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!

the extension will just be 10 meters but from the start of the living room to the back would be over 20 if we knocked the whole thing through. in the current dining area is a 16 seater table. we dont have children yet but might in the future. the washing machine in the kitchen but i think ill move it upstairs. i hate going up and down like a yoyo. boiler is upstairs also. the garden is small but this doesnt effect it much. we would be knocking down our current narrower kitchen which is just as long.

Hi OnePlan, many thanks for quick feedback. Valid points you made. The hallway to WC has a small cloakroom before you enter the WC. This is because I may not have enough space to put a door due to some structural elements and the clearing from front wall to stairs is just 36 inch. This is a southern aspect garden . I plan to put some sky lights/windows across the width of rear extension so yes its a valid point about evening sun affecting TV. Peninsula is also good option to give us more spaces. Let me work it and post back results. We could open a door to pantry/laundry room but then loose the wall to put stuff.

We are in the process of extending (a joint project with our neighbours to gain an extension to the front box room, then along the ground floor across the front and down the side of the house). We're having some last-minute layout dilemmas, the floor space isn't the biggest, but we will gain some essentials from it (bigger kitchen, downstairs shower/toilet, office space, porch and the bigger box room upstairs). Our shower room is going to be fairly slim (worked out as 900x2900mm at the minute). This also creates a slim corridor space beside that leading to an office which I've bumped along a bit to give some more space (sacrificing utility space at the other end, when you compare my Ikea layout with original drawings). The other option is to access the office from the lounge, meaning we could lose the corridor altogether and widen the shower room, but that would make the office open to noise from the lounge and I think it's a weird place to add a door. We're also struggling with options for the laundry/utility space too and whether to just include it as an extension to the kitchen. I've added some screenshots and links to an Ikea planner I used to map the ground floor out completely (ignore the colour and the basic mapping of furniture etc. it also doesn't include the pitched roof and Velux windows). Any input would be appreciated, I'm just looking for layout ideas and tips for anyone that has similar sizing/spacing set-ups. Thanks. Links to 3D plans: Ikea plan 1 with laundry space included in kitchen - https://kitchen.planner.ikea.com/planner/#/gb/en/planner?projectId=192B977E-9364-4348-9DF7-A3D64BC3767A&ref=share Ikea plan 2 with wall separating laundry space - https://kitchen.planner.ikea.com/planner/#/gb/en/planner?projectId=192B977E-9364-4348-9DF7-A3D64BC3767A&ref=share Screenshot of Ikea layout plan 1... Architect drawings... Internal before: Internal after: External before: External after: