A soft honeycomb shade stacks into a 1-2" space and disappears when it's up. The honeycomb feature holds in the hot and cold with about a 3.4 R value and the blackout has a higher R value. With all the dark woods, I like the softness of honeycomb shades.

First ,is removing excess furniture an option? Second, why bar fridge in the dining area, that really ruins the look. Seems that you can not move dining table closer to the kitchen because you have light pendant above the table, so can you move piano where your black couch is and couch on the other side of the room instead of creamy colour sofa . I notice the luck of coffee tables and side tables,that's probably why you like to sit around dining table, it is not visitors friendly and doesn't encourage conversation or interaction. I will come back to it have to study photos more. Are the arm chain the other room similar colour to the couch in the dining area?

I would remove the venetian and use the space for a coloured glass bottle display. The changing patterns of light light coming through the coloured glass will be different at different times of the day. Many succulents require good light levels, and a coloured glass display can look great with even low levels. Look for Murano glass which has gorgeous colours when daylight shines throigh it. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

Like most other posters , I can't quite get a full idea what you are trying to achieve , and I mean that in a positive sense . How many people are living there ? What are your priorities ? Is the kitchen also currently the dining area too ? Will an island bench , or a breakfast bar be sufficient , do you eat in the lounge , do you still want a formal dining area ? To me , the kitchen itself is easy , it's the other issues that may create the problems . Some ideas -- like most people , I'd be inclined to open the kitchen and living areas , especially if ( as seems likely ) thst wall isn't load bearing . That way , you can do a breakfast bar or island ( and new benchtops -- I'd match the colour and material of all those ) , a dining area and living area . If you only want 2 bedrooms , then removing the wall into Bed 3 , or ideally opening the hallway too , by taking out 2 walls of Bed 3 , you'd have heaps of space , but how useful depends on your priorities and even things like the sun and the view ! But here's maybe another thought -- assuming the plans are to scale , the downstairs is quite large , and has water -- so is it possible ( at some stage ) to enclose the stairs and maybe turn the storage space into 2 bedrooms and a bathroom ? That way , you could have a large kitchen / dining / living area , and 2 bedrooms upstairs ( with 1 or 2 toilets ) , 2 bedrooms and a bathroom downstairs . Yes , downstairs mightn't be suitable , or not enough light , or not enough insulation , but just some thoughts . The disadvantage is the cost ( and there may only be say 2 of you ) , the advantage is it would be more valuable and resell quicker and/or for more . Just throwing ideas around .