I love the idea of using a mix Jadownes! It's funny, before starting work for this company I probably would never have considered using artificial plants for anything... I think for me I always had the mentality that fake plants didn't look very good or weren't capable of looking very good. But now.. I love the artificial plants! Of course though, If I had the time, space and ability to use real plants for my vertical garden I would in a heart beat! I think they look good regardless of which way you go and they offer a unique solution to creating some breathe taking spaces!

DEIA..yes tactile also if there's a problem I've got someone to go to . I'm old fashion that way.. ie. bought a pair of shoes..no stock in the store so they ordered online for me..it came badly made so I went back to the store to return ..showed my receipt ..no question asked.. or another time bought shoes for son broke apart after 2-3 times went back with my receipt..and got exchanged right away despite I've read online that that company have had a bad reputation with complaints online..I've never encountered face to face.. or saw some colander online looked quite good..went to Sydney to check them out awful quality and well at $10 a pop no go I do buy online ..not sheets more so decorative items that I've seen and can't source in physical shops

I also place safety from all sorts of hazards very high on my list - so high I won'y buy land unless it is free from such problems. In NSW Australia checking on this is now a few clicks away. If you search for NSW Planning Portal - you can input a NSW address and hey presto - all information collated about bush fire risk, flooding or other water inundation, mine subsidence and geo tech problems, things like acid sulphate soil - along with lot size, zoning and any permissible and prohibited activities. Apart from ensuring the NBN is available at a prospective purchase in NSW and crime stats are low - this portal hosted by Planning NSW is a fast way of checking on safety, zoning and other issues affecting a property. It saved me a lot of time as I could eliminate a high percentage of properties [and save myself pointless inspections or shelling out money for checks] immediately and only put time and resources into genuinely contenders. It assisted me whittle down 100+ properties down to 4 solid options. Phoning an insurance company and asking what they would charge you to insure a property is also tremendously revealing - as a rough rule - the more outrageous the premiums the more serious the underlying safety and other problems are.

Tweeza, I should have made it clearer on the plan, but that is a window between the lounge room and the verandah. Thank you for the suggestions and the photos too! Debluc, that is exactly what we would like to do down the track. The walls in between the kitchen and the lounge/dining are structural though, so changing that is going to have to wait until the budget allows unfortunately. Bigreader, I agree with a preference to stay away from corners. I will talk to the installers about this being an option, though that position for a flue for the fire place could be problematic because of solar panels on the roof. Allanaspree, I like this idea! We talked about switching out the two seater for single chairs, so this idea might work. I'll play around with the exact measurements to see how we go.