I think it is charming the way it is and if you put some big birch branches or something sculptural in there and some contemporary natural wood pieces or primitive art in the living room, it would all blend together. Please don't take out the windows--that will affect the whole face of the building. Rustic and modern is mixed all the time and can look terrific and give the place a little character. I think the Europeans do it particularly well. You could tone down the mortar with a stain. Unless it is in bad shape, repointing is messy and expensive and tough to do well.

I had a similar situation in a house I moved into years ago. I did a quick fix of painting all of the walls, woodword and the cupboards the same shade of cream. Sounds a bit OTT but it really knocked back the cupboards, which in all honesty are not something you want to make a feature out of, and created a calmness to the whole space. In your case, I would go for an off white so that the gang plug wires, radiator pipes and covers hiding the wires for the extractor fan etc., are disguised as much as possible -- that will tie in with the palest of the tiles in the splash back, and then you will have a pretty basic colour scheme of a very place colour and the dark worktop, fireplace and floor, which will stand out more. I think you need more storage with doors -- that bookshelf isn't doing anything for the kitchen. If you could get something in there that could hide lots of clutter -- even if just something cheap from IKEA, that would help greatly. Or work something around the filing cabinet that you have? A huge cheap mirror over the fireplace would bounce some light around too. If you don't want to go for undercupboard lighting, and if you have enough plug points, how about some lamps on the worktop, especially at the FF end with a floor standing lamp at the end with the chair. For the table, I would go for a table cloth and reupholster the chairs if they are not to your taste. A new blind in a much fresher colour would be great. Depending on the colour of your filing cabinet (if you use it), I think a petrol blue could add a nice vintage vibe to the chimney breast, and make more of a feature of it. I would try and go down a vintage/slightly industrial route rather than country. You may have some stuff lurking around that you could use, once you have got the base colours right -- currently it just feels a little cluttered and a bit of a mish mash. Best of luck. Looking forward to seeing some after shots :)

Thank you Gina for the advice! I think it does have good lines - glad you think so too! I don't think our budget will extend to rendering the whole front of the house unfortunately. We will definitely be getting a new front door - and we are reluctant to paint the garage doors so will match the front door with them I think. I should have said the upstairs window will become a Juliet balcony. The cladding on the top dark area is the same as under the front window. We were thinking of replacing the cladding with more contemporary grey horizontal cladding but we're still left with the problem then of what to do with the brickwork ?!

Hi Victoria, Firstly apologies, I thought the grey chart was F&B but it was Little Green. Its entitled "Little Green, Grey, English Heritage" If your choosing from Little Green I would go for "Urban Grey 225"....Sounds very industrial but its a mid tone silver grey. I used this recently on a listed project and it looked beautiful. If you go with F&B look at "Manor House Grey 265" Make sure you don't make the decision in the shop, look at the sample in the room as the lighting in the room will effect the colour. That said, grey is one of the few colour choices that isn't too adversely effected by artificial light. Adding a yellow tungsten light to a beige choice can add yellow to the tonal value which can be a disaster. Grey sits within the neutral spectrum and absorbs light with neutral tones. Hope that helps and good luck with the project.... Regards, Martin www.angelpmartin.com www.3dinteriorillustration.co.uk