I am confused. If you mean you have no chimney then this is just boxing in the room. If that is the case you could rip it out and just have the TV as the thing you look at. You could build a fake chimney breast to give the illusion of a fireplace with a cast iron grate etc. Alternatively you could get a Flueless gas fire.

Hi there, sorry to hear about the problems you've had. Ashton's have given good advice, and the flex-seals are a good option to reduce your risks of leaks further. I too would be interested to know what tray you used? The quality of trays can vary hugely, and over the years we've narrowed down what we use to a few suppliers we trust. It is not until you come to fit or, indeed, still later that you find that "bargain" was actually an expensive mistake. I'd echo mayfly's advice too - by splitting all the elements of your bathroom (different products from different suppliers, different builders/tilers etc), you leave yourself open to escalating problems with everyone blaming everyone else. If you go to a single independent, they'll put together a package based on products and tradesmen they trust, and if anything goes wrong you only have to deal with one company, and they'll normally move heaven and earth to fix it. And their tradesmen & suppliers will move heaven and earth to sort it too - they won't want to risk losing all that repeat trade where they might walk away from a single difficult job. It might look as though the up front price is a little higher than doing it all yourself, but when things go awry you may find it is a false economy. I hope you get the problem sorted and good luck with the kitchen too!

Dear Vicky, I'm sorry you seem to be at the hand of some particularly dense builders, but this has made me quite cross. Let's get this straight, they took away everything that was blocking the chimney, then blocked it back up again without addressing the edge problem and most likely charged you for it?? All they have to do is chisel the edge away, which would in no way effect the Chimney Construction, then get a plasterer to skim it over and put a piece of skirting in at the bottom, it will then look like it was never there. It's pointless trying to make it look pretty. You would have been better off to leave it unblocked, and to rectify the edge problem, thus keeping a period feature. Those builders would have lasted 2 minutes with me!!!

If you haven't used that as a dining room in a year, do you actually need it? Might it be better to use the room as a TV room, or best sitting room for guests - keeping back living room for day to day living. Something you can turn into a dining room when you need it. I recently did this with a through lounge. When I had 13 people for lunch recently, was able to assemble a great dining room from furniture around the house and in my garage - worked perfectly for the day, then all went back again. Unused formal spaces really trouble me. You pay for the whole house, why not use it? If you do want a dining space, I would do some great shelving and built ins (with lighting) in the alcoves to store and display dinner wear / nice glasses etc. Then either go bigger with a great dining table and chairs - or go for an antique drop leaf that can fit in that nice window bay with a lovely plant on it and get pulled out when needed. Center the sofa on the long wall opposite fireplace, and get two occasional chairs that are right height to work as head/foot of table carvers when it's used as a dining room. Then you only need to have four folding chairs stored somewhere in house for use when you have a dinner party. Banish the beige with a great feature wallpaper on chimney breast with mirror - then pick out a colour to tone in the rest of the walls and add a selection of art/curios to make a picture wall either behind couch or on wall by kitchen. Need something at windows too - shutters if you can run to it ....or curtains. Just a pop of interest. Personally I like the floor - but you defo need to rethink the lighting. I'd do dimmable pot lights on ceiling that you can control separately to set mood in the room depending on how you use it. That pls lighting in alcove shelving plus a lamp on an end table by the couch or between the arm chairs - you'd have a room with lots of options. Good luck.