Hello James, Just a thought here and a very quick one!... If you have a galley arrangement you don't cut the room in half. You could then have a different kind of island/eating area. I love the island that morphs into dining if there is not a degree of separation to have two separate entities.. . The room spatially will feel more open, but of course it must be something you're happy with. For the seating area consider a chaise longue as if two don't sit, one can recline and gaze into the garden! If you were to make the side return ie follow along from the external wall (Living room) you could move the kitchen back in line with this. It's not a massive extension possibly 70 or 80 wide ie the doorway width approx.. It allows the access way to be left alone and thus you can still walk down past your kitchen.. There's no courtyard but you have a better flow through from front to back.. It's simpler perhaps but sometimes this is the best solution to a problem.. The living room could possibly have the angled wall removed to open up the living and kitchen area.. RSJ or some structural addition if the wall is load bearing and you'd need consent most probably.. Structural engineers, but the architect can advise you.. if you liked the idea.. It means you lose the door to the alleyway from the living room but I don't feel this is a gr8 loss.... You could move (or rather extend backwards to the new rear wall) the loo to my suggested new "rear" wall position boxed in from either side of course and with pocket doors and a small (read tiny) cloakroom in front accessed from hall side... so the door isn't opening directly into hall/kitchen/living but has two doors. So the end of the living room is squared off and forms one side of the new loo position. It's a minimal move. You increase the flow through from the living room by opening this out more and even a smaller amount would benefit. and then you can start the run (Kitchen) from back of downstairs loo with larder cupboard for example so there is again a degree of separation from downstairs loo and what is going to be kitchen units.. I also like to plan large monoliths like double height fridge freezers or larders in corners, which doesn't impede the view! Sliding or concertina doors at the back or my specific favourite .... Bring the outdoors in and visa vera! It's rather a more simplified design but I think it creates flow which I like the idea of in a home such as yours. You could put in wooden french doors if you wanted to separate front living from rear living but still keep them with the aesthetic feel of one room.. Don't lose the fireplaces if they're lovely they might be worth keeping! The other alternative is to square off the loo, do the small side extension as mentioned above and then you have two walk ways into kitchen from hall side and from kitchen side.. Then you'd have the FF or larder in the middle on the Loo wall .. This arrangement isn't open like my first idea.. but it would save you moving the loo in question.. : )) These are on a huge scale I know but they're to give you some inspiration about how to handle the door from kitchen to garden! Think garage style pulley system.. This kind of solution makes for a spectacular entrance to your garden and beyond!

personally I think you need to employ a concept planner as this design could be improved. If the shower room was in the vestibule it would be bigger and could include a vanity with lots of storage and perhaps putting the kitchen units on the left hand side of the extension would give a grander entrance into this room with a better view to the garden from the door

Hi- I could have written this post myself! We too are having a partial side return resulting in an L shape layout. Our overall length is a bit shorter (5 vs your 6), but with the side return ours will be wider at 3.1m and 6m wide. Getting the layout right is so hard! We’ve decided to keep our formal dining room as is, and the kitchen in its existing galley type shape. We will have a peninsula come out at the top end to form bar seating for the kids/guests. The “old fence side” of the new area will have a toilet room and a laundry cupboard for the washer and dryer. I’m having the kitchen designed so that anything a guest/kid/non cook might need is towards the front, eg fridge, snack cupboard, window fridge, cutlery, trash receptacle etc. I am hoping that keeps everyone out of the cook’s zone, aka my way! I want to make the peninsula wide enough so it can feel more like a kitchen table, and be a comfortable spot for the kid’s homework too.

Courtyard- often the cost of moving drains is prohibitively high and a courtyard does get light in to the center of your home and lots of people don’t like high up window in a bedroom plus they have to be a certain size for regulations that often doesn’t fit the available space. Personally I love them. Separately- do you need to extend? Your stated aim seems to be an extra bathroom. Could you put one under the stairs and move the kitchen access?