I love bellesum's fireplace too, but would have reservations about a 'modern country' style living room in a Victorian conversion. I also quite like your existing fireplace, but not in your room! Its height makes the room seem uncomfortably tall and narrow. I'd advise a refit with a new wider firebox, broader surround and just mantle height. I can't believe I'm suggesting a conventional refit! Shame on me!

Hello. Do you have a good idea of how the house looked originally? Do any others in your road still have original features? As an architecture bore, I think your house is a lovely period piece, albeit with newer windows (I'm all for good insulating windows but I've never quite got over old buildings with modern windows!), so I'd look to its original features for inspiration. You can then decide what's going to be necessary for you to live there in the 21st century and get the best of both worlds. From your photo I love the red flowers. Together with the red brick and pale housepaint to me it presents a cheerful aspect to the world. Lauren's mock up is great - painting the tiles red really brings everything together.

I have had lots of nice comments on my house. Thanks everyone. I would add that I love the 1970's houses the big windows and open concept groovy style. However, the technology to pull it off wasn't quite there when they were built. If you are updating a 1970's house think about how you can introduce more insulation. I did the following: - internally insulated external walls with 10cm of wool. - insulated between floors (keeps things warm and prevents sound) - installed triple glazing and insulated behind the cladding. My heating bills are now minimal

If it was me - and considering the tiles are unnecessary (because I’m presuming there is no bath or shower in this room and there is just a wc and sink??) and you want to update it without ripping them all out ... I would look at panelling the bottom half of the walls under the sink and around the room in a wood - painted with a suitable washable paint in a colour that works with the pale pink. That will take off the impact of all the walls being tiled. Then by the time you have added in some shelving and mirrors (heck, you could even have a mirror fitted all the way around the room if you wanted to!) the tiles won’t be that bad. Super pale pink is very fashionable at the moment and at least it’s not 50’s pink which we had, ha ha. Either going navy as a contrast or a rich grey would work or keep it all light woodwork with white and add in metallic shelves and mirrors in gold to compliment the pink. Cladding would work in the thin marine plywood and it looks great painted. It’s not a huge room so shouldn’t cost that much and you can get all the panel sections pre-cut at a diy store if you don’t have the room/facilities to chop them down yourself. There is T&G panels although they are more work and can be a bit dated with your tiles perhaps. re painting tiles.... the paints have come a long way these days to be fair and as they won’t necessarily get wet (add some feature tiles around your sink) then they shouldn’t wear out easily. The trick is to apply it correctly and don’t cut corners. Watch loads of videos on how to do it. I don’t think painting them will make a massive difference unless you were going to go with a dark paint though so seems little point.