given the wrong one...because it looked so different next to its partner on the wall ! Decor is important wherever displays of anything are mounted. Some of the mass marketing furniture places have no idea what to put next to what for good effect...have you noticed?

I think it needs something 3 dimensional added to it - I like the idea of buttons - make an outline of a large shape - a bird, a dolphin, or just a diamond shape - whatever you like - then get lots of different colour and different sized buttons and sew them on close together so they fill the whole shape. At the moment it definitely looks like a school notice board! If you add something flat it will still look like a pin board - many of the shop bought ones have ribbon sewed on in a criss-cross pattern etc, so you def need something 3D.

These are all great ideas. Thanks so much. We're going to see how we "fit" in the space at first. I hate to cook and my boyfriend does it so infrequently that we may not need a lot of room for a pantry. I bought this place more than 2 years ago and it's almost done (yep they took their sweet time). It was initially going to be just me, but it will be me, my partner and my borrowed cat. Haha... But I always wanted to start afresh so about 4 months ago (when there was about a month to go, they've since extended the completion date), I had a huge garage sale and sold or donated pretty much everything I own. We'll be starting anew and won't have heaps to store. Only about 2 months to go.

Thank you everyone for your responses. I’m still undecided - I have a few weeks to consider what to do. The bench top salesperson showed me some photos of the few people who have added a small amount of benchtop stone to add some height (and it’s always because of a busy 60 x 30 patterned tile that the owners want to keep perfect) and in her words it looks ‘dicky’. Not least because the tile sits flatter against the wall than a 2cm thick slab of benchtop. It leaves a pronounced lip of 1.5cm where tile meets benchtop addition Then there’s the safety concerns mentioned above about flames near stone which I had not considered. Big reader - I love your maths but I’m only 150cm tall. Even with a low bench and oven height of 94cm (my oven’s lowest height setting) plus 70cm of tile between the bench and overheads, the cupboards are already 14cm above my head. This barely makes them usable for me even now! Adding another 15cm instead of the 10cm, while looking lovely and keeping the pattern intact, means my short-arse self will have real difficulty reaching anything safely. Every cm counts when you’re short! But I do appreciate your input!