Oh, Rachelle, I'm so sorry, after all your research and planning and bravery!! Well, there's is nothing wrong with cream, but I completely understand how you wanted to climb out of that box of one colored crayons, lol. It is what it is, I do hope that you'll be able to build your pergola and I also hope you can introduce a bit of color with your door, this color is from sherwin Williams, it's SW 6480 lagoon, it would be beautiful with a cream house color and a terracotta roof. Good luck, and I'd love to see your final result, please post a picture at the end of project. And I'm glad you're upbeat and looking at the "sunny side" :)

Hello Rinreation, thank you very much for your ideas. They are brilliant! It is great to have an idea of how it could look like. Downstairs: Master bedroom: I think the space between the wall and column is smaller than 2.30. From what I checked before I would be able to just about fit a bed the other way around against the existing wall. I will check again. Guest bedroom: I will also check measures for the proposed guest room. It looks like this room would be around 6.35 sqm. Office: Perfect if we do split the room this way. Bathroom: I really like your idea! Unfortunately, my partner is saying that we might not be in this place for about 2 years. So he is a little reluctant to change the bathroom. Could you imagine splitting this room in any different way? It is fairly easy and cheap to create the walls, so my partner is up for it. Kitchen: we are going to pull all water connections upstairs for the kitchen. I though of having a quite modern kitchen. I will post some images from Houzz. Someone in Germany suggested contacting this guys for reasonable and good quality kitchens - http://www.kiveda.de/kuechenplanung/ What do you think? Thanks again :)

I tested white porcelain with bright pink hair dye when I bought them for my kitchen and the dye just wiped off. In 7 years the white tiles have never stained. I've dropped a Le Crueset cast iron pan lid and the lid got damaged but not a mark on the tile. I've had some small chips at the edges when furniture has been moved over them but it is minimal damage and the furniture should have been lifted rather than scrapped across the floor. You can buy full bodied porcelain which where the colour of the tile is right throughout the whole tile and if you get chips, you should not see a variation in colour. I love porcelain and would not use ceramic after having it. The best place to go for it, is your local independent tile retailer, rather than the big stores like Topps and Tile Giant. Not all tilers are keen on fixing them it because they are harder to cut and drill than ceramics and they need diamond blades and bits which cost more. They are well worth the investment though.

I’ve got tadelakt walls and a concrete basin. i can’t recommend other finishes but you need to be wary of staining both and just use water for cleaning the tadelakt and a PH neutral cleaner for the concrete. I was also advised to wipe the walls down after showering which is a faff. I dont know whether it was just the guys i used but they said i couldn’t test colours which was a worry working off a colour chart! The first coat that went on was a clean peach (meant to be a dirty pink), I was adamant the colour was wrong and it transpired there was a colour code mix up at the supplier, thankfully, otherwise I’d have picked up the cost to correct. I think the counters are just made in moulds and then they’re cured for x period, obviously check the sealing too. I would just be aware of how heavy they are, our basin is only 60cm wide and weighed an absolute ton and is fixed to a solid wall. Ours arrived with a chip on arrival due to the courier mishandling but thankfully the company made a replacement asap. When the tadelakt was done they warned me if there were any issues then it cant be touched up, the whole wall needs to be redone. Very recently I discovered I must have a roof leak as the tadelakt is starting to stain with mould in a couple of places...(I’m currently in denial and thankfully my husband hasn’t questioned my next steps yet!). The tadelakt also needs periodical resealing which is labour intensive and only works if you have more than one bathroom. I really love the texture and look but wouldn‘t do it again tbh