What a beautiful tile! Rule of the tump - always match the grout to the tile. Specially with such a strong patterned tile, otherwise the grout also becomes a clashing pattern. I'd pick light grey to avoid pure white cleaning issues. I have these type of tiles in my patio, you will have to be seal them with penetrating sealer after installation, but other then that you will love them forever

hi MB - I live in Sydney .. I designed my house in 1988 to be 'passive solar' - I looked at Louvres back then but chose Awnings bcoz the Louvres in 1988 did not have screens or Locks… I think if you lived somewhere really cold you get more benefit from 'double glazing'- but, these days the really cold Northern countries use 'triple glaze' and thermal energy... for you, opting for a few on your Northern side with deep eaves would be sensible A couple of years ago, I finally replaced my Block-Out Verticals with Plantation Shutters - the Plantations look great and when shut keep heat and cold out... the verticals did the same thing but the look was outdated and got ratty ….

A practical advantage of the long-side only design is that it removes the pesky corners/shelf produced by the bottom rail that collects dust. Big bonus with a white kitchen

The Kitchen -- it is very much a 1970's intrepretation of Colonial IMO , and ties in with the front door , so presumably thge rest of the house is similarly dated -- and thats not a bad thing . In one of the other pictures is a white 'panelled' door -- in a lot of ways its a pity that the rest of the doors weren't wood . Anyway , IMO painting the kitchen white will not achieve anything -- it won't look more modern , and it won't look warmer . The only slight argument is that it may look 'cleaner' but I don't think that's enough reason to do it . Your front door looks a few shades darker , and better for it IMO . So if you are keeping the kitchen , stain it darker , embrace the scrolls and the fake latticework , and the appliances all look reasonably modern . Its a decent size and has a good flow . Even the tiles look okay , but my criticism of them is you actually have to look -- they blend into the walls , because they appear to be exactly the same colour . The kickboards look grey -- you could repaint the upper parts of the walls in a similar grey , but my preference with slightly darker and slightly redder stained cabinets would be stay with a white or off-white , but re-grout in a mid to charcoal grey , and make a bit of a feature with the tiles , and it also ties in with your bench colour . The downlights are good -- the bug catcher UFO light definitely not so . Get something with character , but NOT 1970's , and definitely not 1970's faux colonial . Clean and modern would be the buzzwords . You could start again , or paint the frames white and change the doors to white or grey , lose some character and lose some warmth IMO -- it suits the house , just needs a lift .