One of the biggest issues with shutters is the dusk and if you employ cedar they will fade unevenly in the sun. I think the best resolution lies in the glass. This will give you your privacy as well as low maintenance with the view unencumbered. There are glazing solutions that can be "switched on" to obscure for privacy. This may give you the best of both worlds. Fantastic View what a great place for a bath...

oklouise and dreamer, thank you so much for your input! Sorry I disappeared for a while, the weekend was a little crazy, also a lot to process after your suggestions. oklouise, your idea to turn the island 90 degrees is genius! I was obviously mentally stuck on the existing wall and could only imagine the island going along (instead of) it, not across it. I can see the beauty of the suggestion to use that whole "left" wall for the kitchen. I have even walked the rooms imagining how it could work. However after much thinking and discussions with my husband, we prefer to have the living/TV area in that corner rather than in the open area as suggested. Again, I see how this suggestion will work beautifully for many families but not for us. Also, the window in the living area (on the left wall) is 190cm wide and floor to ceiling, and looks into a park. It's the top floor and no neighbours on that side, the view is lovely and we would really like to keep it unobstructed. dreamer, thank you for the idea of a portable island. However, I am very keen on having a second sink and there seems to be no other place for it (provided I'm sticking with what ). Also I thought I'd have a couple of power points there to be able to use my appliances, also it'll be around 2m long, so probably either way too big to be portable. For now I've used oklouise's fantastic suggestion and rotated the island, and made it smaller, now it perfectly aligns with the window on the left and the door at the bottom of the plan. It now looks like there is quite enough space to have a proper dining table to the right of the kitchen. What do you think? I'm providing the current floor plan with the dimensions, the grey area is the existing kitchen/dining footprint. This plan is accurate (done by an experienced person) but my design is probably off as I'm not experienced at all, was just playing with some ideas and a design tool.

I have just checked my awning window, and correct you can't lock it to a certain point of opening. It can only be locked at closed. Could you get a metal brace made, with rubber surrounds, to be attached to either the sill or window frame. Attached with brackets so it can be removed if window needs to be closed completely. Just trying to think outside the norm. You could just use a couple of bits of wood, but a metal brace may look more professional.

Hi Renata, there are generally two types of Push-to-open drawer runners. There is a Push-to Open Ball Cage Runner (also calledBall Bearing Runners) and then there are Push to open Under-mount Drawer Runner. Answering your question of what is right for you is difficult as I don't know what your builder is offering and I do not know what you consider "way too annoying to close". So my suggestion at this time is that you Talk to your Builder, work out what type of runner they offer, test drive that runner on a drawer for yourself and then work out what type of drawer system you actually want. What I can say from my experiance over the years from pulling out old and not so old kitchens is that the Ball Bearing Runners used in Kitchens are cheep to buy, cheep to install and are ok for light wheight applications but we never recommend them for deep pot drawers because 1) they just do not last 2) they do not slide as well as Undermount Runners and 3) they are visable when you open your drawer. These Ball Bearing type runners are also the type that generally don't have the Soft Close option with Push to Open. The Undermount type runner on the other hand is the only type of kitchen drawer runner we recommend to our clients. These can reasonably be expected to last 25+ years, are a lot smoother running, easier to operate, available in Push-to-Open with Soft Close, and are invisable when the drawer opens. IMO for the relatively little extra in cost and the afore mentioned reasons they they are a far better choice for Kitchen Drawers. Hope this helps, Malcolm.