Dear Bronwyn: thanks - I am an anthropologist - took a lot of linguistics and LOVE identifying regional names - I seem to do pretty well. However, yours is such a classical name - would be hard to mis-identify! :-) I am SO glad you have fallen in love with your beautiful home. I assume you are in England ?, not US, definitely go to flea-markets, swap sales and find an old stove replacement if this your concept. I don't know how big any of your bathrooms are, but we placed our double-stack in the bathroom! I also then made a very "small" partition - about 15 inches framed- which provides the idea of separatness from the bathing area. However, our bath is a rather large space - as it was the original back porch. This could free up some space in your pantry? And you might consider framing in and doing a cabinet finish for the fridge - then it would not stick out like a sore thumb. Please check out on line: Rusteoleim (paints) - they have entire new kits for refinishing cabinets -and countertops? Since you are a re-doer - perhaps having wooden countertops made would better suit your home? I would certainly NOT use granite, or something of this ilk - I think this would detract from the feel of the home. This also might give you an opportunity to save some pennies and wait to get what you really want to have - I actually did NOT have a kitchen sink for 15 years - it was in the bathroom [(one of those long old porcelain kitchen sinks (country)] because this was the only place in the home which was plumbed - OUCH! I guess the moral of the story is: I could be worse! :-)

I would let your natural elements shine ..match your wall colour to your classic white laminate and be lazy and paint the same for the ceilings so not to distract from your features or you could use your Caesar stone Urban as an inspiration and choose that colour as wall colour..ie go a bit lighter ..since you can play around with the colours as your room has lots of natural light .. Urban is a nice colour..brownish grey.. personally I'd just go white..

Silk would be interesting, not to mention elegant. As for paints, the Silver Illusion appeals, but it might throw green (not sure). I also agree the Tranquil Retreat is a good one. I'm wondering how big the feature wall is, and what is going on this wall, eg TV, fireplace, large artwork, etc.?

That’s a good idea, we’re going to go with painter on the first room, once he leaves we can decide whether or not we paint the trims. More work, but playing it safe!