Hi, It doesn't sound like you could go far wrong with a solid wood floor throughout Christy. It would compliment the white and grey you have in the kitchen, white worktops look great against the warmth of wood. I have attached a picture to help illustrate the point for you. Hope this helps spark some ideas going forward!

Hi Chelsea, There are quite a few differences to think about, in general engineered is usually what we advice for most of our clients. This type of flooring will be more resistant to moisture and heat. Also, engineered flooring can be "floated" on underlay, whereas solid wood has to be glued or pinned to the subfloor. We tend to use solid wood when it's unfinished and do the sanding and lacquer or oil on site. Although solid wood can be cheaper to buy the fitting process can be slightly more expensive. Do check our blog which has more details: Engineered or Solid Wood Flooring Otherwise give our office a call if you need further clarification. Inner Space Flooring Team

Hi Claire, I think I would keep the kitchen area and island on the left where the current utility is, I’d move the kitchen/music room door over to the left to allow for large larder style cupboards at each end and bench seating centrally along the right wall. The island and table would need to be slim. I’d make the dining room a playroom/snug and split the current kitchen into a study (near the kitchen) and a small utility/cloakroom near the living room. Possibly making the window overlooking the current breakfast room a door. Back to the new kitchen/diner…..rather than large sliding doors to the garden wall of the music room you could have window sitting for a table that is placed across the width, the windows could open right up so it’s like sitting outside…the island will then need to be a peninsular off the current dining room wall but you might squeeze a couple of stools at a curved end….

I am about to have electric UFH by ukwarmfloor.com - a norwegian system that has been around for ages over there. ( I do not work for them in any way!) Running costs are MASSIVELY cheaper than our versions. Over there, they instal the mats under roofs, drives and on the decks of icebreakers - they know a thing or two about snow and cold, and so I am giving it a whirl in my guest bedroom and large en suite. This is a response from the man answering all my many questions: "The system as shown would use a total of around 375Wper hour to keep all the areas heated to a constant 26C at floor level. By way of comparison the most efficient cable underfloor system would use 975W per hour to achieve this, whilst a boiler & radiator system would use 750W per hour. Comparisons in terms of BTUs can be a little confusing as most standard tables stating average BTU requirements for domestic situations are based on the heat output of traditional radiators etc. So our system only uses 375W (given as approx 1279BTUs in traditional thermal conversion tables)to do the job that a traditional boiler/radiator system would need 750W to do(given as approx 2559 BTUs). Our system is primarily designed specifically to produce the same air temperature in a room as other systems but to use less power to do so. The two basic reasons for this are: The heating element is self-regulating - only ever drawing the minimum required power at any individual point across the floor to maintain the set temperature. 2. The heating element heats the entire floor area and so effectively turns the whole floor of the the room into a radiant surface, heating the entire volume of air in the room from the bottom up. This is unlike radiators, which only heat a small surface, typically at the sides of a room, or a cable or piped underfloor system which can only heat thin strips of floor, leaving most of the floor surface unheated. Because our system heats the entire area it need only heat to 26C to produce effective air temperatures in the room. Other systems have to heat to much higher temperatures to do this and so require more energy to do so." I have spent an inordinate amount of time reading everything on their system, and I am going to use it. There is also a video of a customer installing it on youtube and the link is on their site somewhere.