Hi Maria, we love the wood but it is a little overwhelming in that space with the timber floor. A liming white is a great idea as mentioned by a few people here. This will let you have the best of both worlds, a lighter, brighter finish while still allowing the wood grain to show through. You could try Feast Watson Liming White Floor Finish (yes, it's not a floor but it has the size of a floor!) and build up the number of coats until you are happy with the amount of timber grain showing through. You'll probably need to give it a light sand first as it's most likely already got some type of coating on it. The other option would be to leave the walls as is and consider a large, light neutral coloured rug as pompom suggested on the timber floor and perhaps a good sized piece of art on the wall or white wall shelving instead of the dark side unit you have to reduce the amount of timber in the room.

We are doing a new kitchen with antique white shaker cupboards & drawers and I'm thinking a painted, pressed metal splashback behind a free standing 90cm heritage style electric cooker and the subway tiles elsewhere. We are doing an oiled natural shaped huon pine slab for the main benchtop.

I am about to start some alterations and the front door is currently dark violet purple but soon to be black. I will however be retaining the natural rimu on the inside even though my kitchen walls are dark charcoal currently. I like them so much the new kitchen will have the same coloured walls. The new sliding windows in the kitchen have a pine frame so won't match the rest. I am going to paint it dark charcoal too, with the cedar sliders and rimu finishing.

Great advice above from MB. Vivid white is extremely bright outside, I can't suggest enough to use a tinted white. You will need sunglasses otherwise! Surfmist works pretty well with most colours but can throw a slight green. Dulux Natural White will be good, but very bright. If you can choose something other than Colorbond colours here's a few. Just make sure the paint dept confirms the tint is for exterior use (can be a problem for exterior paint tint, even if it's an exterior paint). Dulux colours: Todd River - newer one, I haven't seen it large scale. Doesn't throw green. Simone Weil - throws a slight blue, but quite a neutral grey. Tristan - brown based grey It would look amazing if you could clad the LHS grey section (with the two windows in it) in a horizontal timber cladding to match your door. Probably not an option though!