typical dogs breakfast Queenslander! I would make the entrance into the current bedroom 1 and turn current entrance/lounge into main bedroom with sunroom where current entrance is...nice place to relax with doors open. Then I would knock the wall down between the kitchen and current bedroom 1 to make one large room from front to back and put the kitchen along the wall against current bedroom 4 with long bench with dining area one end and open plan lounge at other end. I would wall off bedroom 4 and only be able to enter it from lounge. another door in lounge to enter remains of bedroom 4 which I would convert to laundry and then entry to bathroom. Block current doors from kitchen into bedroom 1 and bedroom 4/bathroom. Either block door between bedrooms 3 or take wall down to make one big room. Scuttle outdoor bathroom/toilet to make one long outdoor area that opens up from kitchen dining area. Probably put a skylight in kitchen area too.

i'm glad you're planning to reroute access to the garage: clumsy traffic pattern change a generous room into a big hallway and can't stop thinking about your kitchen..1. where you have narrow cabinets/shelves in the pantry...it's possible to have built in shelves inside the dividing wall (think about the size of what you want to store: cans, bottles, skinny packets? and put 60cm base cabinets on the other side, next to the freezer 2. i can't see the yellow highlights for stools 3. width of pantry is subject to you wanting to keep the door to the formal living room...if so, measure 150mm past the door opening and that's the minimum width of the pantry but 1500mm allows space to comfortably walk past your freezer and have full size base cabinets with pantry drawers (cleaner than open shelves) 4. space between the b'fast bar and 'fridge should be at least 90cm but if you choose a wide b'fast bar and a big 'fridge a bigger space is preferable (stand a couple of chairs 90cm in front of your current fridge for a few days and see how it feels) direction of fridge door opening is also critical, first for the cooks and then everyone else: if the size of the b'fast bar can be enlarged or reduced with overhanging counter then a change of walkway is not so difficult 5. as suggested by girlguide, the cooktop and rangehood might be better on the outside wall for ventilation 6. there seems to be a lot of small cabinets and drawers in your plan and there could be some better (and cheaper) combinations but when i tried to access IKEA kitchen planner to confirm available sizes it's not responding today 7. i've attached my suggested approximate base cabinet sizes: starting with corners and work outwards, aiming for the biggest standard carcases and then add drawers to suit purpose ..

Thanks everyone - your comments and diagrams have given me plenty of ideas I hadn't considered. Perhaps shifting the wall is a little drastic! I'm now thinking of going a long U shape like this. I'll add a few upper cabinets on the left side too for the most frequently used stuff from the pantry (as the pantry is still a distance from the stove/oven). The fridge as you can see is now right amongst the action. We also have a chest freezer hiding out in the laundry which I can move into the old fridge space...alternatively I might convert it to a computer workstation as suggested. I'm leaning towards a peninsula rather than an island, just because I feel like it will give me a slightly more efficient/seamless work space, and we don't expect seating at at the island/peninsula will get used much given how close the dining table is. Any thoughts on this revised layout?

I know. I thought that too. The pic is a bit deceiving l There isn’t a pantry or cabinetry to the right of the window. So the pantry you see is it, which is why no wall oven. I did repurpose the downstairs linen press (another is upstairs and extra cabinetry in laundry) as a butler’s cupboard. It’s immediately behind the fridge and I use it for appliances and additional packaged food, kitchen linen etc. The cabinetry was from a local (regional Victoria) cabinet maker. About two years ago. About $13k for cabinetry and $5k for the stone benchtop. I’ve used them for three kitchens and a laundry over about 15 years. Each time I’ve found the cabinetry not that much more expensive than flatpaks and custom with installation as well.