I find it difficult to view your floor plan as it blurs if I enlarge it, so excuse me if this comment is invalid. Assuming the entry is from your living room and the home runs lengthways with the hall linking the bathroom, ldry and bedroom from the kitchen. The issue with this is that having two doors in the kitchen means you cannot form a working triangle for it to function well and don't have enough wall to fit out with tall storage. However, if you sealed up the door to the hall and opened access to the hall from the lounge as your plans seems to indicate in the top right of the lounge area, then you could widen the front opening into the kitchen rather than remove an entire wall, so integrate it into your living zone without lumping a kitchen in the middle of your lounge, you will improve your walk through flow, and gain a new length of wall in the kitchen where your fridge could go into the corner with a larger pantry flanking it, then your proposed layout t follow.

From your photo the beam looks like it is supported by the wall. If you remove the wall then you will need to replace the beam with another beam which is longer and deeper, or replace the wall with a column to support the beam. I always suggest to new home owners that they live in their new home for at least 12 months before undertaking expensive alterations. You need to understand how your home works (or doesn't work) through the seasons. Moving furniture around is much cheaper than demolishing load bearing walls in the short term. You should also research the pros and cons of single open plan living for your household type. There are plenty of families with teenagers who hate their open plan living. Don't rush and best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

Wow, that's a very tricky layout! I love OKlouise's change to the laundry and kitchen! I can see why the TV won't work though. I don't think there's any perfect solution here. What about some open shelving, housing the TV, coming out adjacent to the garage door - this will block an unsightly door way and create a bit more of a nook for the living room. As a slight adaptation of OkL's plan could you put the TV on an angle behind the front door and move the furniture around to suit, perhaps? And another idea - getting the TV off the floor and onto the wall would help enhance the feeling of space - you could keep existing furniture arrangement and invest in a bracket that swivels the TV out from the 'garage door' wall, it'll be closer for viewing, then you can push it back flat against the wall when not in use. Best of luck! :)

thank you all for your suggestions... meme - the front room currently doesn't get used for a few reasons a) it's only me in the house b)family room gets more sun and natural light c) family room looks out to the garden/courtyard which is a nicer view than the lounge which looks down the drive way (i'm back section of a duplex). I have contemplated the idea of moving dining room to family and using lounge as tv room but as it's just currently me it's nice to have the sun flowing in the family room whilst sitting on the couch and reading a book/watching tv (both rooms are deceptively small - i think wide angle camera used in the promo photos) oklouise - again I think the photo makes the rooms appear larger than they are - I have attached some more photos of the family room for you. I have considered moving the door way to the hall as it is in an awkward position for furniture layout (although I'm not sure the room would accommodate the furniture as you have placed it). Another thing that I should mention is that I'm planning to add a door way to the garage from the kitchen, as I currently walk to the sliding doors to gain entrance to the house. The door will be in the position you have the fridge or even next to it in the far corner - which would still work in your plan. Dr Retro House Calls - I think for me I do like the open plan living (no children yet.) I'm not sure the house would be big enough for a family with teenagers (the 3rd room is very small.) In terms of keeping kitchen tidy - no i'm a very messy cook but it's quickly cleaned up by putting most things in the dishwasher/sink (also I would hope my friends and family wouldn't judge me on the state of my kitchen - and if they did I wouldn't be bothered by it :)) I guess if it was for me then I would go ahead and open plan everything to let as much light in as possible, but also I do need to be aware of resale at some stage (but people are either going to like it or not no matter what you do) Kate - I hadn't thought of that idea - I guess making it smaller would turn it into a min theatre room or reading room? Siriuskey - Interesting suggestion - I'm not sure how the placement of furniture would work in the family room, but I think I need to get past my fear of placing furniture in the middle of a room.