I think it is awesome to give a piece of furniture a new life. It is sometimes a bit daunting to take a paint brush to a piece made from genuine old timber but if you are going to get many more years of life and enjoyment out of it I think it is better than dumping it. I believe it shows your love. jbof4 I started with a heat gun to remove most of the many layers of paint, (some are easier than others to strip this way). Then I used an orbital sander and sanded and sanded and sanded. You might also try liquid paint stripper although I find this very messy. I believe you can also get them professionally stripped. Good luck with the resurrection, go for it what have you got to lose.

Yes, the brown wall is actually deep purple (aubergine). The carpet is more dark grey than brown. It is not a commercial place, but a large family home, and all the extra chairs are around because we were about to have 22 in for dinner, so the table was fully extended to it's 6metres! (The lounge is totally separate to this room, this is family space, so has the old sofas for sacking out on) But I really appreciate all suggestions and comments as it would be good to pull it together, even when entertaining so many. Cheers!

I think it would be a style clash, especially considering that lighter wood is such a key feature of the Scandi style. What did you end up doing?

Thanks very much for all your feedback. Just to answer a few queries - the deck is directly outside the main room so the new doors open out onto it. The doors won't be French - they're just the only doors that the 3D planner I'm using had, they'll actually be large stacking doors. I've had another idea too which would be a lot more expensive but offers a completely different approach. This is quite rushed so doesn't show accurate layout of kitchen or anything like that, basically just provides an idea. Thoughts!?