Although you say you have limited budget, the things you said you can do are brilliant enough to freshen up your kitchen. A good paint job is probably the best improvement, perhaps paint your ceilings white and replace your lights with a nice spotlight strip. They are cheaply sourced and illuminates the kitchen really well. As your kitchen cupboards are traditional looking I would go for a modern farmhouse look, they're really fashionable at the moment. And adapts to refurbished kitchens really well. Perhaps you could paint your cabinets a light sage green or a blue grey and keep your dark worktops as they are. It's important not to use too many strong colours as that could suck out more natural light and make it feel smaller. How about changing your door handles, that is a fab and cheap way of updating a kitchen. As for tiles paint them one colour to stop it looking too busy. Your floor tiles would coordinate really nicely to a modern farmhouse look. To help your kitchen look uniform why not invest in the same style/colour small kitchen appliances such as kettle, toaster, small cost but it immediately dresses your worktops. Perhaps you have a stylish large charger plate or deep wide mouth vase to pop your fruit in to dress your kitchen. That would look lovely and make your fruit look interesting. I see you have a shelf for a vintage looking radio and some cookbooks. Why not replace them with a couple of solid looking floating shelves perhaps to match your new painted cabinets and stylishly dress the shelves to add character. Such an exciting project, good luck! http://houzz.com/photos/16560353

I had a similar situation in a house I moved into years ago. I did a quick fix of painting all of the walls, woodword and the cupboards the same shade of cream. Sounds a bit OTT but it really knocked back the cupboards, which in all honesty are not something you want to make a feature out of, and created a calmness to the whole space. In your case, I would go for an off white so that the gang plug wires, radiator pipes and covers hiding the wires for the extractor fan etc., are disguised as much as possible -- that will tie in with the palest of the tiles in the splash back, and then you will have a pretty basic colour scheme of a very place colour and the dark worktop, fireplace and floor, which will stand out more. I think you need more storage with doors -- that bookshelf isn't doing anything for the kitchen. If you could get something in there that could hide lots of clutter -- even if just something cheap from IKEA, that would help greatly. Or work something around the filing cabinet that you have? A huge cheap mirror over the fireplace would bounce some light around too. If you don't want to go for undercupboard lighting, and if you have enough plug points, how about some lamps on the worktop, especially at the FF end with a floor standing lamp at the end with the chair. For the table, I would go for a table cloth and reupholster the chairs if they are not to your taste. A new blind in a much fresher colour would be great. Depending on the colour of your filing cabinet (if you use it), I think a petrol blue could add a nice vintage vibe to the chimney breast, and make more of a feature of it. I would try and go down a vintage/slightly industrial route rather than country. You may have some stuff lurking around that you could use, once you have got the base colours right -- currently it just feels a little cluttered and a bit of a mish mash. Best of luck. Looking forward to seeing some after shots :)

Hi. I agree with angieav, but I think you need to tell us how you use the space so we can help with the best layout. Do you use the dining table every day or do you eat in the kitchen? Does the electronic piano get used a lot? Is the woodburner for heat, looks, you've always wanted one, or just because you think you need a focal point for the room? Is there a restriction on where it would be (do you have a second storey above some of that room)? That said, I would make the sloping wall the focal point with built in shelves, including a slot for the TV, and have it in a contrasting colour with books and nice decorative items. Because it is angled, you can then see the TV from much of the room without it being a big feature. You could have a couch square on to the entrance to the room, maybe an L with the short end against the wall where the TV currently is, a chair or two between the two windows and where the other couch is at the moment, but without sticking out so much (it looks like that couch blocks the traffic to the kitchen, but it might just be the angle of the photos). A dining table can go where you currently have yours, but I would flip it around so that it is long in that space and that is a dedicated dining area. Or have a round one that extends so for everyday it isn't encroaching on the space and traffic to the kitchen. The piano can go over near the door to the outside. A woodburner could be installed where you currently have your TV (as long as the flue has somewhere to go!). With this layout, the seating will be facing the woodburner and the TV. If you don't use the dining table much, you could put it over on the carpeted area, as someone else suggested, and dedicate the part that currently has tiles to the lounge (and then we can rethink the layout of that area). As for the flooring, I would go with what you have in the kitchen so that it flows. I hope that helps to get you started.

What sort of look are you going for? If it were my kitchen I would repaint in a neutral throughout, cornforth white or similar. If the existing cupboard doors are white I would leave them (can't tell if white or cream in the photo) If they are cream I'd consider painting them either neutral or possibly a deep blue. Replace the handles with a cup style or a D pull in a metal to complement whichever metal accent you decide to have on the lighting. I'd replace the worktops with a high quality slim laminate, I have duropal calacatta and it often gets mistaken for real marble. I'd be tempted to have an upstand instead of tiles but possibly an antique mirror behind the range. If changing the worktop I'd get rid of the curved open shelves on the base run as I think this dates the kitchen. I'd keep the 12-pane door but paint it black and replace the handle with a black one to mimic a crittall door. I'd reduce the number of open shelves to one each side but take the one on the door wall full width to reach the adjoining wall. Replace the lighting - have a look at Matalan. They often have similar styles to Jim Lawrence. Have a look at DeVol kitchens for inspiration if you like that style.