Hi, are you wanting the blinds to give privacy, block light or filter sun or make a design statement. Do you really need this blind as it is ok to leave some windows undressed depending on your answer to the above question. Multiple blinds on one window tend to be a bit unsatisfactory in terms of blocking light and keeping in the warmth. If you are in a cold climate, a curtain is preferable with a double track with a light filtering sheer that can be pulled back to allow access. This may however not fit with the rest of the room or the look you were going for. It may be a good idea to bring in a consultant but remember you can purchase made to order blinds online and save heaps. They send samples for you to check colour etc. Depending on your window style - if you have modern box frames inside the box looks neater but lets in more light. The online companies usually give advice on how to measure for the different styles of blinds. Good luck

Hi there Mel, with all the males in your house you can't hide the TV, we had a similar problem with positioning lounges and didn't want to replace our furniture. Our living, dining kitchen etc all have water views via big windows and sliding doors which really gives you great views while reducing wall space. We placed our sectional with enough space to walk behind it (we have full length timber venetians) in front of the 1st lounge window facing into the room. TV is on the end brick wall, we then have a couple of separate chairs opposite that can be moved if needed. I would agree that the best position for your sectional lounge could be with the back of the lounge towards the kitchen with the other section running along the wall. Keeping in mind the Males in your family (1) mount the TV in the same space on the small flat wall so that it can pivot, just thinking that the pool is right there, the boys could then have access to watching TV from the pool. (2) Put a low bench with storage in front of the window opposite the pool with the TV on this (they could still have access to watch from the pool.) not sure what window treatment you have in mind, you mentioned louvers which are great for air flow. Possible other is white internal shutters. A sofa table behind the lounge would add useful interest to the rear of the sofa. I agree with Domu & House Matters ideas. A couple of photos of our place I will try to find one of furniture placement if You like, cheers,

Susie, this type of problem is becoming a regular issue/post here. The issue is that the design process is not robustly managing the practical costs appropriately to budget, and also managing client's expectations of what can be achieved for certain budget limits. All projects involve balancing requirements to budget in specific context. There will be structural costs either way. The question is rather, how best to maximise the investment in regards to the functional benefits and overall result. If you want my 2 cents I'm never a fan of squeezing down flow into areas such as dining spaces and creating internal doglegged corners unless it serves a specific function. It's a strange (poor) set-up to have the the only external access via the dining room that you have to walk past the island bench and negotiate living room furniture etc. There's however no furniture in this plan which doesn't help us fully understanding the design or functional rationale behind the proposal. I think it's good to take the opportunity to re-think this. We are finding increasingly that we are being asked to come in and sort issues like this out properly when clearly the design process hasn't been managed properly. Don't mean to be overly critical however the fact is it had been designed properly then you wouldn't be posting your problem on a design dilemma forum. If you're interested in hearing further about how we could professionally assist you in resolving the design solution feel free to contact us directly for further discussion and details. There's not a quick answer to this as it involves understanding details of your requirements, budget and context in order to provide the appropriate advice. The best advice I can provide is you need to be working with a design professional who is experienced with these types & scale of projects and inherently understands the cost consequences of design decisions one way or the other. In your case you require a clever simple solution that balances, connects and maximises both the internal and external functional requirements. I can think of various configuration options that could achieve this general requirement of living/kitchen dining but making much better use of your land on a tight site, retaining/maximising the external space required or even better still give the illusion that it's bigger than it is by exploiting the site length - however this requires a deeper and proper level of design service than just a few comments provided here. I've been involved with trouble shooting this type of situation on numerous occasions and in order to get it right it unfortunately requires us coming in, unpicking it and going backwards to go forwards, however I can confidently say it is always is worth the effort and investment as we ultimately need to be working to maximise the long term end result. Cheers PD :)

You won't knock out walls for that budget. That is kitchen refit only. Don't brick up the sliding door, it will make the space impossibly dark and depressing. Better to just lock it and pretend it's a window. The real problem in that kitchen is that corner wall that eats into the available bench space. Is that hiding a water heater or something as it doesn't appear to make sense from the photo's you have. If Ii'm reading that correctly you could possibly move that wall outwards to free up extra bench space in that corner and enable a corner top cabinet. Toaster, kettle will fit there nicely. If that's within your budget I'd do it because it will fix most of the problems with your kitchen. When you have a small kitchen like this an easy way to increase bench space without structual changes is a nice kitchen trolley that increases bench space when you need it and can be parked over near the dining area when you don't. I'd replace the current stove with one that has an induction or ceramic cooktop. Because it's flush you can use the stove top as extra bench space when you're not cooking. Makes the space more flexible. Preferably put in a cooktop on the bench and separate built in oven rather than a freestanding unit. The integration will make your kitchen appear more spacious. With the small space you really do need top cabinets but solid doors are a bit claustrophobic so I'd go with a glass fronted upper cabinets so it doesn't swallow your space but still gives you storage. Also install under cabinet lighting this will help out with visibility when cooking at night. And if possible recess the kickboards to reduce their visibility or change them to brushed aluminium this will make the footprint appear more spacious.