Hello donned2004, Well you could remove all the things from the hearth.. So it has more space.. Hang the mirror and paint the chimney breast a nice colour to bring the fireplace into full focus.. If you wanted to have an even bigger recess.. you could open the fire out up to the sides of the wooden surround.. So taking out the 30's tiles.. Make sure the lintel is in place or doesn't need replacing and keep the surround it's rather nice.. Remove the current tiled hearth if you chose to open it out more.. and install a flat piece of slate.. So then you would have an open brick recess and a lovely iron basket could sit nicely inside for logs! Another idea to continue into the room.. might be to look at painting the woodwork a colour to compliment any wall colours you have.... Some lovely painted floorboards, or parquet or a natural Jute or Coir flooring if you have not already decided upon something.. : ))

Hi. Why don't you try trustatrader.com, ratedpeople.com etc as they cover garden design. The sites include reviews so you know what their work is like and whether they're trustworthy etc. You should also be able to specify your budget. Have you also tried the pro section on here for your area? To be honest it's a great space and it wouldn't take much to make it look fantastic. I must admit where I live unless your budget is enormous it is a struggle just to find someone to implement a garden design.

Just commencing a landscape design business, graduating from hand drawn thumbnails to designing/visualising using software. Any tips or recommendations please?

Usual advice is to live with the garden for a year so you can get a feel for how you’d like to use the space. Agree with Emanuelle that for now I would just give it a clean up and weeding, pruning etc. I like the idea of the wide steps and think it would suit your garden. Extending the width of the pathway is also a good idea, you could also include a patio level with house and incorporate this with the wide steps, doesn’t have to be square, could be curved or diagonal for instance. I’d be interested to know how the garden relates to the house as it seems you have a wraparound garden from the photos. If you can post a rough sketch plan of the house and garden I can perhaps give you some more ideas but in the meantime here’s some inspiration.... (I like the lights under the steps):)