How funny. I just renovated (on a budget) my small kitchen and added exactly the slate look in tiles you have, though they are in fact porcelain. And I placed them throughout the house for continuity. The tiler asked if I was after a retro hippy look but it doesn't look like that at all. My cupboards were the same colour as yours and I utilised the bones of the kitchen and had the doors and Benchtops changed only. I also have plenty of light in the kitchen but chose white doors and as I was on a budget I chose granite look Benchtops, they are very serviceable and it looks great. The blue backsplash was the colour lift and here you could choose any colour to your liking. Basically the kitchen ended up with white cupboards and appliances other than cooktop, with the stainless cooktop and coloured splash back being the focal point. The paint colour are: whisper white walls, integra splashback, white ceiling and for increased contrast I used the same white above the splashback on the rear wall. I would consider painting out the brick but leaving the texture.

The plan looks a nightmare - bedrooms facing the street, a tiny internal bathroom with no window to the outside (is that legal?) and a "lounge" that looks like it was meant to be a third bedroom. If the internal walls are stud and don't support the roof you're in with a chance, but I'd say to do a proper job the cheap option is NOT going to work. I'd put two bedrooms where the current family room and lounge are and extend the bathroom into the boot room to give window access, or scrap the current bathroom altogether and use some of the space in what is now the kitchen for a new one. Keeping the WC separate is a good move. If you make the street side the social side of the house you can open it right out and create a big front porch that's a social spill-over from the kitchen/dining area, creating indoor-outdoor flow. Planting (two or three shade trees and some stands of tall perennials rather than a "green fence" hedge) keeps your front garden private yet inviting and stops your front porch becoming a stage set for the street. Good luck! I think you'll turn this very ordinary house into a much nicer place to live!

Hey Dounia The colour and the way it has been painted is very much what we saw in the late 90's and early 2000's when we all went through the textured paint feature wall craze. But, saying that Paint and design technology have come a long way since then and I would encourage you not to give up on the copper idea and use a modern approach and product. Dulux have recently added their new range of Design Effects, Here's the copper and concrete look. There's also other options available at www.dulux.com.au. You can email them for a copy of their brochure or they are readily available at Bunnings in the paint section. Thanks Paul

Lots of good ideas here. If you do have a carpet remnant overstitched along edges, be sure to specify the thread is to MATCH the colour of carpet. I know this sounds like a no-brainer, BUT we had long and wide carpet runners made up, colour was dark brown. When we unrolled them, low and behold the overstivhers had used WHITE thread. We were stupefied. Who knew one must specify the obvious! Anyway, hubby had a brilliant idea: he used black magic marker and carefully coloured over the white. You would never know it had ever been anything but!