I agree, a unified floor will help with the feeling of a bigger, uninterrupted floor. I think the white on walls is fine, although I also think a soft but warmer tone might be suitable so the ambience is still warm and inviting. I can see an angled wall that appears lighter than the left of kitchen, I would hang a large mirror on this wall, to create a false room beyond, the angle will help reinforce this idea, and is a nice touch to a dining area, however informal. I would also take your lounge and try to position it facing your window. I assumes there's one in the far end we cannot see, the sofa could be away from the island back creating a walkway, and consider relocating your sideboard below it elsewhere. I can imagine it even along the back of the sofa as a console table, a lamp on top would create the perfect scenario for night reading and ambient light.

LED lighting has made such a difference to how you can illuminate your home now and they give excellent light so you don't need the number of downlights as before. Strip lighting on stairs, for example, can look amazing and add wow to your home. Be guided by the experts above, or a good electrician should be able to give you practical advice. In some rooms one downlight can even be enough if you plan on having other feature lighting. Pendant lights for your bedroom will look great, but look at what wattage the lights you choose will take and whether you will need any other lights in the room. I have always been very minimalist in my home and try to keep to one light in each room for general access lighting and have alternative feature lighting for atmosphere. For example, I just have one LED downlight over my desk in my bedroom for when I'm working and a lamp each side of my bed for other times, and this is all I need. In my lounge room, I put two pendants, hung at different lengths in one corner of the room as a feature and I have two table lamps for when extra light is needed, but for watching TV or just generally entertaining and relaxing, the two pendants on their own are enough. Like you say, nothing is worse than over lighting a room, it totally loses any atmosphere. Your home theatre for example, could only need two downights for when you need a good light for cleaning and such, otherwise for general use, some wall sconces will give subtle lighting to the room. Have the two types of lights on separate switches naturally. One important thing I always suggest people be mindful of in work areas especially is to place lights so you don't work in your own shadow. One example is the kitchen sink or hotplates - put the light slightly to one side for better visibility.

Hi Kristen! Yes to the downlighter but no to the brass sorry : ( The other metals I can see on your facade are aluminium (ie silver/grey) in the windows and white painted steel or iron on the railing. So I would pick from either of those. White lights would look pretty naff imho, so am suggesting silver/grey- anodised aluminium or stainless steel. A stainless or aluminium uplighter/downlighter [as per @Asquithoakley's third pic] would look good on the garage wall as the fixture is down low enough for uplighting to look great. Downlighter-only version of that would look good upstairs as the fixtures are up high. Both would wash the bricks with light and create lovely depth and pattern.

Hi Rach163 So the splashback is along the wall behind the stove? And is full height to the ceiling? No overhead cabinets there? Certainly for an all-white kitchen, and a very small wood-element on the table, I'd suggest a feature colour splashback. There's a few ways you could make it pop - a colour such as a rich red, or a striking (but not bright) green, or even a blue would work well. We used colour-backed glass for our splashback in our all-white (but dark benchtop) kitchen, which is low maintenance and looks very "rich". It's a red (burgundy?) feature "wall" below overhead cabinets on two sides of our mostly L-shaped kitchen, and we also put it under the island bench/table, to tie the two together. The other idea that struck me is that you have a view to the outside (albeit a covered courtyard dining area now?). That made me think of a mirror to reflect the view, or at least the light - so something like a polished stainless steel. Perhaps in sections or strips with brushed steel, to reduce maintenance :-) For the lighting, we used an led strip under our overhead cabinets, either side of the range-hood, and around the corner to where our sink is. You could do something similar with a narrow aluminium channel either at the ceiling (probably too high) or at range-hood level with an led strip (a waterproof one!) inside it. It's nearly invisible when not on, just a crisp brushed/polished metal line, but gives a really bright uniform light across the whole bench area, and no shading issues with the main room lights behind you. If you wanted real wow, get a multi-colour led strip that can be colour changed (and be dimmed) to suit your needs and moods. And if you wanted to freak people out, you can get a multi-colour programmable led strip that can also do things like active lightwaves, pulsing and respond to music and a bunch of other things :-) All of the strips are dirt cheap, unless you buy them through most Australian lighting stores :-/ We also put a dimmer led strip underneath our island benchtop, to pick up the splashback/underbench colour, and as a nice 'night-light' of an evening. Works really nicely. I've seen some people do it at the kickboard level (i.e. 140mm above the floor), to make it look like everything is floating, but I've found that only works for some kitchens. One of the benefits of controllable coloured led lighting can be that the splashback can also be white or silver, and it's the lighting that determines the perceived colour. Leds are quite directional though, great for benches but less for wider room lighting, unless you have them in a diffuser. We use led lightbulbs in four high ceiling fixtures, and one long-drop over-dining-bench light, since they are lovely and bright and warm (if chosen that way), and as the ambient light source. You can also get colour/controllable led lightbulbs but $$$. You want to think about where you want feature lighting (up or down), work lighting and ambient lighting. Think about where you will stand to work, and which lights you will be shading, which will be shining in your face, and which will actually help. We pushed around our lighting points on the design, and even over-catered on the number of fixtures, just in case we missed something. You can always disconnect a light and cover it trivially, but putting one in later or shifting one is a bit messy. Anyway, my two bits. :-) Cheers, Markus