I agree with Rennew Traditional Building Materials - it's not a question of what's 'trending' or 'passé', but of really paying attention to the existing building and marrying that with the sensibility of the future inhabitant. Some spaces suit the industrial treatment, some don't, and no-one should be forced to be fashionable. I can't help thinking of the old Bauhaus principle of 'truth to materials' though. If you find yourself faking an 'authentically exposed' surface, then something isn't quite clicking in your analysis of what's in front of your nose. Not that I wasn't once taken in by an entirely ersatz 'industrial' café in Paris once, which was not, as I'd supposed, a converted butchers! The convincingly-aged metro tiles were to die for...

Hi Hilary, thank you so much for your kind comments. It gets pretty darn cold up here, in N Yorkshire and when the fire is lit, it really does warm up the room (whilst the rest of the house is like a bloomin' ice box!) Hello again Bespoke Decorative Finishes, thank you too for your kind words. Ah, the gold mirror is from ebay - thank you again. Yours is beautifully done and so clever and sophisticated; mine is a bit 'rustic' but I think ok for the room, in probably a very basic way, which has limestone flags. When I first came to the house 8 years ago, the previous owner had built the fireplace out in the same stone as the back of it to 1.5 metres on both sides of the fire, projecting forwards into the room. I thought it was pretty hideous because it was was way too big and dominating and it also seemed to absorb the light as it is not a well lit room. So I borrowed a jack hammer and over the weeks, in the evenings, I took the stone walls down which stretched about 70cm each side too. It was a bit task and I took out a lot of stone. Then I found the two RSJs. I think I said on another post, I couldn't understand why there were two, one on top of the other, so I took one out. BIG mistake. The room above is my bedroom and I noticed when I went to bed, the floor had dropped by 4". Ooops!

How about warm yellow? I think it will go together with bricks and would be a good contrast to dark floor and black cooker. Yellow is an optimistic and cheerful colour and often is associated with food. /Marcin

Hi Weewelshdragon, You're correct, brickbond metro tiles is boring, in fact metro tiles period, are boring. They've been around since about the turn of the 20th century, and so "last year!" this is an ensuite I transformed last year from a dark, dingy and depressing space into something light, airy and really quite special. The product is the new thin porcelain tile, which is taking tiled rooms to the next level, and is only bound by your imagination. sizes start at 900 x 900 and go all the way up to 3.2m x 1.6m and range from 4.8mm to 6mm thick and although they half the thickness of regular porcelain they proven to be twice as strong when fitted correctly. Generally available in matt, gloss and textured, the designs and colours are endless. Search for companies like Porcel-Thin™ And see what's available, they shouldn't be overlooked and you'd be the envy of everyone you know. Good luck with your search.