Lots of ideas....couldn't resist adding my two cents. i copied your photos and did a little cut and paste- it's messy, but hopefully gets the main idea across. i'd put your sofa in front of the large book case, chair by the fireplace, tv on the stand on the wall opposite the fireplace - so you can either look at the fire or the tv. Someone suggested using frames of one color for your photos - an inexpensive way to do that would be to spray paint them all a dark color-black goes with everything. Since your shelves are a medium tone wood, display things that are dark or light so that they contrast against the wood. Limiting your display items pallette to a few values usually helps to unify things. (I think that's why so many people want to paint the shelves or put inserts in the back to help your nice things read more clearly...some get lost). If you want to "splurge" -you may consider having a carpenter make a few solid tall cabinet doors to provide a visual break in the shelving. I'm showing 3 doors - 1 on the right side of the fireplace and 2 on the left to leave two open vertical shelves for display on each side - with things arranged to frame the fireplace as the focal point. To add some height to your big vases, consider stacking some books beneath them. Enjoy experimenting untill you get something you're happy with - good luck!

I'd definitely put some kind of stone on the walls, all the way to the ceiling. I think the gas fireplace that you have is really cute, but might look at a stone slab on the floor instead of the mat that is there now. I'd take stone inside of that alcove as well, whether matching or contrasting. You can still hang art above, on top of the stone. It would really make the room!

Daylight on a rainy day in Ireland, ah. The easy thing to do is change the bulbs in the recessed fixtures to the maximum allowed. But this will not help with overall illumination because the recessed fixtures point straight down, not sideways. For that you need to add a surface mount or close to ceiling fixture, meaning new electrical work. Some recessed fixtures can be converted to pendants, by the way. Since it is so dark, I suggest painting the whole thing a nice bright white, including the laminate cabinets. There are many discussion posts on painting laminate cabinets on Houzz. I would paint the interior of the missing-doors cabinet with an oil based white paint, too, to brighten it up. Choose a white that coordinates well with the countertop, flooring and tile. The tile can be changed, of course, sooner or later. With some fiddling, you may be able to adjust the sagging cabinet doors under the sink. These are often much used. If the hinges have seen better days, replace them with identical ones, or swap them with less-used hinges, say from those upper cabinets you took down. It's an old house trick to swap worn parts with less-used parts from elsewhere. Most undersink cabinets can use a coat of white paint on the bottom shelf or Contact paper if paint is not suitable.

I agree, I think the kitchen units are quite charming. The tiles date it, the top of the dresser and the piece over the window. Agree, would paint the ceiling a soft chalky white. I know they're becoming a little overdone but metro tiles would suit but handmade ones in a soft white unless you just remove the tiles altogether and have a splashback by the oven. Can you afford to update the floor? The dresser offers good storage space, have you considered either just removing the top half or updating the top so changing the architrave and glass panes? The fire itself looks lovely, do you need the heater in front? I also like the brick but the recesses are dating it. I definitely wouldn't paint the brick, if you were to do anything I think it would need plastering over to cover the niches unless you are able to match the brick. Do you have a better pic of the firep? If you are set on painting the kitchen units, I would look at the really dark greys and inky Blues for the base units, as I think they'd suit the style well, with brass cup handles with a very pale grey for ŵall units. Or if you want the same colour units, look at a mid tone grey.