Hi Maria, we love the wood but it is a little overwhelming in that space with the timber floor. A liming white is a great idea as mentioned by a few people here. This will let you have the best of both worlds, a lighter, brighter finish while still allowing the wood grain to show through. You could try Feast Watson Liming White Floor Finish (yes, it's not a floor but it has the size of a floor!) and build up the number of coats until you are happy with the amount of timber grain showing through. You'll probably need to give it a light sand first as it's most likely already got some type of coating on it. The other option would be to leave the walls as is and consider a large, light neutral coloured rug as pompom suggested on the timber floor and perhaps a good sized piece of art on the wall or white wall shelving instead of the dark side unit you have to reduce the amount of timber in the room.

We've just renovated and have 3 bathrooms. no baths. Large walk in showers. We did, however, do the plumbing for a bath in the largest bathroom in case we ever sell it. We don't take baths, so no need to be cleaning the dust off it constantly.

When you render the bricks I would consider leaving some of them exposed here and there - that reminds me of old Tuscan buildings! I would include some large terracotta pots with olive trees or lemon trees, also as others have suggested some brightly coloured geraniums in hanging baskets against the wall or in terra cotta pots. Here are a couple of shots of my back deck (which isn't looking its absolute best) but to give you an idea of the large pots and colour. You have a beautiful spot to work with good luck! Sue

Hi kristymacd, after changing my mind many times we went for a built in 1700 bath! Mostly as builder and tiler thought it would be easier to slope the floor properly and I liked the idea of the slightly larger built in compared to the 1590 back to wall. I’m sure a back to wall would’ve been possible and been fine, it all just got a bit hard and I knew both would look good. And I don’t think a back to wall would be any harder to clean than a built in - with a built in you have the hob and tiled face of the bath and back to wall there is the floor either side of the bath - same same! Here’s a pic of ours, not totally finished yet but really happy with it.