Going back to original options with the sofas opposite each other, can you fit a tv unit under the stairs as that could look quite good? With regard to the L shaped arrangement with the tv on the unit, you could drill a circle in the back of the unit and store the play station and sky in there. Another option which I think could work is to swap the dining and living round as the dining end looks bigger. Have one sofa on the kitchen wall with the other opposite ( place the sofas about a foot from both walls) and hang the tv above the radiator. You could make a feature of the room with a built in tv, Sky and radiator cover, as per example attached from Andre hodges. That should still give you at least 4ft for a clear corridor to the kitchen ( on the basis the 7ft measurement you gave was from the side of the kitchen door!) I wouldn't paper the recesses now I've seen the whole room. Maybe considering papering or painting the kitchen wall to Bring the wall in so as to make it feel wider and give more interest to the lounge.

Hi, I recently designed a kitchen where the range cooker was located in the chimney breast for clients as part of a side return extension, there are a couple of things to look out for: - Is the opening size of the chimney enough for the cooker with tolerance on either side. - The chimney breast will most likely not have an opening height suitable for the height of the cooker so it may need to be raised. Check this dimension and also the clear height that the extractor unit needs to be above an electrical or gas hob. - On raising the opening height the contractor needs to insert a new lintel but we also found the chimney to be completely solid inside and not hollow as we thought so there was no room for the casing of the extractor unit. The contractor basically had to rebuild the chimney breast to suit the requirements for fitting in the extractor unit and having a higher opening which was time consuming and fiddly as we wanted to re-use the Victorian brickwork and have an exposed brick chimney. The end result looked great but I would advise to proceed with caution, it is not as straightforward as it looks or maybe our chimney breast was uniquely challenged. Good luck with your project, I hope this helps.

Good morning Annette, What beautiful decor, we really love the wallpaper and beautiful pieces you have on display. Really love Sonia's suggestions, and in addition have you thought about making this area a feature with some wooden panelling or a decorative mirrored surface or something you like along those lines? Have a great day, warm and best wishes Team SPEAK

I wouldn't worry about changing a house from the 1960's to something more modern. I'm afraid to say that period style ended for me after the Edwardian period which was about 1914 I think. Do whatever you fancy, there are no rules. The tv over the mantle is an american import and quite impractical as the position is often too high for comfortable viewing. Have your tv where ever you desire it depending on sockets, arial reqs. etc If you had an original wooden floor that might be a shame to rip it out but everything else is fair game. We had a 1970's house as our first property and I completely modernised it. No regrets whatsoever..