Hi OnePlan, you're right, it is further away from the formal dining room but that gets used so infrequently I wasn't too concerned. There's only the two of us living here. My partner absolutely refuses to consider amalgamating his study within the dining room; I have looked on here for ideas that might change his mind but with no luck as we have a large formal dining table & 8 chairs which can only really go one way. Which is a shame as I thought he would have loved putting his desk by the window overlooking the back garden. We've got the garden room and conservatory for relaxing evenings so the extra room in the little extension is earmarked for relocated study and larger utility. The larger utility is good also as it is the most used entrance to the house. If the study was put into the dining room, the extension could be just loo and big utility/entrance but I'm back to trying to persuade OH to even think about that. I just seem to be going around in circles. Thanks for the ideas though. I'll keep playing with them.

That made me smile and is so true OnePlan. Personally I always go for a kitchen diner for the same reasons as Jaimie but also because the sense of space is so much more relaxing to work in as well. Choose a good classic design and colour for the kitchen units so that you can zone the dining area in complimentary colour if you want to.

Nice kitchen. It is the overuse of black that makes it look a bit dim. I think changing the worktop to a white one will make a huge difference. Most diy stores stock budget worktops - Wickes are really cheap! They are chipboard but will last a few years and great if your on a budget. I would also change, or cover up, the splashback. Cladding gives a nice look and is dead cheap, and you can paint it white. Then if you still want to, you can paint the cupboards, but that is a lot of work if done properly. The dark floor is fine, mine’s dark grey slate, but because my units are light, it just works. I love the funky table and chairs, the clock and the artwork. Here’s a white kitchen with a dark floor. These kitchens have wooden units but everything else is white. I especially like the wooden lower units and white upper units. Just less work for you!

thank you for all the input! The house is built in a slope so the ground floor has no exit in the back and no windows. The 1st floor has two 5mx4m rooms. One of them was used as a living room/TV room and the other as a bedroom by the previous owners. On the 2nd floor, there are two more rooms with partially sloping ceilings, but vertical windows and quite usable. We would like to use these two 2nd level rooms as a bedroom and office. Our current thinking is that one of the rooms on the 1st floor would stay as a smallish living room, and the other one as a guest room, even though has a lot of light and is as big as the living room (4mx5m). My wife does not like the idea of having our bedroom next to the living room. She prefers the 2nd floor for our bedroom, even though we have no bathroom on this floor. We only have a bathroom on the first floor and a small visitor toilet on the ground/kitchen floor. We are thinking that eventually, we might add a small bathroom (toilet/shower) into the office or the bedroom from the 2nd floor. Essentially, the house is on 3 levels with a very similar size room footprint on all levels. We are not after a "formal" dining room. But we like to have friends over for apéro and dinner. Making the dining room comfortable would definitely make sense since we would like to use this floor efficiently and get the most out of it. Since the living room/salon is on the 1st floor, and is smallish, and far from the kitchen, I imagine this room more of an after dinner place to relax, and when having guests to continue here after dinner and perhaps enjoy a digestive and a good chat. We have no kids, yet. @Christine Harrison - so this is a less deep base cabinet with full width worktop? interesting... can you please find a photo of a similar arrangement?