I am also in the build stage and originally, I was having a fish tank that was then to become the focal point of the lounge, hence all the furniture was to face the tank. Now, the tank has been scraped and I have, with the help of a dear friend, completely done a 360* with the furniture and was able to decide to hang the tv from the opposite wall. My point is, if your plan is in it's infancy, in other words not set in concrete, on the drawing board still, then my advice is, CHANGE something, so that the room becomes more balanced!! No time like now to visualize the space and keep drawing just that room until you have enough windows, doors etc... to satisfy your needs and you will probably solve the problem fairly quickly. Good Luck, Barbara

Thanks oskuee. We have decided to go with obscure glass for the sidelight window as it is too narrow for a blind. For the window, we have chosen a screen roller blind to sit in the window recess so we still have a view outside, when we have it down, but people cannot see in when the lights aren’t on inside. We want a blind for privacy when we are not home, in which case the lights won’t be on. So best of both worlds - view and privacy. As for colour, we have decided to go with a Coal colour with Matt black base rail to give a contemporary look which looks great against the concrete and the rust front door. Happy with our choices. Thanks to all!!

thank you for all of your comments: @jen876 - an entrance into the garage would help in terms of security and also the outdoor area that I currently use as an entrance does not have much cover so in the rain it gets messy. Also the garage is a great place for extra storage for mops etc as my laundry in now a dedicated 2nd bathroom. @oklouise - haha yes we learn things every day. maybe shoppers entrance is an American term and I've been watching to many reno shows on channel 94. Also with the changes you had previously supplied, I'm not quite at the stage of doing a large renovation ie moving walls etc. I love the idea of moving kitchen to the current dining room, however I've been advised that moving plumbing to an island will be very expensive and require drilling through the flooring so therefore I will then be committed to redo all of the flooring (which I cannot finance at the moment) @Kate - yes I was leaning along the angled bench, reason being is that if my dining is close by I don't use the current breakfast bar like you would if it was a full island, and just knocking off the corner as you have drawn it would make for easier flow around the island, just the door to the garage would sit over to the dining a bit more. I think moving the cooktop/oven over to the other side would create a better cooking experience as opposed to it staying where it is with not much working space around it ( I know it's individual taste but would you agree?) @dreamer - I wouldn't want to extend the peninsula so I'm looking for ways for it not to encroach too much into the dining space, although as I'm working from home full time I have set my office desk in the current dining and have moved the dining table to sit in front of the sliding doors, which seems to work well. Also re the flooring, I would be ok with a small amount of disruption to the tile and would concrete over or add other tiles in the interim.

Also if i can avoid moving air con for now that would be great. The next phase of reno will be to take down the wall between lounges and put aircon on the front wall of the lounge as it's the only other outside wall it can go on. Here might be my plan for now. I'll put the kitchen in place and figure out if i need to add more storage to office area. Will add range hood and a few long open shelves like in the image below (and is also the look i'm going for decor wise)