Exciting times! So far your colours sound lovely. Very calming and natural. I'd add a little highlight colour to just to enliven the scheme. Something like a slate grey will help marry the dark sofa into the lighter scheme and maybe a tiny touch of an blue or mustard. Just a tiny bit will make a statement. Think about the lighting. This part is important you'll need to add some pools of light to make a bit of interest. Most new homes don't look that homely add first and a lamp of two makes home a little more homely feeling. If your new home has any architectural features try to showcase this with a bit of light. If it's more of a featureless room add table lamps to add some mood lighting. We have a lovely blog that gives some tips for lighting a home. If you'd like to have a read I've added a link to make finding it easy for you. Home Lighting Idea's Tips and Trends. I'd strongly recommend signing up to our newsletter if you are buying new lights as there are often some nice deals for our newsletter subscribers they get some VIP deals very worth doing. I just had to mention the lighting it's often the last thing to be done but makes a really big difference. People don't notice awful lights or bare bulbs, but good lighting is admired and shows style. Without lighting it always looks nearly finished! Enjoy your new home hope the move goes well for you. If you need more specific help with lighting email please, we are always happy to help sales@lightingcompany.co.uk The Lighting Company

Hi Rukmini, Thanks for replying. I've now attached a couple of pictures - still needs decorating, but I'm planning to paint the walls (or just the front one) in dark blue or grey, put a wooden round mirror above the wash basin and perhaps some wooden shelves as it's a big clockroom. I'm tempted to transform this clockroom in an utility room, but I'll need to think better about it as I'm not sure it's convenient without a window. Anyway, my main concern about the lighting is that I may buy a ceiling light that doesn't fit? The current light as shown in the picture looks different than the "normal" ones. Thanks again.

Hi Sarah, Would be great to see a photo but in the meantime please see the following link for inspiration. Spot lights are horrid on stairways! You are right they can almost blind you and generally cast a cold feel over a space. Something that will diffuse the light will be much better and create a cosier ambience whilst providing practical light too for a stairway. Another popular option is downlights of course but this will involve more work. Low profile ceiling lights

Having looked at other high valued ceilings many are using fitted lights into the beams (you'd want these on separate lighting switches) - see examples in image 1. This helps create light above, particularly good for evenings and grey days. I see almost 3 levels of lighting here - high to ensure light at the full height (for when dark/grey/create mood), middle level normal height lighting for day to day use and then low level mood lighting (to create atmosphere etc). The lower lever could be achieved with lamps and low hanging pendants e.g. breakfast bar (as suggested above). The mid could come in with the wall spotlights and hanging pendants. I would consider how it will look to have hanging pendants from the ceiling - if you are hoping for lighting above the table area, often this type of look is low over the table, to create the focus, but it might mean having very long cords (I don't know the height of the ceiling so just assuming here) and whether you don't mind that. I found this image below that might give you an idea of how having long cords might look. Therefore you might want to keep the cords thin and unobtrusive as possible. As someone already said, you might want to consider having pendant lights across the whole room rather just dining area - this could mean they would not need to sit as low. You could then use low lamp lighting for the dining area (situated in corners) if you didn't want something on the wall. I found the below images that demonstrated high vaulted ceiling hanging lights. What stands out is that they make a statement - they are big and purposefully used as a statement piece. I actually then looked at restaurant lighting to see what they do - as often they have similar issue of having high lighting whilst wanting to create atmosphere focused light at each seating area. This example is a bit bold - but thought was an interesting example. What often is the case is that the lighting is purposeful around each seating area and you could choose very specific wall sconces to create a defined dining area.