I would pop a buffet along the window by the front door & then a rectangle dining table in front of that. There are a few layouts you could do tv/ lounge wise but in the interest of entertaining & also watching tv whilst preparing meals.... I would put the tv on the wall opposite the built in cupboards - not right where the aerial point is though, closer along the wall towards the bedroom door. Then I'd have an L shape configuration of lounges (either a corner lounge or two lounges) with the back of one along the side wall (the wall you look at as you come in the front door), & the other with its back to the built in cupboards (obviously with enough room to open the doors behind it still. Then define the area with a rug etc

Wow thanks so much for the responses everyone. I like oklouise's 2nd design best as it retains the most storage and offers some privacy from the door. Unfortunately it was a tight squeeze to get it in, with 1.6m wide WIR I've only 3.0m for the bedroom. Here's the render: That's a queen size bed. It's just a bit tight, really needs that extra 400mm. Thanks Rebecca for your suggestion. In terms of required storage, this house is for my in-laws, who will take a bedroom on the bottom floor and not use this one, however in Australia most master bedrooms have about 5m of full height storage. Trying to tick all the boxes so that my in-laws get a good price when they sell. siriuskey, I wouldn't exactly call it a view, but the north side window has a good unobstructed outlook over single storey houses. All the other windows are up high. The bathroom window is full size but frosted. I'm reluctant to have the shower all the way across the south wall of the bathroom, as it would force me to reduce the size of the window, and being the shaded side of the house not much light will get in. At the moment I'm still leaning towards the built-in robe design. It allows me to widen the bathroom a bit, and there's more space in the bedroom. However interior design wise it's fairly boring - I couldn't get the chair or chests in that oklouise has. This is what I have at the moment: I also experimented tried separating the WC, but it made the space smaller and we lose one of the sinks: Thanks again for suggestions, and thanks oklouise and Rebecca for taking the time to create plans.

Thank you for this article: very interesting and just substantiating what I have always been aware of. How important the garden is to any living space. I see a problem with our green fields being carved into such time sites and the houses being built so unnecessarily large that it leaves no more space than for a pot plant. I think we need to look at getting the balance of site to house size right, leaving enough MIND space on the site. Also maybe an added sliding scale of costing to homes as they are planned larger. How needs 30 sq? Same applies to infill sites: taking all the site for the 'unit' is just silly: defeating the purpose of infills. House plants are good, and a park across the road is ok but having grass between the toes in your own private space is so much better especially for children. The quarter acre block was settled on as the ideal size for a family to produce their own vegetables but we have messed that up big time! Time to rethink our sizes and proportions... Cheers Margot

as usual the real estate dimensions are inconsistent (and says that the house is about 70sqm bigger than i can calculate) so you need to measure every space including halls, bathroom, toilet, laundry etc ignoring all the biw and cabinets and only use the size of the actual rooms wall to wall not anything that can be removed without changing walls and ceilings ) but, assuming approx dimensions my suggestion would be to use the original living area for a hall and bed 4 and steal space for an ens, move the laundry out the back to enlarge bed 3 and use the refurbished sunroom and bed 4 for a new dining area, laundry and small study and improve the kitchen ...but we need accurate dimensions to be accurate