Check out cable lighting it is awesome for situations just like yours the company I like is Tech lighting.

It really depends on the size. Dark wood doors and floors and stairs may be a bit heavy on the eye. If the rooms are large and bright then it could take it but personally think it could be overkill in a smaller space. Hope this helps

hi all, i'm finalising floor plans for single storey new build. We like the layout generally but there are a few niggling things that we need advice on. 1. The sliding door /patio doors are in the family room- there is no door out from kitchen. Would people recommend having this in Kitchen OR Leaving it as is in the family room. 2. The hotpress /linen store size? is it too small? and also it's position accessing through utility. would people recommend this or not? 3. The exterior look has a mono pitch roof on the kitchen diner family room- would people recommend full height in kitchen diner and then reduce for family room? or vice versa. 4. The width of the kitchen family diner is 4.8m- is this enough to allow for island or should we consider going to 5m deep? 5. In general the house is North facing, do people feel that we are maximising light through use of windows and position of living areas? ( that's v general question-but i feel more could be done) I'd appreciate all opinions advice as I really don't want to make any obvious mistakes that I'll regret. thanks very much.

Hiya, I agree about the extra bits on the back. I would remove them including the dining room bay but retain the existing external kitchen wall and square it off with the dining room, knocking through to make a kitchen diner. I'll paste my drawing in below. - the dimensions made me think you could create a loo and even fit a shower in the kitchen space but looking again at the photos make me doubt the shower idea! - retaining the kitchen windows and back door would reduce costs - the new downstairs loo area could have a sliding door that remained open when not in use so that the light from that window reached further in - you could fit a roof light above the utility space to draw more light into the remaining kitchen area - it would be tempting to fit bi-fold doors to the new dining room opening but I would research 1930s patio doors in case you could find some more in keeping with the rest of the house - with the same goal in mind, could bricks be reused for the new section of wall required to square off the utility area and dining room? You'd need advice on the dining and kitchen doors area, e.g, a pillar might be required (which could be built into the kitchen design?) so I've just left them as is. I hope this is helpful.