Thanks for you opinion, Judy! I will ask colour selection consultant whether I can get the same colour of WIP door as joinery doors once I hear from the builder. It has been hard to reach them lately lol

I understand where you are coming from. Had the same dilemma when we built our house. We ended up asking the tradies for the whitest of whites with all of our finishes as we felt that it would make it easier when choosing soft furnishings. Our builder used Wattyl products, so I am guessing that the Dulux equivalent would be the 'white on white'.

Custom joinery is comparativley more expensive than the Ikea pre-fab options as you are paying somebody for the labour. You are also paying for their skills and experience to measure up correctly, to make it work with your crooked walls (no wall is ever straight and perfect), and to fit it exactly to the space it was designed for, without any crooked gaps that collect dust and spiderwebs. You also are paying for somebody to go back to if something sticks or jams, or doesn't work the way it was intended to. To make the cheaper options look neat and complete you do need good craftsmaship skills to install and work out how to get it straight and neat, but as it works on standard modules it never fits perfectly into the space, there are usually gaps. For instance their kitchen modules are designed around a 200mm module. If the kitchen space you have is 3300mm, then you need to figure out a way to cover the 100mm gap. With custom joinery it is designed to fit perfectly in the 3300mm space. If you can't assemble Ikea units perfectly you don't really have anywhere to go back to if you stuff it up. If you don't have these skills then you will need to employ somebody who does, and at the end of the day you may not save a fortune. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

Hi there, Big piece of paper time! Write down the dims of the space and list the things you would like it to do: charge devises, put down for hand bag, store of mail, basket ball fixtures, invitations, bills, home management, display of collection of tortious shells....what ever!! Then list all the ideas that seem interesting, marry up the two lists and see what comes out of it! Personally I think a long blank wall is excellent for couch or other furniture to go on and to sit to look out to the garden (not with your back to outlook like so often is planned) Some put down bench, desk arrangement, some cupboards for devises charging and handbags, some shelving for a few book and current pictures etc. Some of each type of space that you need for those items and things on the list. Very important to keep it ladder friendly for manhole too. I love the look of your circle of chairs there and wonder if you want more seating in the room? I love the ideas above that have been posted: very lovely and some quite quirky! Good Luck, stay focused on what you want the area to do! Cheers Margot