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 . .

Your suggestions are really greatly appreciated. My town house unit is under complete exterior re-cladding works, prompting quite substantial interior makeover (i.e installtion of ducted air con, replacing wall to wall carpet with timber upstairs, and tiles in open space downstaris, replacing creamy wall paper will be replaced with neutral white paint. So my green kitchen with creamy formica counter (bench) top should go. I don't hate green simply had egounh of it after long 15 yeras! My small U shape kitchen is due for complete makeover, I think! I'll probably go with new cabinets (lower one for microwave) up to the ceiling, when move fridge at the end I'll go with panel with matching colour up to the ceiling, expanding counter top on the other side to the fridge. I guess that removal of the cupboard can be compesated with extension of the counter top so we can fit 3x drawer underneath and cabinets up to the ceiling can provide some useful storage space. Backsplash in same white palette or darker in contrast? Your kind ideas please!

Beauty and practicality; Mmmmmm ..... When it is something that you love .... real wooden floors. Now vinyl just gets dirty , Ply looses it functionality, real wood however gains a patina. You want that. People pay thousands of dollars for that. Go with the most genuine example that you can afford of what you love. Factor in your budget and add to it, an area at a time and be pleased that your life gives character to it every day. By analogy; A mahogany french polished table will just give you a nervous break down every time someone doesn't use a coaster ... a hardwood table can be replenished over and over with hard wearing protective surface .... which you can repair. If you love it, if it adds genuine warmth and character, you won't mind maintenance. You won't be saying ...." look at this floor , isn't it amazing? It looks just like the real thing?"

Hi could be an arrow palm. I don't know the proper name sorry.