Oh dear, I've been through all these 'trends' .. Terracotta : the 90's , tiled my whole house in terracotta Cork : got rid of lots of cork tiles, walls and ceilings in a house that we bought and renovated - in the 90's Jewel Green : had an awesome jewel green suede lounge from Freedom - in the 90's haha !! I would love a jewel green velvet lounge but I'm never going terracotta again !!

Our house is similar, but we are empty nesters and down sized about 4 years ago, our needs would be a bit different to a growing family, we are currently in the throes of having two smaller rooms made into one area to further open up a previous renovation to give us a bigger open space..we also have an ensuite and a combined laundry / second laundry space. The good thing is that being a brick veneer house the reconfiguring is relatively easy with modern technology and big beams. As above try and have a big open space, we have been out of our home for a month now and still a way to go, add living away from home to your budget or stay with family. I will try and post the plan but here are a couple of journey pics ..the last photo was before trying to show how the two rooms decided the space making the living room very small and a bit dark...the aim of this project is to have space for a bigger gathering than about 4 people before overcrowded. Light is really important, nice big windows essential, the darkness of the living I thought I could live with, but it did get me down, I a, looking forward to having a much lighter space

Love the old chair and think it's great that you are, in a small way, not contributing to our 'throw away' society. Do find myself wondering in response to the 'drink and type' ugly useless comment what exactly you could do better ...

Katherine, I am just curious about the look of the rest of your house? For example, what look is the kitchen and external look of house. I love your bathroom, but not sure if it would match the era of my house. I am beginning to think that in bathrooms, they really only look unique and have an extra "something" when the floors aren't the typical grey, charcoal, beige........not sure what to do yet with mine...