I had exact same problem 4 years ago. Our home was looking very tires with all rooms decorated Barley White, with the exception of bathrooms and kitchens in White. With 5 beds, 2 baths, 2 reception rooms and kitchen we were going in circles - the house was just full of small panels of tester pots! I booked a session with Farrow and Ball and Joa Studholme came along and spent 2 hours in our home understanding how we used the rooms and our plans for the future. She then came up with a colour scheme that we absolutely love - it took us 12 months to completely redecorate but I still like the scheme now. In short there are lots of services out there to help with colour schemes. It's easy to look at photos in books/sites but they can look very different your home due to light and aspect of the rooms. When you consider the cost of decorating and getting it wrong, then it is well worth spending a few hundred pounds on professional advice.

The best lighting for bedrooms comes from using wall scones positioned on at least two opposite walls. This will give you the cosy, warm feel you are looking for. The scones should be placed at about 220 cm height. In this case I would locate two on both sides of the media unit, and one or two on the side of the bed. Keep the central ceiling light on a separate switch and use it only when you need lots of bright light. use a ceiling lamp and not a pendant. Scone. Check out what we do, we specialise in redesigning house layouts and are always happy to help if you need any further advice. visit our website: www.betterspace.co We offer a package that include tailored design, furniture layout recommendations and a professional floor-plan drawing as well as a 3D package which includes a 3D floor-plan and photo-realistic images that will help you visualise your new design.

Thanks P&P, thanks E D, that's really useful. I'm moving away from recessed lights tbh because although I've seen it done well in living rooms (on Houzz, Pinterest etc) I'm not entirely confident of getting it right myself without having lived at the property. We like the idea of wall lights but I'm concerned that the very spot we choose to put them will turn out to be the exact place we want to hang a picture. We are having downlights in the bedroom as we are having pendants either side of the bed (as well as a main pendant) and thought that it would be useful to have a focused light above purely for reading. Electrician is due to start next week, must make a decision

We did something similar a few years ago! We decided to rip up all of the carpet right away because it was beyond cleanable, and we just had floor boards for quite a while - no point putting down carpet while you’re making lots of mess. We sanded, filled and repainted the bedrooms and just used an old wardrobe until we could afford the ones we wanted. The bathroom was the biggest task for us because it was horrendous. We had the budget to do it straight away but ended up spending that budget on a rewire, new boiler and radiators, and new windows and a front door and the bathroom had to wait. I bought second hand furniture online (never buy soft furnishings only cleanable hard furnishings) and got the sofas from DFS on interest free credit which cost £7 a month or something ridiculously cheap like that. We have replaced the furniture room by room. We did the garden ourselves in the summer - it looks amazing and saved a fortune but it was really hard work. A lick of paint can really freshen up a room until you have funds to do what you really want to. For the kitchen you can get adhesive paper that you stick over your worktops - there are lots of videos online and it comes in many styles - might be worth you using that until you can redo your kitchen completely. Good luck!