i added a dining room extension 2 years ago and chose cyprus pine flooring to match the existing timber floor of my old cottage. Im near beaches so decided to lime wash the floor. 2 years down the track whilst i really love the look i can tell you the finish does not last. It is not even a high traffic area and you have to keep an eye on it to keep it clean of any little marks so they dont damage the surface of the wash. So my advice would be whilst a really beautiful look avoid because it does not go the distance.

The house was in the best street, the pictures were immaculate... heaps of people came to view ....the moment you reached the front door the smell of curry was so strong that some people started coughing. I was not deterred and inspected the entire house and it was even better than the pictures but the smell of curry was extremely strong in open kitchen area. Apparently it is almost impossible to get rid of the smell once it's that bad without major work.

Thanks to nickybaruch I am now considering doing the floor (which is now sanded back ready for finishing off) with white liming with a slight tint colour in it. Some say you have to be very careful when liming. Is this a problem? I would have thought it would be just like putting on a stain? Anyway doing it that way we would still see the grain of the timber floor which would be lighter than the dark cedar it was before and keeping the pine lined ceiling with the cedar coloured beams will blend in well I think with the lighter timber floor and the white walls we now have. What do you think?

The lounge in our 1956 house in South Africa had a stained wooden ceiling. The house didn't have any insulation so the lounge would become really hot in Summer. We opted to have the original ceiling removed and dropped 150mm so we could install insulation. We needed to paint the original panels but left the varnished beams. Every wall in the house was painted white, which I found too stark. I decided to paint the lounge using a light blue and a peach colour. People thought this was a bit bold, but I was happy with my choice. The before photos were scans from the 1980s, as I couldn't find the original EA photos when we bought the house.