Thanks dreamer, might look into a sliding window for the splashback. And have put the benchtop as 650mm for now, may increase further. Thanks siriuskey. I am leaning towards your design and using the corner as appliance/pantry. The bifold from bench height up would certainly work really well functionally but I’m not sure I’d like the look. I’ve sketched up having the area 800 deep to house the fridge and to have a step in pantry/appliance cupboard (500 deep bench, 300 step in cavity). 2 variations of the cupboard, first with sliding doors opening from centre (approx 1m opening so might feel a bit pokey), or second with perhaps stacker doors to right or bifold (this would block off bench space between pantry and sink when open though). This cupboard would be pretty big (2280mm) so don’t think we’d need the appliance cupboard next to dining area. And could have oven under cooktop. Dining and kitchen could be separated by small wall.

what happened to the old column? i think you need to add a corner cabinet (900 on the stove wall and 1050 on the sink wall) with doors hinged across the corner provides 300 + 450 wide doors and better access to the corner for storage of big appliances and to allow more space for the drawers to open, the 1000 fridge space allows an air gap and two 750 wide drawers next to the 900 wide stove, i've kept the 1200 gap between benches and island and added a cabinet (opening toward the sink allows for a 600 wide 450 deep space for a bin) then two 750 wide drawers and the built in microwave making a longer island and extra drawers next to the dishwasher ...in my experience, if you're having custom made cabinets you only need to specify the size of appliances and sink, the general layout of the room and your preferred arrangements and approximate sizes and the cabinet maker should measure the site and custom make the cabinets to suit the space with minor alteration to allow for any obstacles eg like making the pantry cabinets narrower to allow for architraves around the entry door..and it's more comfortable to walk around if the pantry doesn't overlap the architrave or encroach on the doorway

adding furniture always gives a much better idea of available space and bed 4 is much too small for a living area although bed 3 without a wall and wardrobe could be used for a small TV room to open up the long hallway but i've moved bed 2 to make a MPR, added generous ceiling height biw in every bedroom (to include general storage as well as personal items) and simplified the bathrooms and the wide vanities can be used for linen..assuming that there will be a restriction of total floor area to block size i've kept this variation of your plan to 60% of the total area and think highlight windows on the south and tall wide windows above 750 off the floor on the north will allow plenty of northern light and still allow easy furniture placement, the MPR could have a western window to make the room more comfortable in cold weather and external blinds to exclude hot afternoon sun and shade blinds on the outside of the verandah would screen the sliding door but i would omit the external laundry door and the "pantry wall" as shown in Dreamers photo of my own pantry can be included inside wall cavities and needs only about 15cms depth for very useful storage

My suggestion for the whole kitchen, is to keep a bank of pantry cabinets next to the fridge, staring from the left a flat corner pantry that has "L" shaped shelving plus a pull out food pantry between it and the fridge. An under bench oven, the MW would be in the open shelf wall cabinet with kettle and toaster etc in the corner under the MW The sink, DW and rubbish bin in the Island which would have a taller panel as shown to cover any mess in that clean up space I've added a bench height table next to the island, this could be dropped to table height if wanted. I have continued the wall cabinets on the wall across both the kitchen and dining, I haven't sectioned the cabinets but they could be a combination of doors and open shelves. I have also extended floating lower cabinets at a depth of 400 across the dining space with the same bench top as used on the kitchen cabinets This will give you great storage to allow you tuck your appliances and food stuffs into when not in use,. You can also use a deep drawer to pop certain appliances into if that fits and suits how you use your kitchen You can also store a broom in the "L" shaped pantry with dust pan and brush fitted to the inside of the door, the "L" shaped shelving allows for this Click on the images to open them