@mazpt, yes of course. Here are a few more pictures showing how kitchen, living and dining, and outdoor deck and bbq area flow together. Oska kitchen is really neat in detailing; wood grain on the doors for example, are matched across as many doors as long as a 2.4m sheet allow. Floor turned out very nice too. Light natural colour, wide and long boards, laid length way all the way from front door to the back makes the space looks a bit bigger. Although it is still a floating floor, there are minimal floor movement that make squeak sound, most of the floor are feels solid. I hope that floor squeaking noise will settle over time.

Mark, thanks for your question, it's a good one because we're constantly bombarded by shows like The Block that are all based around trends and that can make us unsure about how our own home can fit into the current trend...or not. Firstly, can I reassure you that pendants are not a trend item, they've been around for ever (thank you how2girl for your image). When designing an interior, the rule is to design or decorate the 3 levels - the upper ceiling level (ceiling details, pendants etc), the mid height wall level (think artwork and tall lamps) and to decorate the lower level (rugs or decorative flooring). The most beautiful and interesting rooms draw your eye around the space, from floor to ceiling and back again, making pendant lighting an important stimulating feature in a space. Pendants also anchor a space. They say, I am here over the meals table or island bench and this is where we gather to talk, laugh and eat. I love them and use them and wall lights in preference to downlights whenever possible. Now just make sure that you still have adequate task lighting in your kitchen for the important things like preparation, cooking and cleaning up. Downlights serve this purpose well. LED strip lighting under overheads is a popular choice - I've done it under island benchtops and kickers as well to give that floating feeling and it looks amazing. But it doesn't provide you with overhead task lighting, and that's why I would use downlights as well. In answer to your question about whether to have an island bench or not, please forget trends unless you're reselling and even then you need to consider how much space you have and the flow of the room. If you could provide a sketch it would be easier to help you wth that specific question. Here are a few photos of one of our recent projects (still in construction mode so please excuse the surrounding mess) which show LED strip lighting, pendants and downlights in a kitchen, bar and casual living room (all in the one big open space). Hope that helps, Yelda xo :)

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!

Hi Lindsey, I also agree with the comments regarding adding indoor plants to fill the gaps on either side of the TV. Some great, low-maintenance indoor plants are the Fiddle Leaf Fig, Monstera (also known as Swiss Cheese Plant) and Snake Plant (Mother-In-Law's Tongue). They're all beautiful plants and very ease to take care of. Another option would be to have some open shelving on either side, similar to the one we have used in this Living Room styling below. This could work really well, especially if you have limited storage for some bits and pieces you would like on display. A bonus is that including taller items like this will create a sense of balance in the room, and accentuate the height of your wall which will create an illusion of taller ceilings. Hope this helps! - Elena