I’m afraid that dark colour will not make the brick wall disappear, only make the room significantly darker by absorbing all light instead of reflecting it back
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Paint it a dark colour and it will be like living in a coal bunker.
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Don’t worry, it isn’t a nightmare. There is always a solution, the difficulty is in choosing. No wrong solutions! The priority will always be the little fellow sitting oblivious to all on the sofa in your pic.
Best to keep it simple.
I will get back to you later today when I can open the Macbook and better line up all your pics in my desktop.
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Bloody luxury, we used to live in a cardboaed box int middle of road!
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I disagree
Chateau de Chassolet? 
Dark walls are a subjective decision. Nice in an office or study, particularly if there is natural light and a high, light ceiling.
These are some cons -
It reduces the light - You need to add substantial artificial lighting.
The space will feel smaller - You get used to it but it is something to consider. There is cosy and then there is claustrophobic.
It’s probably not a good idea if you are trying to sell up - The majority of prospective buyers who walk through the door may not share your vision of drama. The norm that potential buyers look for is a ‘bright, light space’.
It will be harder to get rid of if you do change your mind - If /when you want to change later from the dark colour to a lighter one it will require two coats of white undercoat first before you can start painting your new colour.
Tory’s room has a lot of dark wood, beams and furniture in the room. Lightening the space will be better served by painting vertical background surfaces light where possible.
Nobody’s saying paint the walls dark.
Paint the area behind the fireplace only.
The rest of the walls are light. It won’t make a difference overall. But it will make the nasty bricks “disappear”.
It’s also something of a current decorating trend. So will give an up to date modern feel.
Speaking as someone whose brother is a painter and decorator, has spent a lifetime decorating and revamped and sold on three properties at a healthy profit.
I have a small bathroom in my current house which is a mixture of black tiles and dark blue paint. It doesn’t feel smaller or even darker.
This rote notion that painting in dark colours automatically makes a space feel smaller is a fallacy.
It’s not “hard” to paint over a colour. One coat paints exist. Mind you, French paint is by all accounts rubbish, so it might take umpteen 
PS If you look at a lot of properties currently on sale, you’ll see a lot painted in darker colours.
Yes but it was a sainsburys cardboard box
Hmm… colours are very much a personal thing…
OH and I would often shudder when viewing “possible” properties in UK… ghastly clashing colour schemes… (are folk colour-blind, one has to wonder sometimes…)
and one dark-purple bathroom with black ceiling (albeit studded with silver stars) still has us roaring with laughter when we trundle through the memories…
OK, I could have had Mrs Magnolia as my nom de plume… but too much the other way was simply out of the question… completely over-rode any positives for a property if we knew we’d simply have to redecorate before moving in…
Our last UK house was different… I gradually learnt to accept something other than magnolia and family/friends watched the transformation with approval…
However, when it came to selling (after many, many years)… we went through the place and brought it back to sanity…
For a small outlay, it finally looked like something from a magazine… no, not all white/magnolia… it did have a few gentle colourings, nothing brash/argumentative… and the whole house definitely had the wow-factor.
(In fact, some friends wanted to know how we could bear to leave such a lovely place…)
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere we had 2 buyers fighting over it and sold it (for our price) within 4 days… so we must have got things right…
EDIT: Various agents did not think we would get our price… but we proved them wrong. hurrah
Again, nobody’s saying paint it all dark. Just the bricks behind the fireplace.
And yes, it’s very subjective and down to the taste of those who live there.
Have you considered tiling over it? Might be a faff getting round the back of the stove though.
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Looking again at the “fire and the bricks” I’m wondering if the bricks are for security purposes ie heatproof/fire-retardent.
If they’re solid and do the job they’re meant for … they’d be way, way down on my list of things “to do”
EDIT: we’ve found that deciding what absolutely MUST be done, with our funds in short supply… puts a lot of “ideas” on the back-burner…
Tory, in the kitchen what windows/natural light do you have.
Can you do us a 360 /4 pictures from the centre of the room.
Summary
Right Oh!
Here are some ideas that will be the most simple to complete and create maximum effect for the least money…
Right wall
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Cut away all the centre from and including above the doorway, to ceiling height.
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Leave the kitchen end corner wall depth as is from left side door opening up to ceiling.
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Leave a small section at the opposite wall end corner to create a square cabinet that will hide Linky + provide some storage. You want to give access to as much light as you can.
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In the center of the (doomed) wall, under the ceiling cross beam, leave a section of wall to create a ‘column’. Make it the same width as the end corner square containing Linky. (You can make another cupboard here if you want for brooms etc.)
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I hope you can source some floor tiles to match in where the wall has been removed.
All this eliminates the seating area in the stairway foyer entrance that is now inclusively part of the kitchen-diner. Your suggestion of a breakfast bar along the angled wall is possible. Do you actually need a breakfast bar?
staircase foyer area
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An alternative, depending on the depth of the depth and width of the angled wall is to put the large (deep) sideboard there ( the one I can see opposite the dining table. ) You could then have a larger table if you wanted. If there is not enough depth, this may be the place for your husband to build a cupboard. Try for internal minimum plate depth.
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The mirrored cupboard can then go on the wall at the end of the dining table (replacing the deeper sideboard) where it will reflect candle light when you dine
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The green larder crockery cabinet can also move into the stair foyer area (I do not all the sides in your pics).
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If moving the fridge into the kitchen is inconvenient for now, then one suggestion is rather than a voile curtain, hang chic bamboo blinds over the space, hiding the low cupboard and the washing machine. You don’t need to hide the fridge too but (although I have no view of above it) it would look best to include a blind above so that the whole space looks ‘finished’ until you eventually knock through that space to the future laundry room.
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Maybe consider painting the flat side of the wood staircase that faces into the room?
Now, Living area walls…
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Relief lower half wall is a bit unfinished but there are several options. Is it all the way along that wall opposite to the kitchen end? Either way, the easiest option would be to plaster the lower part to iron out the surface irregularities. Doesn’t have to be perfect. Farmhouse plaster has charm. After that you paint. Sorry, but if you plastered half the wall it is best to then paint the whole wall, at least once. I suggest off-white.
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Your wood panelling idea is also possible, if a bit more pricey. It would need painting though, because already with a room filled with low wood ceiling, too much wood becomes a bit of a coffin. Grey or off-white, either works.
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Brick wall painted the same off white colour will finish this wall nicely.
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No absolute need to create a new window in the end wall as there will now be light from the windows through the gap created by middle wall removal.
Kitchen galley wall
*How homogenised for as little as possible change can we get? Grey wood cabinet doors and facia.
- As @captainendeavour has wisely pointed out about swooshes, it would be best while doing other works to improve the situation with the sink top and counter gap.
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I understand not wanting to replace the sink counter top at this time but would you be able to remove the tiles and replace them with a stone as the rest of the counter, cut to measure? If this were slightly raised from the sink edge, when sealed it would take care of the water swooshes completely.
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Wall tiles. In my experience, painting them is a short term measure. Other may have advice. My preference would be to chip them all off and find splash back panels to run the entire length of the wall, filling the whole wall space between counter top and wall cupboards. There are many, many crédence options available available, even my old friend béton ciré. You can even pick a lovely colour that makes you happy
I expect this is enough to digest for now!
I hope this all helps you.
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Your after is so much better than the before 
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You are kind but I do understand these things are subjective.
Me Hicks used to say “Look at what the lady is wearing”. He meant in terms of colour and style. Another designer, that I much admired, once said to me “There are no wrong colours, only wrong combinations.”
But today, even this depends on context. When I buy gerbera I get every colour and put them in a vase all together because I feel they look like floral happiness.
I’ve used a glowing deep-red paint, to excellent effect, on an end wall in a bedroom… Using the “red end” as the bedhead, with the bed facing the light from the North and East windows at the other end of the room.
Before adding the red paint, the room looked a bit like a soulless tunnel… (it’s about 18ft x 9ft)
But the red wall has brought new life to that “dark” end of the room, which has always needed artificial light anyway… and now looks really warm and welcoming in my opinion…
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Yes Blanc casse.
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