A few things to consider indeed, but what a great space to work with... my humble opinion on some of your points and queries... 3) if you haven't already got the cabinet/shelves unit yet see if you can get one with sliding cabinet doors 4) great idea, so avoid any heavy items of furniture (e.g. big armchair) in the centre of the room that will be harder to move/relocate and think more ottomans, bean bags, etc You are absolutely spot on with placing the wall units on the 4m wall and keeping the slightly wider 4.2m wall for seating facing the outdoors a) clearance depends on how much and what kind of traffic going through, e.g. doorways approx 700-800, passage 1000-1200, but to get around a coffee table to access couch or get around behind a chair at least 500-600 and more if you can accommodate... and of course depends on the type of furniture, e.g. if you have cabinet doors that swing open (as opposed to sliding) then you have to allow enough clearance to open the door and access the cabinet comfortably b) I think you can do better than a 2-seater in such a big space... e.g. let's say wall units base cabinets are 600 deep even with swing open doors of 400 you'll need clearance of say 1000-1200 from that wall on the right, which out of the 4.2m wall at the bottom leaves you with 3m... so I would fill up the bottom left corner by having a 3-seater/chaise modular along the remaining 3m with the 'return' chaise on the left along the 1.7m wall c) yes, you'll definitely need one large 'area' rug to define the space... you could even use two different rugs and create two zones... one large rectangular one framed by the couch and wall units and a second smaller round or asymmetrical one closer to the sliding doors paired up with a bean bag or big floor cushions d) I think a tall indoor palm/fern in a nice large pot just in the corner of the units and wall (to your left as you enter the space) would be a welcoming touch and tie in with the outdoors Good luck ;)

Our house is similar, but we are empty nesters and down sized about 4 years ago, our needs would be a bit different to a growing family, we are currently in the throes of having two smaller rooms made into one area to further open up a previous renovation to give us a bigger open space..we also have an ensuite and a combined laundry / second laundry space. The good thing is that being a brick veneer house the reconfiguring is relatively easy with modern technology and big beams. As above try and have a big open space, we have been out of our home for a month now and still a way to go, add living away from home to your budget or stay with family. I will try and post the plan but here are a couple of journey pics ..the last photo was before trying to show how the two rooms decided the space making the living room very small and a bit dark...the aim of this project is to have space for a bigger gathering than about 4 people before overcrowded. Light is really important, nice big windows essential, the darkness of the living I thought I could live with, but it did get me down, I a, looking forward to having a much lighter space

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 :)

Gorgeous. Imagine the spider webs