Your furniture will already improve the space. Lounge.. Face your lounge towards fire place. Dark textured rug. Make sure the rug sits just under the couch. Colourful textured cushions. Replace mirror with large clock. Lowline TV cabinet in corner. Bookcase, get MDF cut to fit in the back of each shelf. Either paint or wallpaper. I notice there is blinds in the sun room, so remove the curtains. Then add large colourful artwork. Dining...much longer wall cabinet, large artwork, replace chandelier for a dome pendant.

Just to confirm I have taken the great ideas presented here as advice only and have no intention to do some dodgy diy reno's. With the exception of a couple of quirky exposed timbers as you can see in my pictures there are no other exposed beams. As you can also see from the pictures there is a large roof space on the right (east) side of the house but the ceilings themselves are flat with a slight dip on the north wall. Based on my own personal experiences I would have to agree with Two's Company that there is a tendency towards rendered brick in WA (although there are still many exposed brick houses in my suburb) while double enclosed double garages are also highly desirable. I would also agree that toilets within the main bathroom and non traditional laundries may be considered unusual by many (but not all). Ensuites with toilets however are still very common. Also due to the nature of our work we would prefer the laundry separated from food/kitchen area. For a 4x2 house it is only around 155m2 excluding carport/alfresco which makes the rooms feel quite cramped, hence the desire to open up the family room. However, as Two's Company suggests we will need to first get a builder/eng in to check load bearing walls etc as this will undoubtedly affect what we can achieve within our budget. Having said that I still excited by many of your ideas and with luck hopefully can work some of them into the budget. Cheers all :)

I think some sort of extraction fan is essential to eliminate cooking smells and prevent build up of grease in your room. Especially in an open plan area. Unless you live in a climate that Is warm all year around you are unlikely to want to open the window every to you cook. Have you thought about a down draft extraction fan? They pop up from the bench, usually behind your cooktop. Different brands make them. Generally high end and more expensive than a canopy type rangehood but could solve your dilemma.

Ok so after all the feedback I made some changes. After looking at it, I would like to make entry point from garage on the garage wall, so you still enter into pantry, but you dont have to walk through pantry to gain access to the house. I would also like to flip bathroom and bed 3 so bathroom is centred between rooms. Also not convinced I should have entry to lounge from kitchen, should I have kept it entering from the entry. My only issues now is, do you notice how the bathroom steps in? This is because the ensuite is a bit bigger. Will it look ok once built or do I take that 30cm from my ensuite/main room to level it up? If so do I take 15cm from ensuite and 15cm from main bedroom? Also I really wanted the compartment bathroom that oklouise suggested. But its not big enough. Any ideas? My current bathroom is 3100 x 2600.