You have a lovely home to work with. I would say don't underestimate mirrors for making a room look twice as big. Have you considered giant mirrors, or mirroring an entire wall? How about the curved wall? I would pay attention to lighting also, as great lighting can make your home look a million dollars and more spacious. I would make a focal point with television resting on a gorgeous storage cabinet, place wall picture frames on wall where tv is placed, this will draw attention to the art and cabinet rather than the tv itself. I would get highback armchairs and use them for both dining and lounge seating with a sofa. I like those Victorian card tables on wheels, that fold up, multipurpose. Only buy furniture you absolutely love, don't follow trends, follow your heart, after all you want to feel good at home. Don't be half-hearted follow your dreams, be confident. When you fully execute your interior passion you'll be happy and others who come to your home will sense you and credit your style as being authentic, true to you and they will love it as much as they love you.

Hello, I’m not speaking as a Pro but I have a young family and also having a ground floor extension this year. I would prefer to keep the living room as it is as it’s nice to have a room for some quiet time ( also knocking down walls and having big bifolds will add extra cost to your renovation). I’m not keen on the kitchen units all stretching down the whole wall on the left, even though you have made room for a ‘living area’ as it will feel like you are always in a kitchen. If you keep the kitchen area in the first half of the room and have the ‘living space’ towards the section near the garden/back then you have a defined ‘living space’, you can use that for a dining area, watching tv, sofa and relaxing looking out onto the garden. Also as the area is clearly defined, parents can keep an eye on their young kids in the rear section whilst they are preparing dinner etc. I hope that helps.

By looking at the layout of the current plan you can definitely achieve a lot with it, at the moment the layout is not great as you have an entrance hallway and than another hallway to enter towards sun lounge and workshop entry is from garage or garden. Kitchen itself is not very practical it does not have dining space big enough or even adding a kitchen island just would not work. Suggest you have the rear extension to square of the building towards the left and where the garage is to try and get the permission to bring the garage wall towards the front of the building of course convert the garage to play area or gym or maybe cinema. New Extension should have 6 panel bifold low frame doors for indoors/outdoor look and two large skylights. In the new rear extension towards the left, add L shape kitchen with large 5 to 7 seater island, open up the walls from sun lounge and workshop make all open plan for new kitchen, dinner and lounge, Relocate stairs to the left where kitchen is now and have double glass doors where stairs is now so the view from entry is right through to rear of the house and you can see the garden. You could have pantry, another kitchen for all the dishwasher, washing machine or even cooking so than the main kitchen is kept for socialising perhaps a wine bar or wine spiral cellar(amazing feature with wow factor) ? Just some of the ideas..

Hi, thanks for taking the time to reply. I thought I might use the additional living room space as a play area and could perhaps get a screen if I wanted to hide toys away when not in use and could add an armchair/chaise by fire in dining room. Need to zone but haven't had such q big space to do before so a bit overwhelmed with flooring/colour/furniture choices and things it all together, large rugs definitely on the shopping list. Definitely want to get rid of the dark wood on doors and skirting. We are going to put recessed downlights in kitchen and dining room and either two pendants or more downlights in living room. The current dining room light is centered to fit the previous owners table so we can change this. Think I want pendants over new breakfast bar. I like the idea of painting archway darker colour to define areas, funnily enough just saw that in Ideal Home mag yest. Thanks again!