Thanks for all your comments! Yes, I was worried about that being an issue, even though we don’t particularly mind (we hope to settle in this home). Jonathan - we have a £20k budget and that has to include a new kitchen, white goods, tiling, labour, electrics...everything. I like the idea of an external extension but I’m sceptical as to whether we can afford that. If we could afford an extension we’d prefer a warmer/more energy efficient extension than a sunroom could offer - we live in the West Midlands! The main thing to highlight is we are very keen cooks, buy in bulk and batch cook. So ideally would need to fit a large American style fridge freezer, full sized dishwasher, cooker, pantry/cupboard/shelving space for our dry goods, cupboard space for all our cooking equipment and crockery and enough counter space to prepare food on. Bearing this in mind, having such a large toilet/utility space seems a bit of a waste. What about if we reduced the size of the bathroom, replace bath with washing machine and put a door in between? That way we could potentially create a walk in pantry out of the rest of the bathroom. Is a WC off a pantry an issue?

I think I'd paint the doors & cabinets in a light colour and replace the handles - you can get some great looking, inexpensive ones, which will smarten it up right away and make it look more contemporary. If you are repainting the doors, if you find handles that have different hole spacing to those on currently, you can always fill the old holes, sand down before you paint, . Paint the walls a neutral colour - I think it's too small to carry anything too dark. Reduce the number of wall cupboards - remove the one on the cooker wall, but the remaining ones in that corner, could be moved up bit to be closer to the window, which would enable you to put up open shelves along the wall above the cooker (obviously don't go too low to the cooker top) - but these would give you the appearance of more space, with good storage, also if you feel you have enough storage these are a chance to have more decorative things. As others have said, most importantly you must remove the ceiling tiles and preferably replace the light - as Jonathan says a track light is good. Ditch the blind, the only place on earth for vertical blinds is an office! I'd hesitate in choosing a blind with too much pattern, because of the size of the room. And consider the film option for the time being. From the pictures, the floor doesn't look too bad in terms of condition, does it just need a clean up from removing the wall tiles? If it's not good, we've bought adhesive floor tiles before as a stop gap, which have been most effective and surprisingly good for what they are.

Daisy - I don't mind the has hob (although I'm eyeing up an induction hob) I think it may be the mirrored splashback. Don't get me wrong I love mirrors in all shapes and forms but in this case I think it is reflecting too much of the opposite space? I have a glass splashback but went for very subtle Smokey pale green/grey backing that does not reflect the opppsite side of the room. This one just mnn ...

Latest update, I have decided to head for the front of the curve - surely pine will be coming back into fashion soon and I’ll have an original! So we’re not changing the kitchen units, nor painting them, just focusing on worktops, walls, floors. My question now concerns flooring and wall colour. We will be putting in a square edge marble effect worktop, with an upstand, and the sink is being replaced by a quartz one. Where the window and wall underneath have been removed we are extending the worktop to the end of where the original external wall comes to, and should be able to put some very slim cabinets underneath, they will be light grey. Im looking for ideas regarding wall colour - I’m thinking blue/green but quite undecided, maybe I should go off-white. Any ideas gratefully appreciated. tia Stephanie