hello bonnielynn75 and THANK YOU! your comment put a smile on my face re the red on the interior side of the door. It IS red on the inside as well, he insisted on that when we purchased it. no one here has it red on the inside and I wanted it to be white on the inside. do you see my dilemma?;) I agree with everything you are saying, I suppose this is the reason why so far I was not 100% sure about the black for the door either, although I like black...Agree, there is too much wall and I find the house to be looking a bit 'bland' and would like to change that. I LOVE shutters, but read somewhere that you never put shutters on wide windows, so got unsure about that, too...but perhaps just the one as I stated earlier. Would the color on that shutter be the same as the door (if I ever settle on a door color)? Unfortunately window boxes are not an option as we have quite a few cats and they may be used as litter boxes;) please don't tell me to get rid of the cats;)... Regarding the stoop (entrance) : we need to add another step (made of cement) on top of the existing step: it was removed when the new door was fitted. We were thinking of putting slate tiles or something dark to match the roof, if that makes any sense.... It is porous cement so unsuitable for painting, I think. What place in Ireland did you visit, we are close to the Irish Sea in the country surrounded by sheep;)...

Hi Travis and SoYoung - thanks for mentioning the fireplace.....I was thinking that I would keep it simple with a wood shelf over it and a large piece of Art but I now think it might be a bit lost. Would love some ideas as it needs to work with the built-ins which are slightly domineering. Also, Liam_Boyle - agree re the unbalance. The TV will be staying but I have a lovely coffee table and 2 identical sofas coming so I'm hoping to lay out symmetrically in the room. Will keep 1 of the chairs. Hope this will balance up. Thanks.

No, ask away :-) I'm not a pro though, just kind of passionate about design and interiors and all that :-) Great cabinet. I'm really not opposed to mixing metals. You'll get a more eclectic mix. It is the result of going with what you love and not with what you think goes with something else. And that will give your interior your own personal style. Matter of taste. Some people really don't like it. Others do :-) Go for a fairly large coffee table. I would think at least 100 cm wide. Tape (news) paper together to the size of the coffee table you like and lay that on the floor. It will give you an idea about the scale in your room. You need it to be easily reachable from the sofas, since you have these high armrests. And your room can take a large table. If you can't find a large one you like, you can also think about putting together 4 smaller square ones for example. The one with the metal base (I took two from the Soul Lifestyle site) is on the smallish side. The black one is larger. Round fits nicely with the shape of your sofas. Not sure if I mocked up the sizes correctly, but I think the lovely side table is too small. The lamp is about 70 cm tall (again, I guestimated the size), but it does look small on that low table. Maybe it's taller in real life than in the mock up? Mixed metals in a room

Personally, I would rather not have the space between ceiling and tall units - would take units right up to ceiling. Something just doesn't sit right with me with regard to spacing- in particular the very small space to the left of the hob. Like others I feel there are too many colours and would have had the island in a grey - but I love the colours of the walls. I like the shelf - but not pushed in the corner like that!! One of the first things that caught my eye was the different colours of door and window frames in the house- I would have kept them all the same.... Not going to mention the stools!!!! I love the rounded units and would have opted to have rounded edges on the island to be in keeping, personally. Finally, this all sounds rather picky but we all know it is down to personal taste and overall it looks very nice. THANK YOU for allowing us all to put our two pennith in and our would be designer hats on..... I love these articles and it does give us food for thought!