Your kitchen looks lovely already; but I understand you need/desire for a microwave and dishwasher. Simple & least disruptive option: - Remove the boiler and cupboard surrounding (I'm assuming that's presently next to the fridge) - Relocate the wider 3 drawer unit to where the boiler cupboard was - Add new counter top to the 3 drawer unit - Put Microwave on the new counter top - Put the dishwasher next to the sink where the 3 drawer unit was originally (If the space left by the boiler cupboard can't take the wider 3 drawer unit then do all of the above using the narrower 3 drawer unit & buy a 'slim line' dishwasher to put in its place) I hope you find a solution - please post photos when you've finished so we can see what you did.

Thank you..I like the photos. It is likely to be largely a do-it-yourself job...I'm thinking about replacing the concrete with paving slabs, I wonder whether stones or shells between them would provide adequate drainage, or whether to incorporate more substantial drainage.The land slopes down from the gate and the path slopes...I wonder about replacing the path with shallow steps that curve., and leveling out the whole area. I like your idea of going up, and am considering espailering something on the wall.

Try this. Hang the television to the right of the wood stove on the wall opposite the french doors. Use the wall with the high windows for a looong sofa and add two chairs across / angled slightly - low back so you can look over one to television. use console / sofa table on entry /bed door wall just past where entry door opens so you have a lay down surface. Forget glass, it isn't for this era and won't make it feel bigger. Paint ALL french doors inside and out and small windows and entry door same color and trim same color too. Try a charcoal rather than a black - something in the blue-green-gray shades like new providence navy. do all the walls in kitchen and living in a warm white - this tone has the wood as an undertone - http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/woodash then, for the cabinets . . do a bungalow thing and go deeper on the cabinets to a classic drabware tone - with the wood walls and floors / try bm bracken biscuit http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/brackenbiscuit these will all go together like gangbusters, keep it light and bright but interesting and work with a new blue green gray back door in a tone like bm beach glass http://www.benjaminmoore.com/en-us/paint-color/beachglass templeton gray as a counterpoint on some craigslist piece of furniture . . add warm undertone tan and oatmeal nubby tweed upholstery to start . . the teal navy gray will work with the black iron stove and accents without going black. start keeping the left door to the kitchen closed and get a door stop to hold the other one open permanently . . this will work because you need a little more wall to make the tv work well - in the kitchen, pull your table away from the wall just a tad - consider a padded bench on the wall to provide a kind of sitting space in there and put the chairs across - if you shift your television to the wall (high enough the heat is not an issue , you can still have big speakers work well - and remote the media equipment - run the wire and patch the holes. Hang it mid-height - eye level when you sit plus 15 degrees . . check out the amazing sconces you can put on the entry wall - shades of light petersik pendant with home-made trim wood brace to pump it out from the wall since the power is high? over the console? round wood table in middle - even a hd butcherblock round on a painted drum base in trim tone? With those tones - teal gray, biscuit, creamy off-white, muted blue-greens - paint your white chairs and a hand me down bench wythe blue and find a graphic sunbrella print with a little blue green, chocolate and orange for cushions and pad skirts with velcro at the table . . make a galvinized pipe leg / plank 1 x 12 / clear finish console for behind the door . . now you are cooking with gas . .

The subway sign is great - but it has the scale you need on the higher wall - and the black next to tv could have better balance .. .Consider . .I would center this under the beam on the big wall at the near end of the sofa - then you will start with better balance. The television is a big black square so might as well start with the black element across. Unless you can get a mirror across from the window to reflect something light and pretty, don't bother with a mirror here. Let's think about the wall with the small window and the black tv like a gallery wall - lots of black and white frames , contrasted with black and white mats and mostly graphic black and white art. Here's the way to do that on a budget. Visit the local thrift store and imagine frames they have painted black or white. Ignore what is in them, buy craft paint and paint them all. Ikea is also good for black and white frames. Perhaps one art piece would be an offcenter b&w blow up of that charming fellow who wanted in the picture - soften everything else back and highlight just the face and hand in a vertical mini-panorama format .. or another close cropped on the face black and white in an unposed moment like you caught here. Most of the rest . simple art. Picasso line art poster could be a big scale budget element. You might buy a bad painting at the thrift store or swap meet, paint soft pale gray all over it, then dry brush some white paint on to it. If you use color in the gallery art at all . . . use just one, and I suggest the either the blue gray / true blues / not blue greens that the chaise gives off in the sunlight. Or red. Or yellow. ONLY ONE COLOR. And, just a small touch. You can frame some objects that you've painted one shadow box frame with a real object in it. , some magazine pages, some calendar art, etc. (oversized frames), Look at potterybarn.com for gallery wall advice or on younghouselove.com in their archives .. they have some terrific posts. http://www.younghouselove.com/2011/04/its-done-and-we-heart-it/ If you can, eventually hang the television on the wall above the cabinet on a swing arm so it can pull out and angle but it can be put away flat and you can shift the media cabinet sort of centered on the sofa placement across so it isn't so tight in the corner. TV in corner pulled out good, media always there . . not so good. Now for walls - I love the window layout in here. Would you consider a large landscape oriented abstract canvas that expresses your color sense over the rest of the sofa? Take the arcing airplanes into the gallery layout. This is a great lounge!