Thanks Louie and Georgi for your comments. Great suggestions for me to think through. Thanks for taking the time to provide that detail. To help see the space a bit better, I've taken out the wine rack and replaced it, temporarily, with a shelf (that was in a different part of the house) that matches the one holding the water filter (the second shelf is to hold our phone and modem - again, due to a small house, it's really the only place the phone and modem can live). Plus, I've extended the table so that I could get a feel for the size table the area could potentially accommodate, now that the wine rack isn't there. The size of the table with the extension is: 1800 x 840. Ignore the look of the current table - regardless of whether we go banquette seating or not, we would like to change the table and perhaps a pedestal table would be best so that it makes it easier to get to the seats at the back. By the way I noticed that when I look at this post on my iPad I don't see all the photos I included like I do when looking at it on my laptop. Hopefully the photos I've included show okay for others looking at this. Thank you.

Hi Karina. Haha very funny re your art piece, KitchenAid! Baking is so much fun; I'm a baker from way way back, and you learn by just jumping in and doing it. About the height of your combined dining/bench table, it's pretty important to have a height that's comfortable for you whilst you work. I'm tall and my family is too, so we had the benchtop height built higher so we are not getting backaches from constantly having to bend over to work. It's really more important for the one who does all or most of the cooking & baking to be comfortable as you can spend long periods of time reading and working out recipes, then putting it all together. Likewise, if you are shorter, choose a table that suits you. Best wishes and keep us posted.

Hi Mel, Kitchens are an integral part of any home and particularly a busy family, so much to consider. I personally think an Island clear of any sinks or utilities makes for a more workable space. It lends itself to food prep, kids homework, meals, guests perched on a bench whilst you prep. Sinks always accumulate mess so I think a sink put to the side works better. Gone are the days where you will stand at a sink hours at a time. Think about how you like to cook and use a kitchen a cooktop not far from the sink works best think straining pasta pots, vegies etc.. As for butler's pantry's I'm not a fan, why spend money on a lovely kitchen only to be cooped up in a small kitchen off to the side, very unsociable. Houses are made to be lived in and sometimes that comes with a little mess particularly in the kitchen. Don't hide away in a butlers pantry embrace your home and kitchen and all that it entails. I recently completed a kitchen with a similar colour scheme to what you are suggesting black, white and timber, I anchored the kitchen with the black Island and used white cabinets for the rest of the kitchen. Matt surfaces are on trend at the moment as opposed to gloss or semi gloss, matt finishes hide finger prints and children's hand marks better, dust will show up on darker surfaces so be mindful of this. I adore natural materials and feel that a timber floor really adds warmth. Take a look at the kitchen I recently designed for my clients, would love to hear your thoughts. Happy to assist you any way - Good luck with your renos. Thanks Collaborative Interiors

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!