Running with your second floor plan (and ignore the glass sliding doors in this image) but would you consider changing your 3m narrow splash to a full sized fixed window on half the side and the remaining side create as the cooking area with cupboards, oven etc.? You mentioned you have stacker doors in the direction of the lounge, but in terms of space, from these doors, it's living area no windows at a room length of around 7m, followed by 4m kitchen room length including a 3m narrow glass splash to provide natural light for the kitchen area (cupboards noted above)? From your drawings there seems to be no windows on the opposite wall, is that right? I feel you will need to bring additional natural light into the kitchen area possibly bigger than the 3m glass panels if only 0.6m tall (or similar) especially with cupboards on top. If you're not keen on swapping out the narrow splash here's another example with your second floor plan (and also ignore glass sliding doors in this image) but possibly a tall window or fixed glass panel before your kitchen bench starts - even if <1m wide. Or greater than 1m if you're OK to encroach on your 3m glass splash and make it shorter. If the island bench is not a "must" you could create similar to this image and have a L-shape bench so it encloses the kitchen a bit more. This will help create the next room of your house ie. Kitchen - and you'll gain a few more cupboards if you're really wanting additional. Then have the big fixed window adjoining the L-shape next to the seating bench. You could still have your narrow glass splash with cupboards above, possibly just shorter (only referencing the L-shape and large door in this image - imagine fixed glass full-size wall panel in lieu of door next to the seats. Ignore the remainder of the kitchen). Is this an existing dwelling or new home build? For either of your options, are you impacting your roof-line as your first floor plan suggests you're widening the kitchen by 1m? The first plan I'm guessing will cost more; light wells and extra bricks vs straight wall. As mentioned by the other posts, there's plenty of storage options. You still have a decent amount of room for cupboards including a full-sized pantry next to your fridge space. I also agree with jbantick's of balancing space indoors and out (not knowing surroundings).

OP, you should also consider energy efficiency & comfort. It's great that you appear to have north facing living areas (with a high proportion of glazing facing this direction). But looking at the elevation picture, it appears you may have too much glass. Overglazing can result in a home that becomes uncomfortably hot, even in winter! This is very dependent on your location & climate. Cooler climates need more exposed north facing glass, & exposed thermal mass (concrete or masonry) to absorb that solar radiation. Warmer climates require less exposed north facing glass & thermal mass, particularly hot humid climates, where exposed thermal mass can be very detrimental. In these climates it's important that northern glass is shaded, even in winter of glass areas are too high. As there's no floor plan, & you haven't mentioned your location, it's hard to tell if you've overglazed with exposed northern glass. Read the following site, & consider your glazing to floor area & glazing to mass ratios. http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/thermal-mass

Hi Kate, Lip pulls are quite small to grab. I agree with Paul's comments and that the finger marks, drips, food splashes, etc are going to happen anyway no matter what type of handle you have, especially on underbench doors/drawers. I had the same concern about the look of too many handles, and opted for a concealed fingerpull (or you could go for a concealed push mechanism) on overhead cupboards & handles on the under bench ones as in the photo below. I went for the long handles as they are easy to grab & open. It's nice to have some hardware as it's like an 'accessory' for your kitchen - gives a bit of 'bling' or contrast whether you go for traditional polished chrome, black, rose gold, etc. Best of luck for your renovation

Sorry to say but I'd suggest it's worse in some aspects. The doglegged entry flow (still) from front/street is not ideal and entry position blocks prime light into the sitting. Generally the planning still could be more streamlined. It's not ideal having the main access flow from the stair through the upper level living space. A more centralised stair would be far better, for both levels, now it involves moving into the secondary formal sitting space to access upstairs. I'm actually working on a project at the moment where the previous architect did exactly this rendering the front sitting space pretty much useless (slap forehead), and so now the new owner clients are faced with having to unpick/pull it apart to get the stair properly configured and positioned so the associated spaces flow and function properly. Imagine here wanting to move from the pool to your master bedroom - you'd have to move through essentially the whole house - it's not efficient movement configuration. You have in some areas of the design arguably oversized and undersized areas/spaces for the function, which means the balance is not right in the planning. For example there's an abundance of voids upstairs and massive swing room in the master bedroom, but then downstairs the laundry is tiny and there's unusable flow space between the dining and the living space. You still have issues with overlooking from the alfresco, which would mean screening on the north. Site restrictions are not an excuse for obviously compromised planning, rather they need to be negotiated cleverly so they're not obvious or noticeable and the design is not forced.