I totally hear what you're saying but how often do you use the dining room at present? Is it only for occasional use? I would have a tv room in the dining room. You can have an l shaped sofa in the bottom right and chair in top right. I'd have a big dining table in the existing lounge (with a chair in one of the corners) and swap your existing breakfast table for a bench or sofa (with a slim table if it fits) and add a tv on the wall (if wanted), it's difficult to say without seeing the rooms but I think if you have an open plan living/dining/kitchen area plus the tv room you will use the whole of the floor space and it will be a sociable space. As the Existing lounge doesn't have windows it kind of makes sense to use this for dining which is typically at night. If you're really not keen on that, then maybe a small sofa on the existing right wall of the lounge with tv in top left but I'm struggling with your 4 seating positions for the tv without blocking the kitchen or french doors. Sorry it sounds as if I'm totally ignoring what you've said!

Hi @Brian, I’m glad you like the suggestions. With regards to the brick wallpaper I think going for the white will definitely give your space a more light and airy feel and make it look really on trend. The wallpaper is obviously a flat print as opposed to the real 3 dimensional look you would get from brick tiles, however you can see from the picture how the print of the bricks shows interesting depth and shadows to achieve that more authentic look. I think using lighting against the wallpaper would still highlight the realistic looking shadows in the wallpaper, to give you a striking atmospheric look. Graham and Green do have a really good returns policy so it might be worth ordering some wallpaper to see how it looks in the space, with the option to return it if you’re not happy with the effect. Great news about the wallpaper, its definitely one of my favourites and for a bedroom I think it will look fantastic. I think for a more subtle pop of colour that draws the eye, painting just the recesses of your dining area will work well to frame and zone that function in the space, giving it its own identity to also break up the open planned space. Leaving the TV wall white will add bigger emphasis on the brick paper making that the real feature of the space which I think will work really well in your space, especially with the other pops of colour in your sofa. I hope this is helpful, good luck with the decorating - if you would like to speak to me directly about your project or any other design queries giving you a headache, please call me on 0115 7842642 for a free chat. Michelle Dulux Design Expert. www.designer.duluxamazingspace.co.uk

Hi Emma. For a long narrow room (relatively speaking as it isn't narrow!), you could paint the 2 short walls the dark colour as this will "correct" the room's proportions rather than paint the long wall as it will accentuate the length. Alternatively you'd normally paint the fireplace wall to highlight the feature. I think as you've got doors it should break it up a bit but I'd do the doors in the same colour. I would probably go for something a bit richer than pitch blue, like Hague blue. I know whose room that is you've pictured in the 2nd pic so will try and find the colour but am sure it was a valspar paint! You could also try downpipe which works well in a north facing room. I'd probably put these with warm whites/neutrals rather than grey. Elephants breath can work really well in a north facing room but can also just look grey and agree with littlesongs comments! You could also go dark on all walls and layer the lighting, add mirrors etc. Or if you decide light then people can make colour suggestions for that :)

I’m not sure if this is your kind of thing or what colours you like etc. I quite like the different blues together for the chair and sofa but the chair also comes in primrose and mustard. I’d add a yellow/mustard cushion/s for the sofa anyway. The coffee table is actually a burnished gold but the pic isn’t very good. I like the shelves idea, I’d add the chair here angled towards the sofa. The last pic is an Ikea hack of kitchen units just as an idea for the tv, their horizontal units should be about the right viewing height if floated. I’d have a floor lamp one side of the sofa and tray table and lamp the other. I’d probably just go a lighter shade of the wall colour for curtains but depends on chair colour etc. The cushion is from bluebell gray and they’ve got some lovely things if it’s your style