the kitchen is in the right place i think..

kitchens are the hub of a home and most display homes will be in the centre.

The rounded style is just very outdated.

Try to gut it if money allows.

Look at colours, textures and so on to help enhance the outdoors into the house.

Use some rustic looks as well as sleek lines and that will start to tie the home together.

google kitchen styles and see.

I would consider squaring off the wall where the cooktop sits - make this area storage/walk-in pantry.

Take out the wall (study/living /dining side)

Remove the current breakfast bar.

This gives you an L shape kitchen with space for a large island bench.

btw would love to know the maximum height of the vauted ceiling and if you've ever considered a loft? i've suggested a loft storage area above the new pantry and hallway but a lowered ceiling over the whole kitchen area could be worth considering (with ceiling height wall cabinets and soffitts) and the raked ceilings retained over the living areas..Lowering parts of the ceiling could reduce heating and cooling expenses. Daylight in the kitchen can be provided with Solar Skylights that can be installed downstairs in a two storey home

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Hi, I am assuming that the first living area must be your formal area? If so, then you will not want people being able to look into your kitchen whilst preparing food. So, I would take down the wall as far back as the door way to the first living room which will open the area into the dining and second living space allowing light to come in. I would take the rest of the walls all the way up to the ceiling if not already done. I would square off the back bit of the kitchen with a pocket door and turn it into a butlers pantry. Your choice of how you would want that area, but I would put a secondary 1 bowl sink in there, even a small oven & a dbl hotplate, the rest of the area I would install shelving and baskets or drawers. I've seen this done & its absolutely fabulous. All your prep work is out of sight when you are entertaining. Then the main kitchen I would use the long wall along the bedrooms to install hotplates & wall oven, inbuilt coffee machine, steam oven. On the opposite small wall that is left just blocking the first living space I would put the fridge maybe also a thin wine fridge. With all the open space in front I would install a huge island bench looking out towards your second living space and patio/pool area; that would have your sink at one end and house the dishwasher underneath. The rest of the underneath you could have drawer space and along the front you could have stools, for the kids to sit at and have snacks, or a quick breaky in the morning before everyone leaves for school/work. I would do the kitchen cupboards in a ivory colour and the island bench in a lovely wood, something like an American cherry, very deep in colour and the tops I would do in a granite or ceaser stone to cut down costs.

What a amazing space. Have you considered moving the kitchen completely away from the middle of the house and opening up the entire space by using your living room between the study and dining rooms, as your new kitchen location? Knock down the wall in the living room to open the space up to the dining area. Then you have the largest of large family room in the middle of the house and you can knock down most of the kitchen walls except the one blocking the bedrooms from the new space (unless you want to eliminate a hall way).

Lots of options with your stunning house. We have a 70s-*80s open plan with vaulted ceilings which we love, heat wise in spaces like this it's a good idea to have ceiling fans that you can switch between summer/winter, winter pushes the warm air down from the ceiling. we have plans to add a mezanine space above the family room. adding some photos for you as we just love our house. would have loved a walk in pantry but it just didn't have the space with all the lovely windows.

love your drawing oklouise, hope you don't mind me using it (I don't have a tool like yours) I have sketched in on yours because I would like to see all of the awkward angles gone, access from the garage to kitchen is still good, grab enough space for a straight walk in pantry on the entrance wall with a good size sliding door, perhaps a barn door which would add charm. If the extra storage in the passage behind the kitchen was n't needed the kitchen Island could be even bigger. Almost enough space in the kitchen to make that storage behind the kitchen the WIP

the problem with using my rough plan is that some of the measurements are only guestimates because i may have the angled walls drawn incorrectly but for anyone interested the internal storage space along the bedroom hallway is 60cms deep, the space shown as Kitchen is only 4m x 3m, the walkway between the stove and the sink is 120cm, the island is 3m x 90cm, the walkway with the stools is 150cm wide and the pantry with all the angles can have custom shelves built to utlise all the odd angles for odd sized appliances etc and has room for an extra fridge or freezer etc

My thought was that if the kitchen was going to be done that it would be a good time to update the entrance by squaring off the wall that forms the bedroom passage (full height for both walls so that the BR's can be closed off to stop the noise that travels in these open spaces, another door would have to be placed at the other end of the BR area, these could be glass with glass skylights above to help with light.

I love the kitchen plan that OKlouise did minus the walk through Pantry, I think a wall of Pantry in a straight line in place of this, deep our shallow with possible sliding panels, this would also give a lovely entrance wall to place side board and large wall hanging (even if the BR passage wall needed to be made longer space allowing) The possible extra fridge/freezer is very handy and could be placed in the rear of the garage, ours is and is approx the same distance from the kitchen. Other than that, Fischer & P make great draw Fridge Freezers which could be installed in the 3 m long island. great house.

Hi Belinda,

There are a variety of great suggestions above, including someone suggesting relocating the kitchen. My first question would be to ask you where north is approximately? Given the cost of re-doing a kitchen, the first thing I would establish is where your natural daylight is coming from, as this is your big chance to tweak the orientation of the living zone and exact position of kitchen if need be.

Did mean to mention that's it's extremely important that there's a view of the pool from as many rooms as possible given the current number of pool related deaths, it's been a terrible loss of small lives. We are a family of 5, we had two children when we moved into our house and built a pool the kids were school age but then 10 yrs after the last child we had another. That became a very stressful time having friends who had lost little ones in their pools. One of the big considerations was that when there are older siblings and the littlest is out side the pool fence crying to be let in which they are and then are forgotten about..........with a tragic result., please be careful.

Hi Belinda, I like your idea in your first post about keeping that back wall nearest the bedrooms and having a galley style looking out towards the living. Here are some of my fav pics on houzz

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A massive thank you to everyone who has assisted me with detailed plans, wonderful ideas, fantastic photos and such important considerations as I embark on the redesign of our kitchen.

To McMahon and Nerlich, I just wanted to let you know that the bedrooms are on the north side of the house. The east side of the house contains large windows allowing a great deal of light into the house (on this side) with full view of the gardens and pool (a very nice position for a kitchen). Relocating the kitchen (U-shape style) to the living area adjacent to the study, could be a costly exercise (due to plumbing relocation) but indeed one to consider during the estimation process. I feel the vaulted ceilings are one of the trickiest challenges in the renovation of this house, but achievable just the same.

Thank you to everyone once again. You have all helped me greatly!

Hi Belinda, thanks for letting me know about your daylight. That is really interesting - so the pool and garden - and a living and dining area - are to the east and south of the house, due to the orientation of the block no doubt, and the bedrooms are blocking off all the north light! I am guessing this means the house gets a lot of light from these windows in the morning until midday, when the sun swings past the bedrooms/bath/laundry which block afternoon sun unless these doors are open. Further, the kitchen is hemmed in on all 3 sides and really just faces due east - good because this is where the garden and pool are, but with little view to the south dining and living area, which presumably are used as more formal spaces.

The good news is I don't think you would get much benefit from relocating the kitchen - I think it is in the best spot, kitchens are much better at being internal 'hubs' and linking to living areas - it is these living areas that we want to connect directly with outside.

I do however have something else for you to think about longer term as a masterplan....and I am guessing here because I am not sure of the shape of your garden.....however next time your en-suite is due for a major renovation, you could relocate the main bed, w.i.r and ensuite across to the current south-facing living room and dining (or study). By doing this, you can create a complete open-plan east end to the house, and all living / dining areas would have direct garden and patio access and more importantly much more sunlight. The north-east corner would be part of this open-plan space and would need a new large window on the north wall. You could extend this wall slightly if funds permitted but this wouldn't be essential. There are both smaller and larger masterplan alternatives; for example a smaller option (for the masterplan) not involving any plumbing, is to swap bed 2 and 3 with the south living room/study area (blocking off the hallway area) and open up the north wall of the kitchen to look into this new formal north-facing living room - this could be quite fun and definitely would add more light to the house.

However in the meantime good luck with the kitchen renovation, and look for images that show suspended overhead cabinets as a way of dealing with the raking ceiling!

it's a bit hard to see a complete view of how your ceiling is Raked, the first is a photo of our kitchen (work in progress) and ceiling, the other two maybe adding some exposed beams would change it up a bit, I understand that your ceiling isn't symmetrical, and the last is similar to what oklouise and I thought would be make a great kitchen layout in the original space, good luck with the new kitchen.