Hi Anne, there are some good suggestions above, in addition the question I always ask is "where is north"!! This should be a consideration too, and it's a little hard to tell how this open plan room connects to the rest of the house - is it the door at the end of the lounge, and are those solid walls at that end? (You might want to consider taking the windows further into the corner of the lounge, to ensure you can see the view from your couch/lounge chairs etc). I am quite curious about what "view" it is! Ocean? Mountain? Although a kitchen-sink window is always great, because you tend to spend more time socialising and meal-prepping around the large island, we would suggest trying to have the island face the view, or if side-on to the view, that it isn't obstructed by other benches. With your room only 6.5m wide, if you rotated through 90degrees and placed the kitchen on the long wall and leaving the pantry/wet room 'behind' the kitchen as in the current arrangement this might potentially block the flow of circulation through to the rest of the house. You could consider leaving the kitchen as-is but moving the kitchen sink bench to the other side and making this a 'tall things' zone (fridges etc) and moving the sink to where the fridge was, and moving pantry entry to the same side as wet-entry. The reason I suggest this is because when you are cooking intensely, you want to minimise circulation routes through a kitchen, so people can come and go and access the fridge (and the wine!) without interrupting the cooking. Of course it is only access to the pantry, so this might be fine too however if you did move the pantry entry to the other end this would create a protected cooking zone at the 'view' end. Ultimately, there is the opportunity to fully glaze the view whether the island is side-on or facing the view - exactly like the kitchen image posted above! (But insert your view into the picture!) As a side note, some builders only complain about sliding doors because they are harder to install and problematic to fix if the architraves need to be removed and replastering done (compared with simply rehanging a swing door!) For a good builder it should simply not be an issue and will significantly improve your access to the space, we always do sliding doors into pantries! Also ditto about the width of the pantry, 1.8m would allow a 600mm bench space on one side for appliances to be kept out, normal depth drawers under and shelves over, and a wall of 300mm wide shelves the other side, this will genuinely feel like a 'big' pantry. And finally - a suggestion to NOT put an oven in the pantry if 4doz bottles of wine are in there! Even if you are not cellaring long term wine likes a nice stable (and cool) temperature for storage. Good Luck Anne!

Benchtop oven is one of those round glass ovens with the element in the lid. Cost me all of $35 and it's one of the best appliances I've ever owned. I cook everything in it and the bowl just goes in the dishwasher. Much easier than cleaning an oven. And it costs so little to run, heats quickly, and cooks superbly. Can't build it in though because you insert food through the top, be removing the lid, and then it gets pulled apart to wash the bowl after use. Accurate dimensions are a problem right now because this terrible virus thing has delayed our move into the house until end July. Very frustrating, but can't be helped. And we can't go to the house at the moment either, so I'm just working off plans as best I can. It's not ideal, and everything will have to be checked carefully when we move in, before we start any work. But I want to get going as soon as we move in so I want to have most of my plans almost confirmed. With the latest plan, I don't think I will reuse the existing cabinets after all. The kitchen is in excellent condition. I just hate the design. I think I'll sell the kitchen and start over. The cabinets seemed to work for my original plan - even had those lovely corner drawers! But I like your idea much better, Siriuskey, and the existing cabinets just don't work with that layout. I think it would be cheaper to sell the kitchen and start over. Maybe keep the oven tower with oven and m./wave in it, as they are in excellent order. Also keep the dishwasher, which probably doesn't even have to move at all.

Like others that was one of my first thoughts but after considering the info given thought that the stairs worked. I have drawn a floorplan which opens these stairs up to the kitchen which I think helps the kitchen passageway feel bigger and lighter, I will post this shortly. But working with my current layout without room dimensions, the plan originally shows an outdoor kitchen BBQ backing onto the dinning area on the walkway. To make both the kitchen and dining larger and brighter I would add glass sliding doors off both spaces, the BBQ would be moved to the walkway wall to allow for this, your plan already shows sliding doors off the family to the alfresco. By rearranging the family room lounges will allow more space for the kitchen and a longer Island. I would also try to keep the 2800 Pantry if space can be taken from the laundry on the split level for a much needed Powder room to service the kitchen family alfresco. Without knowing what is below the laundry, I can't be sure but if it would allow the space above the WC could be storage opening into the laundry

i agree with your partner and would install a highlight window on the west to create privacy while retaining light and views of the tall shrubs and allow for optional bookshelves around the room with three possible TV locations, couch under the eastern window and a pair of armchairs and some coffee tables or footstools that can be manoeuvred for watching tv or the view.. three different windows is fine as long as the top of the window and architrave is at the same height off the floor but consider the height of the TV and bookshelves when deciding the best height for the short wide window...eg a 450mm height wide window should allow for the top of the TV and bookshelves to be about 1500 off the floor but if you have a huge collection of books and things to display the bookshelves could continue up to the ceiling height around the west window and kitchen doorway...and curtains for all windows and sliding doors might be needed to keep glare off day time TV watching but no reason why you couldn't use blinds on windows and curtains for the doors