hang a curtain track attached to a piece of wood suspended below the ceiling (anchored in overhead beams) with drapes or panel blinds or roller blind or venetians could work and/or what about an island bench made out of kitchen cabinet on castors with space for stool under overhanging counter

White-matte cabinets (flat panel, not shaker) and white bench (or maybe epoxy sealed marine ply??...siriuskey can tell you about that), mirror splash. Love the ceilings. I personally would go for a modern, stream-line, no handles, integrated appliances look. This space has real potential to be very cool, even with the slate. It doesn't need any more more texture or darkness. This is a nice kitchen, you should be able to sell it on ebay.

We too live in a cold winter climate with our bathrooms all on the southern side and faced similar issues as you do. One smaller bathroom does not have a window so we put in a Velux skylight which provides amazing natural light through the day. This may not be to your liking, especially if you have a period home. We also use heated towel rails and under tile heating (just enough to take the chill off and stop mould) in winter. Although we have a light in the shower recess, a bonus is the large fixed shower head with inbuilt LED, which at night gives the feeling of showering under moonlight. We chose light colours and mirrored recessed cabinets to reflect as much natural light as possible.

My kitchen is primarily 'burnt red' and the red bricks , which are slightly less brown than the burnt red . the ceiling is white , with stainless downlights , the rest is red , charcoal , white , the odd fleck of grey and black . The floor and blind are brown wood . I don't consider it overly decorated . It opens to the dining room , which is also a natural wooden floor , a black glass top table with black legs , black steel framed chairs with red leather seats and backs , an almost black wooden sideboard , a couple of big colourful abstract paintings , and 3 walls are wallpapered in a wheat weave pattern , the 4th is that red brick . There are 2 large wooden venetians too . The lounge is , yep , red leather lounge suite and extra chairs , there's even a red leather footstool that is heart-shaped ! The TV cabinet is custom made and is nearly 4 metres long , all wood with a dark stain . The floor is wheat coloured carpet with a large shaggy red rug , a black glass coffee table , a 65 inch TV and 7 speaker home theatre , a couple of those polished search light spot lights on wooden tripods , and several original paintings ( only 1 is an abstract , the rest are people , although a couple are Picasso-esque ! ) . Not much white , not a great fan . I'll put up some pics in a couple of years when I've tidied hahaha .