Of course kitchens of this style often have hanging pot racks which I like to call pot chandeliers. Source an old ladder with character and hang from the ceiling on hooks and chain above the ding table for a talking point or be creative an use a pulley rope to lower it above the corner bench top next to the oven. Pots and crockery take up a huge amount of space. Allocate zones and use them practically. This bench in the corner would make a great breakfast nook, where a toaster, coffee station could be set up and have baskets underneath for dry store pantry items. Select a feature colour for the room, use it in fabrics stools or prints to add personality, perhaps select a fabric and create a pelmet over the corner window and also hang it below that bench top on wire curtain string to hide all the bits below. A gingham would look great Ml design

Hi everyone, I've finally gotten around to creating a "Before and After" post which includes my kitchen and the remainder of the house. Pop on over if you'd like a look! We are very happy with the finished project. Thanks, Louise

It would be much more cost effective to work with the slate. Image sent by mazgardiner looks great. If the home was purchased for rental purposes, the plinth could be painted white, benchtop and splashback tiles painted (much cheaper than replacing) to blend in with slate colours. If you are going to live in the property, sometimes it's best to live with how it is and replace later when you have better understanding of what you want. Good luck with it all!

Without knowing what the benchtop is , it may be able to be cut and joined -- in that case I would look and see if the breakfast bar part can be either moved a metre 'left' ( in the picture just above ) and then either keep the DW there , or under the new 'joiner' piece . Alternatively , if you got rid of the breakfast bar ( or spun it 90 degrees so it raan along the wall ) , and moved the DW under there , you MAY just be able to sneek a 1 metre or so wide island in there . I assume you like the colour scheme , and don't want to change , but personally I find the darker grey ( especially the ceiling roses and the ceiling corniches ) is overdone . It may be an optical illusion , but the veranda doors and kitchen windows look lighter , obviously the dining chairs and even the kitchen bench are lighter again -- that darker grey just seems 'very old' to me , and not in a good way . I would have gone maybe 50% lighter , or even a rich yellowy English cream -- halfway between the wall tone and the gold . Nice but quite 'grey' in attitude at present IMO .