Agree with GD11 - a warm white or grey will work well all year. As you have a porch in front of the door that is limiting light coming in and especially in winter you will find some greens and blue very depressing. I would also ditch the stair gates. We had one for the first child and he kept playing with it, so we just taught him not to go near the stairs and he learned to bump, or more normally slide down the stairs. never bothered with a gate at all for my other kids. How nice is it not to have to open and close a gate every time you need to go up and down the stairs? It is only the illusion of safety.

Hi thanks for advice - I have my heart set for middle of room so away from the back wall , do you a smaller corner sofa will work ? Also maybe not facing fireplace but towards bay window ? Sorry for all posts but when I posted question I was informed the I could not post the question hence the three posts ! My original idea was two Chesterfield sofas but I decided corner sofa was more in keeping with the modern look I'm trying for

the base I referred to is a rubber crumb that is glued to form a roll. sorry to confuse you with my terminology. it is a product the same as the sponge underlay. there are a number of laying methods to suit different situations. if you are in a flat with other flats below, then noise transfer is important and the various products and methods offer some sound reduction. I take it you are in a ground floor situation, so you only have to deal with the two differing substrates. there are dpc products that can be applied to allow you to lay the wood before, but waiting 100 days is the correct method if you can wait this time. I wanted to know what the floor was to understand whether it was laid correctly with insulation in the build, which is important. if you have to lay a screed then you can place a layer over the concrete and then apply your screed or lay lay insulation plus a membrane followed by the screed. if you check the product wakol they have a glue that will work in all situations. the also have various layers to go beneath the floor. I have specified parquet on floors in numerous places and have never had to place plywood first. if you floor is not level then plywood will provide a level base, but it is not essential. what type of wood are you looking at using for the parquet?? if you can advise I may be able to you some more specific advice. photos of the floor will also help.. best Rowland

Hi Tom, I really like this look! As the floor is varnished, or part varnished, you can't put an oil or wax on top, it just won't penetrate the wood. If you did sand it back, it would loose that variation that you like, which is from the different finishes. I would suggest filling in the gaps with some resin filler mixed with saw dust (ideally from the same species of wood) and then buff the surface with a screening mesh and then cover with a polyurethane lacquer. Matt or ultra matt would work really well. Good luck with it!