This made me laugh: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/09/seagull-turns-orange-after-falling-into-vat-of-chicken-tikka-masala I couldn't copy the picture, but it's hilarious.

Why don't you live in the house for a while and get a feel for things. The curtains are bright but if they are still good quality / newish it would be a very expensive exercise to replace them (I have just spent a few thousand just on three rooms), you can always add a few red cushions or a red toned throw over your existing couch or a rug with a red tones in to it, to tone the red down, if required. Repainting the walls is cheaper than replacing curtains and a piece of art with red tones may also help. As far as furniture is concerned it would depend on what you like style wise. Why not send us a photo after you have moved in. You may find some of your concerns disappear once you are in and settled.

I am blown away from down under by the help that you all have freely given .... thank you sooo much indeed. who would have thought after a year of anguish that I would be put out of my misery! If I do go for the atlantic for chairs I will bring in plum touches and vice versa. Will now need to go and find some plum that closely aligns with your suggestions. Thanks for saying we can keep table! It is a good solid NZ made oak one ... chairs were all the rage back about 18 years ago! Now need to go! I will put up a pic of a rug that was quite nice but rather expensive so ... might be in an hour or so. Thank you so much again.

Modern, sophisticated and lively were the key deliverables for this city suburb townhouse. The overall scope involved an upgrade to the open plan kitchen, dining and living areas including flooring, wall colour, curtains and kitchen joinery. Modernising the space through new colours and materials was the focus, without having to extensively rearrange the layout. This Mt Victoria Kitchen is now a refreshing, well functioning and lighter space. The well balanced combination of timbers, light marble tones and splashes of colour and pattern, such as the soft blue, hexagonal splashback, bring a delicate energy to the top floor. Before: After: Creating access to storage on both sides of the lounge facing island bench. The cupboards behind the dining table are minimal looking and tucked away to appear as panels, but allow for extra storage behind. The open timber shelves create an area for book storage and display, which improves the view from the lounge/dining direction. This breaks up what otherwise would have been a very deep, unusable storage if it were only to be accessed from the kitchen side. Before: After: Open timber shelves above the island on the end, offering a more accessible storage from the dining side of the room. At the same time this was a great opportunity to add in an extra area for display to further improve the view onlooking the kitchen. Before: After: The new kitchen design included tweaking small areas of cabinetry and maximising the available space, whilst also incorporating design features that didn’t compromise any of these functional gains. Before: After: Even with a sloping ceiling and staying within the existing footprint, the new kitchen looks fresh, the space is more streamlined and is easier to use. Before: With the number of corners in this layout it was important that storage space wasn’t lost in these areas. After: Using speciality corner fittings that rotate and extend to improve the access to the deep corner spaces was a must-have solution here.