Using a kitchen design company was a good experience for me.

I did it to avoid costly mistakes, but I'm in a different place to you. You might get lucky. Houzzers can help you too.

You can also talk directly to some kitchen joineries. Usually, the one who runs the joinery would have enough experience to give you some recommendation. I renovated my kitchen directly by going direct to the joinery and it was a good experience.

Your space is a bit tight. Perhaps, you could also think of different layouts, L shape or C shape with peninsula instead of island for example, as well as different locations to put appliances, ranges, cooktop oven etc. It is going to be quite a job to make kitchen feel more spacious as well as having a good work flow in this space.

However, general recommendations are to get range hood that vents outside; get drawers for base cabinets instead of doors; and perhaps move microwave off the bench top.

Don't change the shape or you'll have no entry from the living or exit out to the dining.

Plumbing is already in the island for dish drawers, so the sink could move there, but it looks small and the sink needs to dip into the bench space.... Which is where the dish drawers are! And is it me or is your pantry under the stairs across from the laundry?!

Im afraid other than some basic cosmetic changes that are simply personal for you, the design has already been fairly well thought out the best it can.

If you do move the sink to the island, you could remove the extra bench next to the fridge and get a French double door fridge for more food storage?

It's hard to see at what point the laundry/kitchen wall is across from the space under the stairs..... If the height under the stairs is directly across from the dining side exit from the kitchen & you didn't mind covering the see through gaps of the stairwell, you could incorporate that space into the kitchen design by putting the fridge under there, freeing up valuable visual space in the kitchen.

Lastly, mirrored splashbacks to reflect light? Could also replace the floor tiles with floorboards the same width and direction as the exisiting, but so its not obvious they're not the same you could whitewash the new kitchen area ones or paint them? So they're demarcated by finish, but are more seemless than tiles by seeming to be the same flooring.

Down the track if you have some saved finance and the kitchen still bothers you, I'd think about pushing it out into the undercover end area.

Its a beautiful place by the way, good luck!!

Shame that the kitchen is in the middle where I would have put the dining space & cover the ugly tiles with a rug under the table.

With the period details it's probably hard to change much and rework the floor plan. Another thought is to incorporate maximum storage into the laundry space with full length & ceiling height cupboards/pantry & definitely would try to use the under stair space for built in storage too.

Plumbing is expensive to move, so budget option for me would be adding a narrow return of cupboards & shelves on lounge side & a small open end for the bar stools which will hide the floor (maybe even incorporate simple overhead shelves for decor/plants etc. Plus a new island bench keeping the dishwashers there.

Simply Elegant Kitchen in Arlington Heights · More Info

Little Black Dress · More Info

I would:

* Move the bedroom to the Dining area. That gives you another bedroom/ guest room/ office with ensuite. Privacy to your bathroom rather than a bathroom & toilet beside your dining area.

* Dining area to living area and living area to bedroom.

* Remove curved glass benchtop, replace with straight edged.

* Remove floor tiles, continue timber flooring.

*Sell 900mm Ilve, replace with 600mm Ilve (or other).

Yes that is where I thought so that it disguises the floor whatever happens in there.

Good idea to swap the bedroom & dining too.

The open kitchen is a great idea!

Wow! Overwhelmed with all the responses and some great ideas put forward :)

I should have probably stated in my first post that I am trying to keep it to a pretty small budget (was thinking of even going down the Ikea route for the cabinetry etc and installing myself). This is because I have spent my life savings on a $810,000AUD house (so don't want to spend more that 15k on renovating I am only 30 years old :))

I do realise I am going to have to spend thousands to get the flooring sorted. Good to hear that you guys think it will be possible to get the wood to match. I am very particular about these things so was thinking not to do it.

Responses below in the order they were posted :)

Chanop thanks for your help - I think changing the shape of the kitchen to an L or C might have been a good idea when originally designing it but with the middle island already plumbed and with electrics with 2 dishwashers (I will most likely remove one) I think ill just have to stick with it considering my low budget. Is there something wrong with have rangehoods recirculate? Just thought it would be easier as I could do it myself if it wasn't vented outside. I definitely want to get more drawers than cupboards for the lower cabinets - good idea. Was thinking of moving the microwave into the pantry as it has power and we don't use the microwave often anyway.

Mrjudsonjames I agree with you on not changing the shape - I really like your idea on moving the sink to the island and i think I will definitely have space if i remove one of the dishwashers that I don't need. Yeah fridge size is definitely an issue with the current space - hadn't thought of storing more food that doesn't need to be refrigerated in a refrigerator - interesting. Fridge wont fit under stairs unfortunately would have been handy - however i plan on having more storage under the stairs (not sure how to execute this yet).

Bec - Yep definitely good idea with the sink - am definitely going to try to do get that done :) I'm not really sure what you mean with the half height windows - have you seen an example somewhere you could post? Yep white all the way in this instance - it all feels way too dark at the moment.

sstop - not sure whether the wall behind the fridge is load bearing or not might need to get that checked out. However, removing might be a project for the future as I don't have a huge amount of money to spend. Good idea - maybe i will look to see what I would fetch for the freestanding cooker on eBay (it RRPs for around 7K) not sure. I hadn't thought about staggering the joints and this will definitely help - thanks.

LouieT - Yeah the layout is a bit of a disappointment - but the terrace house was originally built in the year 1886 originally so definitely going to be some quirks. Yeah I agree on not moving the plumbing going to cost too much. I'm not sure about adding a return as it will enclose the kitchen even more with the bench still there. I want it to have more flow than it currently does. I love the idea of a pendant light! I will definitely have to get one of those over the island - great idea!!

dohraime - Yeah as I said to LouiT don't like the idea of removing the island seems like a waste of plumbing and electricity i want to try to make it work even if it's not perfect. Yeah unfortunately the cabinets are of an odd height. Definitely getting new cabinetry to replace them. I am already concerned about not having enough storage so losing those top cabinets to open shelving scares me a little.

bissym - WOWWEEE! Your plan really excited me - not sure why when the place was renovated 10 years ago they didn't do it that way would have been WAY better. I am definitely keeping this in mind for phase 2 of my renovations. Not sure how much it would cost to knock down walls etc will get a quote at some point. Now my main focus and problem area - is the kitchen and your plan doesn't effect that area really. Will definitely be ripping of the big curved granite benchtop on the kitchen island as soon as i move in.

OK so I hope I didn't forget anyone - and I definitely have got some fantastic ideas from you guys. So my main take home points appear to be currently just trying to sort out the island and fit a sink in it, changing the cabinetry to accommodate a larger fridge, getting floorboards to match and putting up some dangly lights.

@Daniel, do you have two full size dish drawers (four drawers total)? Or two half size dish drawers (two drawers siting left to right next to each other)? Or one full size dish drawer (two drawers stacking on top)? For that space, it would sound funny that previous owner put in two full size dish drawers. If that's the case, definitely pull one out.

For hood venting outside, it is more of a performance and smell control. It will depends on the kind of food usually cooked in the space, and tolerance to grease and smell accumulated within the house.

If I have to keep a similar layout, I probably would try to make the island a bit bigger, and may be try to put one big single bowl sink there to gain more prep area where the old sink is. Keeping sink and dishwasher together is really handy.

@Chanop, after looking at it again i think it maybe just the size of one full size dishwasher. As below

My previous two houses had recirculating rangehoods and i never noticed an issue so happy to stick with :)

@Bec, wow that would be a fantastic idea. I would be scared to even get a quote for it - guessing it would be very expensive. Maybe one day in the future when I can afford it :)

My suggestions. Thinking about you renovating on a tight budget. Remove that nib wall where the fridge is. If it's load bearing, putting a beam in should support the load. Put the fridge where the pantry is. That should allow for a larger fridge? Get a cabinetmaker to build a custom bench that runs in between the island and the black floor cupboards. That would reduce the impact of that delightful (ha) green marble floor. Because of your budget, I would keep as much as possible of the old cabinets and paint them. Put the laundry in the store room or incorporate into the kitchen cabinets.