Hi Keswing, I had exactly the same problem with my hubby!!! Haha! The great thing with concept planners is they will pass their trade discounts onto you! We actually used Gina from Create Perfect on here (but she does exactly the same as OnePlan) who I would highly recommend and the fab thing was that even after her fees it saved us money because she passed on all the trade discounts! I highly recommend getting in touch with OnePlan and Create Perfect and getting quotes from both of them. If you ask them both to send you the list of companies they get trade discount with then you can show that to your hubby and knowing you're in the market for some serious spending on a kitchen and presumably a bit of new furniture then you'll be able to show it's cost neutral! :) We saved over £1,500 in our kitchen alone through Create Perfect getting us discounts with our chosen suppliers (probably worth noting that it doesn't limit your choices as the kitchen company we chose from her concept plan she'd never dealt with before but she set up a trade account just for us, the same for our underfloor heating and actual floor) Hope it helps and good luck!

I'm guessing by the layout, and fireplaces that it's an old Victorian building. The only thing to remember with flats is that unless you are the sole Freeholder as well as the leaseholder, then you have to get permission from the Freeholder for just about anything internally with regards moving / knocking down walls. I would say, that the best thing to do would be to have a small archway from lounge ( bed 2 ) in to the kitchen diner. The next owner can easily re-instate the wall if they want 2 bedrooms back.....................obviously 2 beds is more valuable than 1. Moving the Kitchen to the bedroom is a better idea and should be achievable as there is clearly drain access out the back near the toilet. If you were to do that you end up with a great sized lounge / diner in the biggest room. You have to take the advice of a structural engineer though, due to it being a flat as you need to know what's structural. I personally nearly always run things past a local estate agent to confirm that my changes are going to add value. I would imagine that a large / spacious well layed out one bed is going to be similar in value to a cramped 2 bed.

Thank-you very much for the comments. I hope it will be a great space, but playing around with it and changing the design at the last minute is getting a bit stressful! This is the design that the build company showed us initially - just their initial thought as it how it would look. I found feeling the area where they had positioned the fridge/freezer very tricky. We want a free-standing french larder style fridge and the doors and level of matching with the rest of the units didn't seem like a good fit. The support pillar for the steel that crosses the island in the attachment below has also been a real annoyance. It sticks out 23cm, so it can only really go through empty-ish cupboards. Clearly anything to the left of that steel is difficult to vent. On the design in my intitial post, I was intending to have a dropped ceiling element that stretched just beyond the steel. This would let me have a powerful extractor and exit the flew onto the flat room (hidden by the drop ceiling 'box'). I like the idea you describe of a full wall of units, then island, then table. I guess Jonathan's proposal is similar to that. While I love the efficiency of the "4 double door" hideaway I just don't like the aesthetic, so will need to think about something else. Bringing it back to what we need... Utility room: enough to stash the washing machine, store the vacuum cleaner and hang a few clothes. No need for a sink. Free Standing, 90cm wide fridge, nicely framed either by wall of kitchen units. Waist height oven with an additional "top oven / grill (broiler)" - so at least one full height column. Good size kitchen island with at least two seats. Approx 90cm induction hob, plus a gas domino hob. Powerful, externally venting extractor over hob. I'm relatively open to moving the kitchen/living area to wherever it works best. I'm also not desperate to have the hob on the island (but that would be nice). As far as I know, the builders haven't done anything that can't be easily adjusted at this stage - but I think that will change in a couple of days - and they are planning for the kitchen to be in the old part of the house. As for rooflights - I thought, perhaps wrongly, that it would be light enough with the big bifold doors. It is an east facing room, and the old room had some sliding paitio doors and it felt bright enough. So I have left roof lights out on the basis that - but I'm also concerned about noise. (Cheaper too!). The biggest window we can gave without incurring significantly more cost is 1800mm x 1000mm - I'm minded to be 2 or 3 of these in that middle section. Thanks!

I like the layout- I don’t think you can do much else and there is not enough space for an island and a peninsula would cut down the kitchen space. Personally I think the extra storage at the dining end is useful. Personally I think there are a couple of extra things you could consider:- Firstly there are drawers under the hob flanked by cupboards. Personally I would rather see a wall of drawers to give you longer horizontal lines to make the space seem wider. Secondly I would prefer the storage at the dining end of the room to stop 300/400mm from each corner for an unfitted look which I think also contributes to a feeling of space. If there is no bin planned then you need that planned in a cabinet on the sink wall. Personally I prefer to see a wider raised cabinet over the hob as I think the likely lower cabinets each side crowd the hob. It looks like your fridge opens the wrong way and doesn’t fit in the units. I would rather see an integrated fridge- if it has to be free standing don’t build cabinets around it, put it at the end of the run. I think fitting cabinets around a fridge frames it and I think normally we only put a frame around treasured pictures not the plainest lump of metal in the house. Next you say the dining area feels too formal- I would make it more comfortable , choose a round table and upholstered chairs with a chandelier over. Flooring- your choose kinda depends on the kitchen cabinet choices. If you choose wood in your kitchen then porcelain tiles laid on the diagonal will help it seem wider. A wood floor direction can also help it feel wider. A rug under the table will also help the room seem less long. Lastly consider the lighting. Of course it needs to be light enough to cook but when you are sat relaxing or entertaining at your table you need to be able to switch off the ceiling lights in the kitchen and create an ambiance from under cabinet lighting, an over table light (with a dimmer), lighting in the dining end storage (glass cabinets?) or walk over lights that spill light up the wall