Built in Furniture/book cases/storage for open plan kitchen/dinning/family living area

[IvyLynn]

I was hoping some of you fabulously talented/creative ladies might be able to open my eyes to some new ideas for our open plan area.

We live in a Victorian terrace in London which has a large open plan room at the back of the house. The room is notionally split into quarters with the kitchen/dinning area in one half and the back half of the room (opening onto the garden) having a large corner sofa/coffee table in one quarter and the final quarter has been the play section during the day but with the stipulation that all toys must have storage to disappear at the end of the day. In this last area we have a large bank of fitted book shelves cupboards, 3 bookshelves - each with a low double cupboard underneath. All the low cupboards are full of toys/games and some of the book shelves have books (some children, some adults) and some of the shelves have photo frames/vases etc). I try to keep it so that its not to 'busy'. The old book cases were shaker style, painted off white. The room was 'done' over 10 years ago and there won't be money to re-do the kitchen/flooring for a long time. The walls are white, the kitchen has white matt units with a white caesar stone topped island. The whole area is tiled and the tiles are an off white/almost beige colour. The corner sofa is a sandy/beige colour. There table & chairs are oak, as is the coffee table and a dresser (which is waist height).

I've recently had to remove the fitted cupboards due to having some damp sorted and they are damaged and need to be replaced. I am considering replacing with similar shaker style (maybe wood but probably mdf) fitted shelves/cupboards and painting them to introduce some 'colour' into the room.

I'd really like to consider some other ideas but am coming up with a blank. I feel like this is an obvious area where I could introduce a piece of furniture into the room which could help the room be less dated. The kitchen is very good in this regard but the tiles/sofa do age the room.

I would be happy to spend £2-3k for the right piece.

Any ideas or resources gratefully received.

[whereisshe]

My personal preference is for storage not to be a feature, unless it's furniture eg if you had a country style kitchen then a raw oak Welsh dresser.

If something like that doesn't work, which it may not as the kitchen sounds modern, then built in floor to ceiling cupboards with no open shelves and hidden handles (so it looks like a wall) would be what I'd do. Make the feature something else, like a fabulous antique rug.