I agree with Rennew Traditional Building Materials - it's not a question of what's 'trending' or 'passé', but of really paying attention to the existing building and marrying that with the sensibility of the future inhabitant. Some spaces suit the industrial treatment, some don't, and no-one should be forced to be fashionable. I can't help thinking of the old Bauhaus principle of 'truth to materials' though. If you find yourself faking an 'authentically exposed' surface, then something isn't quite clicking in your analysis of what's in front of your nose. Not that I wasn't once taken in by an entirely ersatz 'industrial' café in Paris once, which was not, as I'd supposed, a converted butchers! The convincingly-aged metro tiles were to die for...

Hi I had the same dilemma with the dining part of my kitchen. I love the brick wall effect so decided to try a wallpaper as it's only a small wall. I'm really pleased with the results. It cost me just £9 for one roll from B & Q. You can only tell it's wallpaper by getting up close and touching it - before and after photos attached.

I love exposed brick - here it is in my London flat, which is part of an 1870's semi detached house. Excuse the fact that it's a bit bare: it is about to be rented out, after me living there for 12 years (renovation was 8 years ago). I left some plaster up on the main hallway wall and painted it - it used to house a collection of African masks that have moved with me.

The best advice I could give is to build the units that are against the wall out by about 15cm and then create a raised shelf. Not only would this provide a good place to store oils etc, but that amount of gap is enough to possibly keep a lot of splashes away from the wall. We did this in our kitchen and tiled the wall with riven slate tiles. Three years on we haven't got around to putting up an extractor fan, but the wall looks the same and is unchanged. We sealed them with a stone sealer and put lights above to highlight the texture.