That is a really good point. I had considered wooden planters either the side of steps at the bottom but your idea is brilliant. You are right the steps are different heights and quite dangerous. Many thanks. I think I need to spend tomorrow pulling out weeds and having a good think.

Hello ! Re 1. Changing to window... I agree - perhaps a window seat might work well there ?! Re 2. I wouldn't remove the door - but perhaps consider replacing the wall with a crittal style glass divider and opening, if it is compliant with what's needed for fire regs ( as can't see how many floors you have in this building !) but agree that improving the sight lines from the front door would be a bonus! Re 3. That's probably very similar to how I would do it initially - they can be zoned so not all on at once ! Pendants over island might be nice - but again depends on what's going in the island - lighting really needs to be designed at the same time as detailed kitchen design ! Re 4. I think the utility needs to be sub divided so that you can gain access to the study without wandering past (dirty) laundry - so have left half as boot room / en route to/from car things - and route through to study - and have laundry on right half . Put laundry appliances on right outside wall so sound transference lessened in study and tumble dryer can be vented. I would maybe consider reposition the fireplace in kitchen so it's central to space left for dining - rather central to whole room, but again that's dependent on the finished kitchen design, which should be designed to suit your family and routines etc - not just to suit the room shape ! Hope that helps a little - drop us a line if you are interested in a freelance concept planning service - as that's what we do ! Working with you to get the design just right - So you can then shop around with ease, and compare like for like. Yours is the sort of 'whole ground floor project' we often undertake - we don't 'just' design kitchens !

Love to see some pics of the rear of the house. Was just wondering what type of roof you are going for? Also wondering, whether as well as having skylights, roof windows or a roof lantern, the latter of which would look particularly nice on a listed building or one in a conservation area, that maybe a light tunnel could be installed to go directly in to the library. roof lantern:- Sky or Light tunnel:- Sun tunnels can go in roof spaces, but I have also seen them at source from an outside wall, going through the joist spaces in the ceiling above and coming out in the middle of the ceilings as above.

Sorry Mat not sure if I follow. Are you having storage put in by the door? There is no storage labelled on your plans. If so, then visually speaking, the room starts from where the floor starts not from where the wall behind the cabinets starts. So if you have the same distance from both sides i.e. from right wall and from the left cabinet, it will still look symmetrical. Do you see how the room starts from the door of the cabinet and not from the splash back behind the sink? Here the column between the doors looks the same size as the wall next to the cabinets, whereas in reality the wall is at least 60cm wider. Again here the door appears to be in the centre of the room but in reality the wall on the left hand side is much wider because it carries on behind the cabinets. The designer has cleverly placed a T.V. there to stop the eye from noticing the rest of the wall. The same effect can be achieved with floor to ceiling cabinets. Was that what you were asking about or have I gone way off?