Hi Antoinette I too live in Ireland in a Semi Detached. My husband who's the one with green fingers has transformed our garden into an oasis you wouldn't think we lived in a housing estate. You might start with cleaning the slabs. You could change the edging tile with a contrasting one to set it off. Use different sizes and colours of pots. A seating area in one section. Use lots of different colours and plants which are ok to grow in pots. Just seeing all the colours come to life in Spring and Summer will cheer you up. Here are some photos that were taken at the end of summer last year the leaves have started falling from the trees. Oh yeah still have the clothes line up too.

Well I am a very plain sort of a person and I don't like overdoing patterns. The timber in the cupboards is beautiful and I feel that bench top would detract from it. I would have as plain as possible top in a cream/beige to enhance the timber. This would give you plenty of choice of other colours in the room. I don't feel I can really comment on colours as I can't tell the aspect of your room or the lighting nor do I know what other colours you have through the house. The only downside to the cupboard doors you are considering is that they will attract dust and being in the kitchen a greasy dust.

Hi there, It's always difficult working out the best place for a fireplace and indeed a tv but what I would ask is why have you opted for an L-Shaped extension? Have you got lots of constraints on the land or the garden? Long and thin extensions can always be a problem as they lack the width to create nice spaces without bottle necks or furniture blocking circulation and people movement. One of the things you will have to think about is the venting or flue / chimney and then there's the regulations about the stove being a minimum distance away from combustible materials. It would be nice to be able to look at the burner while you're facing into the garden so maybe a wall on the patio side to break up the glass doors and then add more light in from above to make it a little cosier. Sometimes too much glass can feel / look cold. The TV is always a problem but I suggest again to possible mount it on a wall but remember if you have the screen facing all that glass you will get reflection problems. Maybe you need to make a feature wall out of slate or stone that would have the wood burning stove against it and the TV offset a little on the same wall. Then have your glass doors either side so when you're sat on your sofa you can see the garden / patio all while sat in front of your stove and viewing the tv. Its a difficult one all in all but if you have the opportunity to alter the L shape and make at least one leg of it slightly wider it may give you a better option for the burner, sofa and the cosiness without the feel of a long thin room with not many passing places. Just a couple of suggestions but as I can see the design brief or land size / constraints etc I might be a little off the mark. Cheers. Simon www.scdc.biz

I would go for a stone colour so not too dissimilar to what you've got. Little Greene does a good stone colour too but will work out a bit expensive. This is Oxford stone by farrow and ball. If you were doing the windows and front door then maybe an old white with door and windows in french grey