No, I'm sorry, but it doesn't work for me at all. That unrelieved expanse of shiny white is quite disorienting. You don't quite know where the light is coming from. But the colour isn't the main problem here. Although it isn't pretty, the "before" kitchen actually has a lot going for it. The new kitchen has the benches all at the same height, which is a problem because different kitchen tasks are most comfortable at different heights. The surface that houses your sink needs to be relatively high so that when you're using the sink you don't have to bend your back. That's uncomfortable! Conversely, a cutting surface is better if it's relatively low, because that way you can control the knife better. It's a safety thing. The new kitchen has the cooktop and the sink under wall-mounted cupboards. You're absolutely sure the extractor fan whisks all the steam and particulates out of there? Most don't, you know. And with the cupboards at that height, if you're standing close enough to cook or wash up can you see to the back of the bench? No, it's not you, it's the design. Look at the old kitchen. It has surfaces at a variety of heights, and although the sink is under a cupboard you can stir the sauce on the stove without bumping your head, I think. I could be totally wrong about this. The featured kitchen might be a joy to work in. I do think, though, that this does not look like a kitchen designed by a cook.

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!

Siriuskey, the dimensions for the rumpus area 7720 x 4910. I really like how your design improved the flow of the house as soon as you walk through the front door. Paul Di Stefano, I couldn't agree more. Infact when I was first looking into renovations for the house, my number one choice was moving kitchen and dining to the rumpus area and opening up the rest of the house as living space. I actually agree that it would have the biggest impact on the house as a whole. I am definitely considering all options suggested thus far, but there are a few reasons why I might have to stick with a "good enough" design, rather than the best possible design; which is a shame because we have a lot of space to work with. Some main points: 1) bed 2 and 3 are very small. You can't fit a double bed in them without either covering the robe or the window, they are definitely single bed rooms. For this reason, the appeal of adding a fourth bedroom is much greater as the space would be large enough to function as a nice family / media room, while also being able to be utilised as a bedroom that is less functionally limited by its size, should the need arise for either us or a potential future buyer. 2) we are lucky enough to be able to get any kitchen cabinetry done at essentially cost price, with free installation. This makes the cost difference of reshaping and improving the current kitchen versus totally remodeling the house much greater. It seems likely that if we make a great kitchen roughly where it stands, we would be better off from a cost vs benefit perspective than if we were to gut the whole middle section of the house and start again 3) This is our first home and is definitely a "fixer-upper". Except for the rumpus extension, it's all 80's original condition. We will likely stay for quite some time but sooner or later we will be looking to use this as a stepping stone to move closer to the area where we want to stay long term. As it's all original condition, there is lots to potentially spend money on. Bathrooms x 2, laundry, kitchen, carpets and flooring throughout, landscaping. If we redo all of it and get too far in to any really expensive changes, we will likely overcapitalise and not be able to recoup the money when it comes time to sell. In a few other areas in Canberra you would get your money back no problem, but this part of town is not as highly desirable as some of the more central areas; so have to think hard about how much money we would spend and how much money we would be able to sell for down the track. I suppose the main question will be, how much will our house improve simply by adding a better kitchen and another bedroom that comfortably that fits more than a single bed, versus how much will it improve by focusing on the flow and usability of the main living areas of the house. I can't stress enough how annoying our current kitchen is, so I feel like anything that fixes this problem is a win. Photo attached - this was the real-estate agent's photo, so editing probably makes it look bigger than it is. For perspective, the area infront of the microwave is roughly big enough to fit a little over one extra microwave on... that is the entire bench space we have to work with in the entire kitchen unless you prep food on top of the electric cooktop...

your new plan looks like it might work with support beams to replace the removed wall and if you were living in the house i'd suggest that you rearrange the furniture to suit your new layout so that you could see that the front lounge area would not be big enough for the two couches with suitable walking space but moving the door from the entry hall would allow more space for more comfortable furniture arrangements and i've used a 2100 x 900 three seater couch and 900 x 900 for a single armchair and blocking the extra door from hallway to old kitchen would also allow for more counter and wall cabinets