Definitely go for LED downlights - I just scrapped all my lighting when I renovated my kitchen in favour of these and it looks like two would be enough for your kitchen, although I would put a third in over the end bench but put it on a separate switch to give you versatility. Pendants or any other form of lighting in kitchens are only dust/dirt magnets. Keep the lighting practical and save the pretty ones for your dining area. The LED lights give very good light and you don't have to have them evenly spaced because you hardly notice them. The two main areas you need well lit are over your hotplates and over your sink, but don't centre the lights over these otherwise you will be standing in your own light. Put them about 30 cm to one side. If you want to keep the chandelier over the table, can you get a longer rod for it so it hangs lower? I would also have it moved so it is centred over your table.

Running with your second floor plan (and ignore the glass sliding doors in this image) but would you consider changing your 3m narrow splash to a full sized fixed window on half the side and the remaining side create as the cooking area with cupboards, oven etc.? You mentioned you have stacker doors in the direction of the lounge, but in terms of space, from these doors, it's living area no windows at a room length of around 7m, followed by 4m kitchen room length including a 3m narrow glass splash to provide natural light for the kitchen area (cupboards noted above)? From your drawings there seems to be no windows on the opposite wall, is that right? I feel you will need to bring additional natural light into the kitchen area possibly bigger than the 3m glass panels if only 0.6m tall (or similar) especially with cupboards on top. If you're not keen on swapping out the narrow splash here's another example with your second floor plan (and also ignore glass sliding doors in this image) but possibly a tall window or fixed glass panel before your kitchen bench starts - even if <1m wide. Or greater than 1m if you're OK to encroach on your 3m glass splash and make it shorter. If the island bench is not a "must" you could create similar to this image and have a L-shape bench so it encloses the kitchen a bit more. This will help create the next room of your house ie. Kitchen - and you'll gain a few more cupboards if you're really wanting additional. Then have the big fixed window adjoining the L-shape next to the seating bench. You could still have your narrow glass splash with cupboards above, possibly just shorter (only referencing the L-shape and large door in this image - imagine fixed glass full-size wall panel in lieu of door next to the seats. Ignore the remainder of the kitchen). Is this an existing dwelling or new home build? For either of your options, are you impacting your roof-line as your first floor plan suggests you're widening the kitchen by 1m? The first plan I'm guessing will cost more; light wells and extra bricks vs straight wall. As mentioned by the other posts, there's plenty of storage options. You still have a decent amount of room for cupboards including a full-sized pantry next to your fridge space. I also agree with jbantick's of balancing space indoors and out (not knowing surroundings).

Hi Bradleys54, as you are creating a 'contemporary' style home, I would keep your kitchen finishes nice and simple - white on white. Then bring in colour variation by selecting a paint colour in a gorgeous, sophisticated grey, for the surrounding walls/bulkhead. Taubmans Cloudburst or Taupe Grey are both great interior colours. Your white kitchen will look fresh and crisp inside this colour. Consider a mirrored or grey kick face to your kitchen to work in with this scheme and glass pendants with grey or black fittings. I'm assuming that window will become your Kitchen Splashback.. If you wanted to steer away from an 'all-white' kitchen, then you could select Caesarstone's sleek concrete for your kitchen island bench top only, which would work in beautifully with they grey interior paintwork. Good luck!

Hi Khanh, we bought a 40 year old 2 storey house and it needs a lot of work (I'm 40 and need a lot of work too but that's besides the point lol)... the kitchen does not have a pantry (we're using an old melamine cupboard for that but it's not close to the oven, fridge or sink) so meal prep involves getting everything out of the cupboard first, before packing a picnic and venturing into the kitchen lo - and for a cripple like me with a multitude of health issues, it is inconvenient and extremely impractical... we removed an old intrusive bulkhead to help open up the space and allow more light but following some not so great advice from the father in law, we need to plaster and repaint again where the bulkhead was removed as it's showing some cracks :/ It is an awkwardly laid out space .... the rest of the house has Fraser Island hardwood floors - and while we did replace a thousand layers of lino in the kitchen with really nice grey tiles, there is no connectivity between the kitchen and the smallish lounge/dining space. We could potentially add a few stools to make a breakfast bar on the lounge/dining side of the kitchen counter, but then we have no clue where the dining table would go if we did that. I'm not sure if I had the money to throw at it whether we would just 'tart it up' a little, or gut it and change the layout completely to create a better, practical flow for not just the kitchen, but the dining/lounge space as well.