Thank you all for your comments, suggestions, drawings and photos, I really appreciate the effort you all put in to help others on this great platform. I have come up with another idea (see photos below) that involves putting the fridge on the back wall of the kitchen behind cabinetry doors (yes, I know I was adamantly against this!) and bringing the door of the pantry forward to be in line with the front of the fridge. The pantry door would also be cabinetry and the section of wall. I don’t really know how to explain this, but the wall the kitchen backs on to would be bulk headed out so it continues in line with the pantry/fridge front all the way to the ceiling. This creates a sort of symmetry in the doors of the fridge and pantry being either side of the cooktop, but without the worry of having to line the rangehood up with the apex of the cathedral ceiling....I think. What do you think? P.S. Please excuse my shoddy hand drawn sketches.

Target has some nice (cat safe) cane look chairs at the moment at very reasonable prices. I’d pop two in the space to create a natter nook. Apart from art be careful not to chose too many small accessories first. I know it’s tempting because they cost less but unless you have a definitive plan I.e a hanging chair for the future layout, you need to get the big stuff first because the look can evolve.

I think you need shelving either side of fire. Just something simple to add interest. To many surfaces, I think, already for adding tiles. If you want to put something on the fire place wall, then the clock needs to find another home. And the tile surface could be similar to the hearth. Either dark wood or black, floating shelves. Then your favourite things can be displayed. This looks like the same room you posted a while ago. The single wing back chairs would look good in this room again. Facing the fire. Then a light coloured rug to take away from all the black. Gold accessories to match your side tables. And if the plants are artificial, I would remove for something larger and real. For your window near the fire, A solid window treatment, eg: roller blind or shutters, would work. But if you don't need anything on that window, then maybe just a pelmet to finish it off.

the usual rule applies about buying for location but after numerous renovations and new builds we know that renovating can be a nightmare with unlimited surprise expenses (like hidden asbestos, electrical and plumbing problems before you consider styles of new fittings) so, if budget and time are limited, don't buy anything that needs more than modest cosmetic upgrades (that doesn't include bathrooms that work all needs to be done by professionals while kitchens can sometimes be upgraded with DIY flaktpac cabinets to save costs) but imo the best locations are usually in the older suburbs and for our last big reno we spent about $500K renovating a mid century house that was already in good condition (it's in a great location but we're still not finished) in retrospect it could have been more cost effective to KDR but we love renovating and DIY and don't have jobs and dependent kids to distract us from the endless work