Hello, If I was you I would pick some light colour. With the grey you have you could get curtain in yellow, light blue, dusty pink. Why not mix and match colours? If you have some decoration or ornaments in your favourite colours, you could get your curtain in the same one. You also have to think which colours are your favourite, what is your style and personal taste. Good luck with your Project! StJames Design Interiors

Hello Lisamarie, Thank you very much! Well look at it like this, I offer up ideas I would do or consider but then you need to see what works for you and what you like, in my suggestions.. My advice is never impartial though as I am far too invested in what I do and love.. You do need to consider the furniture though but despite all these ideas your bright cushions will still add a really nice contrast.. What I was thinking, because I have this same experience... I painted the chimney breast only in grey.. I then painted the walls a cream colour, skirting in white. In your case it would be Wimborne for the walls and All White for the woodwork... ... I lived with it for a while but felt bored. It wasn't dramatic or characterful.. .. So I went on to paint the left wall where the window is and the opposite wall.. So 3 sides will now have dark grey 1 of the walls has an 8 ft by 6 ft mirror though the other is the chimney breast and the alcoves will be papered Oreste charcoal by Zoffany.. When I have got around to paying my pro-forma! ;) ..... (It's going to be a dark interior for the living room).. So I then painted all the window frames and windows black against the window panes and again a purple/grey colour I made for the frames, skirting, picture rail and architrave. It is coming along but not finished.. I have very little £ so I have to do things when I can.. Why not get some A4 paper and a few sample pots of nice chalky whites and creams, I do like pointing, also Shaded White and Clunch are really gr8 ... Stick some on the wall and some of the skirting colour on the skirting... You want to butt them up close together, so you can see them together... Look throughout the day at the changes. Duplicate the wall colours at eye level too.. so you can see at more height.. The room will look like a bad shave day! : ) ) Colours will change depending on the light.. choose a colour that is just a little creamier, so that if you want the woodwork white... you can still get a contrast.. Otherwise it will be white wall and woodwork and a downpipe chimney breast... So let's just say you went with some contrast... For Downpipe you could have Plummett or Manor house grey for the wood work... You could do the floor too.... Take these ideas and extend them to the other rooms... See what feels right.. Let me know what you think and if you get all that... and have more questions.. I just can't ever write a paragraph!! :))

Thank you so much for all your comments, really kind of you. Read Interiors will take your advice and get a wall mounted headboard, will start calling upholsterers tomorrow to get prices. Daisy, yes I do have a vax from the last house and the newer models are much better than the previous ones in terms of drying times. Vicki thanks for the name of the stretch valance as I couldn't find them on Google apart from on House of Fraser but they have limited colours and were pretty pricey at £100 or so! Angm, funnily enough I had this conversation with the carpet man as when I lifted the 50 year old carpet I noticed there was paper down and he explained that was why. He said it was also a good idea to tape any joins in underlay as well as the carpet but said a lot of fitters don't do this. Forzaitalia and Sam appreciate the insights and very interesting given your experiences Corbridge Interior design interesting point re rug and sizing I am still torn!!!! But I am probably moving towards carpets. I think the pics make the floor look better than it is! Noise wouldn't be a problem as we are in a bungalow, which is why I am concerned about the kids walking into their rooms on carpet having forgotten to take their shoes off! If it was upstairs I would definitely go with carpet! Aargh decisions, decisions!

I have to say my whole garden is finally looking good at the moment! We had to have a trench dug across it last year for the new drains for the kitchen, plus we've had trees taken down, new patios laid, beds made and a whole bed of ground elder laid fallow and covered for over a year. Consequently, since Easter, we have been "doing" the garden - well I say we, it's actually the OH doing all the grunt work, digging, planting and re-planting (oops), with me in a purely managerial capacity and doing a bit of dead heading. This is what it was like in 2017 And last year