Are you allowed to paint? We rented a housein Belize that had bright white walls with blood red trim. We painted the trim bright, clean, fresh white then painted each room. The living room was a soft beige (the color of sand), the kitchen a soft yellowish-gold (the color of morning sunshine), our bedroom was the soft blue of the morning sky, the office/2nd bedroom was watery green (like the ocean) and the bathroom was midnight blue (like th enight sky). It had old harvest gold fixtures, so this color detracted your eyes from them. You can do basically the same thing. Use the colors that are in the tile, but use different shades of them. Go lighter or darker depending on th eroom and the amount of natural light it receives. I wish you all the best!

Hello, I am hoping to get some ideas for reconfiguring the lay out for my 1950’s home I’ve purchased if anyone can help please? I am single, live alone and it will be my ‘forever’ home and has great views of the Tauranga harbour which I want to make the most of, of course :) Any ideas for one or all requirements are gratefully accepted thanks! They are as follows: 1. A new ensuite and walk in robe off the side of the front bedroom beside the lounge as I want that to be my bedroom with a view. There is sufficient room to build along the outside of that side of the house toward the boundary; the ensuite to face the view please. Perhaps change the entrance door to that bedroom off the hall way somehow? 2. Reconfigure a new kitchen; the existing one is quite skinny and there is really only room for one person between the bench and the return bench. No room to build out from that side of the house, but the deck is huge. I have considered building out over the deck but assume it would involve a lot of $ as would require engineers reports etc. The deck is a solid (old) concrete roof over what is now a block basement which used to be the old garage. 3. To somehow join the existing garage up to the house so I have internal entry from that. In the ‘joining’ space somewhere is where I envisage the front entry way with some storage cupboards etc as the house has almost no storage. The existing garage is an old tin one and needs to be replaced. It is also raised higher than the house level and there is as retaining wall between the garage and the house. Ideally I’d like to dig it all out and make it one level but that will be dictated by finances. However, I've been unable to work out how to join them if they are different levels - aesthetically wise. There would have to be steps down (which I don't really want if I’m getting old here…) so how would the roof line look right? 4. Reconfigure/Remove the existing toilet and/or bathroom as presently the main door into the house comes inbetween these and I don't want the entrance right beside the toilet - eek! The existing bathroom is also the laundry. My thoughts were to move them in to either bedroom 2 or 3, and extend to get another bedroom somehow, or, put them at the back of the new addition joining the garage to the house somehow? 5. The lounge and dining room have alcoves built in that serve no real purpose; both the dining and lounge could be larger if possible. I want to put my couch along the wall which backs on to the dining room so I can look at the view while watching TV etc. I’m not overly keen on open plan so thought I could build a wall there and move the entrance to the dining closer to the hall end of the lounge? 6. To retain 3 bedrooms, one to be used as an office. I am very grateful for any ideas anyone could put forward - many thanks in advance :) Unfortunately the website will not allow me to upload photos so I will have to contact them to see what is going on - sorry!

I have just been reading everyones comments about kitchens , butlers kitchens , laundries , bedrooms , bedroom floors , Walk In Robes and the like . I have been thinking , and I think we need to look forward , and really think about how we design our houses and our lives . This is my solution -- -- Bedrooms and dining rooms should have 'pits' built into the floor -- a bedroom 'pit' will be the size of a bed , the dining room will have one the size of your dining table , and either benches or individual stool sizings . Laundries will be sunk around 1 metre into the floor . -- Somewhere in your house will be a switch , or maybe it will be controlled by an app . You hit 'cleanup' mode , a hyraulic pump whirs , and your bed and table ( lounge suite and coffee table will be extra-price options ) drop to floor level . -- You get your broom , and sweep everything on the floor to your laundry . Clothes on the floor -- yes . Rugs -- tick . Sheets and duvets -- yeah . Table cloth -- yep . Last nights dishes -- certainly . Seep them all into the laundry , where there may be a small shute -- into the washer . Another app will turn it on . -- Fire up the app again , and the beds and tables ( swept clean , no lint , no crumbs ) all rise to the correct height . With a bit of practice , 10 minutes every couple of days should be all you need for a super clean house , including clothes and ( plastic ) dishes . Now , any ideas for self-washing pots and roasting dishes , or should we just stick to the microwave ?

If you want help best to change your country in settings to Australia and repost again. Aus people don't see the NZ forum but we see both. Then after posting...change country back to NZ. U will still see it. Say where north is etc and if you can show internal plan, always helps