Cheers for the advice. I feel more comfortable in leaving the upstairs area as is.

Will approach a kitchen designer to put together a decent sized, functional kitchen. Glad it's not just me that thinks its too small :)

Hi Rozzi Klomp,

I would not only increase the size of your kitchen, but I'd look at swapping your living and dining areas. The current layout looks to provide a very long and narrow living area (3 x 6m?).

A great way to check how each 'space' works is to consider the furniture layout for the living and dining areas. This will highlight how each zone works individually, as well as how each responds/interacts with your views, the kitchen, and related circulation.

Understanding how each space works individually, and together, will inform the shape and layout of your kitchen design. Considering this our suggestions are:

• Locate bench and cupboards along the wall backing onto garage (relocate laundry to garage 'store' area). This will provide you with additional storage and/bench space. It could accommodate the stove, wall oven, fridge etc.
• Increase the size of the island bench. This bench could be orientated to the view, or the dining area. This would depend on your preference for facing view or using the bench as 'gathering' space (cooking whilst preparing food and /or breakfast bar). Depending on the orientation of the central bench would it be better as an island or peninsular bench?
• Make sure you have adequate circulation within the kitchen (between benches/ joinery) and around the kitchen to ensure good circulation and function.

Hi there,

I see there have been quite a few really good comments on this already but I have a few suggestions:

1. I would relocate the access from the garage to the house, placing the door where the 'pantry' is currently located. Corner pantrys like this never really work, in my opinion, and having access under the stairs as currently shown is not ideal either (you never have as much head height as you think once its all plasterboarded out)
2. Moving this door then frees up space to increase the laundry area to a more practical size (given the size of the house) by running it under the stairs.
3. I would then orientate the kitchen to run parallel with the staircase, sitting against this wall. The island unit can then run the full length of the kitchen while maintaining the orientation you desire.
4. Finally, I am concerned that the first floor balcony to Bedroom 1 could make the living area a little bit dark, given the aspect. Why not move this balcony into the space between bedroom 1 and bedroom 2? (it could potentially then be accessed by both rooms). This could then be easily drained onto the roof below with a simple spreader.

As with everything, there are a number of ways to make this work and this is just my opinion but I hope it has helped!

Best of luck with your project!!

Hi @wincymeow

I'd love to see floorplans showing the open plan floor space you have.

After reading these comments, I'm consulting with a kitchen designer and looking at moving the entranceway to the laundry/garage and extending the kitchen along the back wall to run parallel with the staircase.

Mark @Architect Yourself , your website provided me with some well timed questions on what I am hoping to achieve with the build.

The current company I am using have advised it'll be around 30k to move the balcony into the space between bedrooms 1 & 2, so I've decided it's not really feasible at this point.

@Cathi Colla, I really appreciate your advice also!

Will post a new floor plan when I have it :)

Hi Rozzi,

Glad my website was of use, please watch this space as I am working on a lot more useful articles.

I dont understand why moving the balcony is more expensive. Have they started building yet? As long as it is still lines on paper then this is the best time to get it right (it costs a lot more to make changes once you have signed a contract and construction has started). Surely there will be a saving for removing the balcony from its current location?

If you are not locked in to your current builder I would suggest getting a second opinion from another builder. I can t see where the cost comes from to be honest