Hello headers13, Looking nice! Not much of a mess at all! Normally I'd suggest the idea of dark chimney breast and lighter walls.. Since you have dark cabinets going in then perhaps consider the other way around.. Usually alcoves are better lighter as they then look further away.. Chimney breast to the fore.. Standing out with a beautiful mirror.... I normally don't recommend shelving in alcoves either.. Just a personal taste.. However.... What about approaching it with the idea of scale colouring.. with dark at bottom and working it's way lighter up the shelves.... So you could have dark chimney breast and dark bottom shelves and gradually take the shades up till you get to a creamy white at the top... Ceilings are really gr8 in Whitening by Little Greene.. It would give it a different feel and this style of painting is really in.... You can do it with walls too, see image... Also to lighten the look of the shelving... consider darker and fuller shelves at the bottom and lighten towards the top... This creates the idea of openness with the shelving, thus giving the fireplace the focal point it deserves... : ))

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!

The last time I needed to do the "swatches on a wall" thing it was in a room that had been painted a bright daffodil yellow. I had my doubts anything less than three coats would work, but nonetheless, this is what I did: first, we mapped out a section on the largest blank wall and painted it with a no-bleed primer, so as to have as neutral a background as possible. Then - as we had narrowed our selection down to three shades - we painted each shade in a column as long as we could fit in the space, with the white primer sectioned between each column. After a few days, we both agreed that one color worked better than the other two - and that's when we ordered the paint. It was the most successful change-a-color project we ever did. It's somewhat fiddly, and getting the three small sample cans plus the primer wasn't cheap (but not terribly expensive, either), but I feel we were well repaid by not painting the entire room only to find the color we ended up with didn't work. I've never been able to visualize color from the small samples or cards you get at the paint store, and I wouldn't be able to envision a whole wall, let alone a room, from a 12"x12" square. The larger samples we painted, though, did the trick for me. p.s. And painting over our test swatches was no problem. We knew we'd have to use two coats on the walls to get rid of the yellow so no tinge remained, and using two coats covered our sample columns as well as the primer beneath - you cannot tell we ever tried the samples before we painted. ;-)

Be brave, and go dark! Often people are scared to as they think it makes a room smaller but actually it can have the opposite effect. Blurring the finishing lines of the room can give the illusion of more space, and if the space isn't particularly bright anyway, embrace it! Feature lighting - LED strips under the vanity, or wall lights - can really come into their own in moodier spaces too - don't underestimate the power of lighting :) For the backsplash, bring in a mosaic, or perhaps to continue the natural look, check out a few textured tiles like below - they have less grout to maintain but still offer a nice contrast: If you need a hand or any assistance with supply of products, advice, or design, check us out if you're local to Surrey or South West London :) - Adam