My house, built in 2003, has purple feature walls in the dining room and 2 bedrooms and green feature walls in 1 bedroom and 2 living areas. That was the fashion then. Recently I decided it's time for an update as the feature walls seem to be absorbing all the light and making the house very dark. So far I've undercoated 2 of the feature walls and what a difference it makes! The rooms are much lighter and now I have to decide on whether to add a lighter colour as feature walls or paint them the same colour as the rest of the room.

Painting the splash back behind the cooktop is not recommended as it's flammable and will likely peel, blister at least or ignite or release chemical fumes at worst. I love the chalkboard though, although I would mask up a doorway on your wall between the fridge and island and paint that, like a menu board, handy for shopping lists or recipes, and will look clever without being permanent. For the window area, I think those two narrow windows are smart and have personality. You can make a mdf pelmet for above them, simple as. Measure the width of the window frame, and cut about 150mm for each side. Ou can have the timber yard cut the mdf into a 200mm strip, and you simply cut the lengths, 1 x front measurement, 2 x side measurements (150mm). Say. Screw sides through front board and cover with wadding also know as Dacron from fabric store, about $10.00 worth, secure with staple gun and repeat with a fabric of your choice. This is where it's fun, I think something like a lemon lime print or citrus stripe, and perhaps make the top of those pellets have a mdf top also so you can place mason jars filled with lemons or limes on them like a ledge, it will look like fresh preserves in a kitchen window and the blackboard wall will tie that into a theme. Like the roman blinds too because fabric will add colour and style cheaply. Don't mind you took off the doors because you are neat, and items seem to match but that can become messy quickly. Reconsider the blackboard behind your cooktop for safety, and even could go to a tile supplier, buy a heap of se nods or discontinued tiles in your mustards, yellows and teals, break them up and mosaic a sheet of fibre cement sheet cut to fit. Then you could attach that to the wall directly over the old tiles, and it would be made by you, the right colours and have that bespoke eclectic look in a cooks kitchen. Sometimes it's as simple as grouping things like a timber chopping board leaning up the wall,a bowl of picked lemons with leaves on, and a teal striped washcloth for it to have those zingy pops of colour.

Can't resist saying something about sliding rugs, they all slide , I have all wool Persian rugs , Afghani rugs and machine made rugs they all slide, you either put a really heavy table on it or you get non slip underlay . As for feather filled cushions , it again makes no difference cheep IKEA ones are actually better then Coco republic ones , they all slide on leather sofas.

I have been looking on Houzz and got a couple of ideas for the bedside tables (without spending anything!) .. Please let me know your opinions on the following... Attack the existing ones with a sander and take off half of the white paint, exposing the dark brown underneath, and making them look like they are meant to be shabby. Take them both out of the room and replace with a stack of vintage suitcases on the door side and an old weathered timber folding chair on the window side (got these in storage so wouldn't cost anything!). The chair would have to have something on top like a box to hide the usual bedside table clutter in, I guess. 3. Any other suggestions? Don't want to spend any money here if I can help it! I have access to plenty of old pallets which people seem to make amazing things out of but don't know if that would be too rustic in this room?