Your best bet is to lose the surround (what looks to berocks) and replace them/it with what is in keeping with the Victorian insert, The attached is polished cast iron but there are many (even contemporary looking surrounds) which would look gorgeous with your tiled insert. hope this helps? Withe the boulders, you're on to a loser! Sometimes the truth hurts ...

I would use lavender and plum, also larger lamps with white shades to show the true color of the room, the yellow shades are not doing it any justice

Hi Rowen, I can't quite identify the knobs/handles in Claire's images (and there are quite a few others in this thread!), but we may be able to help source what you are looking for. We have a variety of hadle suppliers, but one of our favourite for "cup & knob" in a variety of lovely finishes is Crofts & Assinder - crofts.co.uk - a really great, British company with some lovely designs and finishes. Have a browse of the website and see if any are close to what you seek. If you give me an idea of which is the style you particularly like, happy to try and help. Handles are so crucial for the final look of a kitchen - we do tend to get a bit obsessive about them ourselves! John Caldicot Kitchens

Now I think you have a good point there. Choosing a deeper neutral sounds good. I’m a fan of colour and I have a Dulux minty green in my kitchen, F&B Cromarty in my sitting room, Dulux Egyptian Cotton in the bedroom and aqua in the other bedroom. All these shades are soft though so not garish, apart from a navy feature wall in kitchen. Dulux do some lovely neutral shades like Perfectly Taupe, Chic Shadow and Polished Pebble. Of course colours are affected by the light in the room and those sort of shades can look a bit grim in a dark north facing room. PERFECTLY TAUPE CHIC SHADOW POLISHED PEBBLE