As the appearance of the garden has a modernist style with the straight lines and concrete furniture how about a Mondrian influence and add a bold strip of blue? It is a pond and with the right shade it could look really relaxed and contemporary. My daughter's suggestion is a chalky lilac!

Thanks Carole, yes we are very keen to knock out that wall - I have to be restrained from bringing the sledgehammer inside until we get a proper load-bearing beam organised! Once thats done and the books are off the floor and on the wall opposite we will have to think of rearranging this space - I still like it split up by a couch, but perhaps we could put a larger dining table in the new space.

If it is happening on two different surfaces, in two different rooms, with two different paint choices and two different sheen levels...I would say it isn't the paint. There is nothing in common to point to "paint problem". A wall paint is a different formula than a cupboard paint. If it all came from the same can...we might be able to point dirty fingers at the paint...but that isn't the case. You mentioned your husband has a tendency to drag his dirty fingers all over the place...I would start there. These two colours you have chosen may also have a tendency to show oil (body oil, cooking oil, etc...they are all oil) a bit more...simply because of their colour and depth of colour. If different colours had been chosen in the same paint...and no finger marks were appearing then we would know FOR SURE it isn't the paint. It may come down to two things...colour and dirty fingers.

Hi! I hope you are well. I think it would be a good idea to give a bit of colour to the kitchen. I am agree with you to choose a wallpaper for the window wall. There are a lot of wall covering to choose...what is the style that you are looking for? I have a few ideas that maybe can fix very well in the kitchen. Contact me at any time and we can discuss about different options of wallpaper for your kitchen. Regards, Carmen.