North facing kitchen with only one wall & 1 window on same wall. I have a walk in pantry. I have lots of space for an enormous island.

Kitchen is actually not a bad size, considering that you have the dining room and that it is the size of some modern kitchen diners. I think some of your cabinets are retro in a good way, maybe not the three quarter height one but the uppers and sliders under the sink are interesting. Could you see them in 50s retro mint green with olive walls or say duck egg blue units and walls and hints of pink or red here and there in the kitchen? You could have them resurfaced by an auto paint company in any colour you like. At the very least don't rip them out and skip them, somebody will love them, they are very in in certain circles.

In the living room. It's built up on a high and not too wide but want ideas without stone

We are in the process of finishing our house and our builder didn’t follow the plans for the front porch. The builder went 220ml higher at the top of the porch than what was on the plans. The house has 100 ml of external insulation so lowering it now would affect the external insulation but we’re now open to any suggestions to improving the appearance of the porch. We intend to put two bay trees on either side of the porch in the recess and an up/down light above each tree. There will be granite paving at the base of the porch. We are considering putting cedar or larch cladding in the recess surrounding the door. Should we request the builder to lower the top of the porch or would some sort of design feature such as the cladding in the recess be enough to improve the appearance?