Yes, to cornicing and a picture rail. I've also put up a ceiling rose. I was planning to paint the ceiling, ceiling rose and down to the picture rail white - and do the same in all the bedrooms and public rooms. You've got me thinking now about matching the ceiling colour to the wall colour... ;-)

Most Fired Earth paint colours are available in masonry paint, it's expensive (compared to standard masonry paint) but goes on a dream, with great coverage. Gives you a great choice of colours, we went with Stone Ocre, although on a more modern house, it looks much nicer than white or magnolia (IMHO).

Thanks Colour Happy. Plasterer has been in already but only plastered where needed so I'm assuming that means we don't need to plaster behind wall paper (some of which had to be removed for the rewiring) and Painter seems happy enough to do remainder of filling/smoothing walls but thanks for the tip, I'll definitely check again with them. Re sisal, no dogs but small kids at home so need to stick to softer/more standard carpet!

Ha, funnily enough I tried some colours out on your walls in photoshop yesterday, which doesn't mean a thing, since it always looks different on screen, and I too thought that Ammonite worked well. Still, do try it out. Painted the skirting All White. Threw in some pattern with cushions, a framed poster will reflect light and is more interesting than a mirror (which loads of people use) and I thought that you could perhaps place a different cabinet for the TV along the wall next to the fireplace.