Hi Claire. I confess I'm not very good at kitchen planning! However (ignoring cost of moving plumbing and potential structural changes) have you considered taking 3ft or so from your living room which would still leave you a really decent size room. The plan isn't to scale but gives you a rough idea. I can see you like banquette seats so that's what that is on the plan! I think standard depth units are 60cm and I've copied this re hose etc. On the utility wall you could consider some kind of display or breakfast cabinet in the middle. If the units blend in with the wall as they do in your inspiration pic I don't think it will feel like a utility area in your dining room. http://www.whitegoodshelp.co.uk/washing-machine-depth-specifications/

Hi Barnaby, Sounds like a great buy and a fab family home! Having been through a very similar situation in the last 6 months (moving into a house where the back wall had been extended and the house was left with a very similar 'steel and nibs' to your kitchen, where it had been opened up) I'd definitely recommend getting some advice from a few different people. Two builders told us it would be impossible to get rid of the visible RSJs and the nibs of the old external wall. It was only when I persevered and asked an architect to come and have a look and got a structural engineer in that we realised it was completely possible and far less expensive than we thought. We only ended up spending £2,000 on fees (£500 architect and £1500 structural engineer) and £12,000 on building works and it has completely transformed the space. If you're lucky enough to find a creative builder they could be really helpful with the layout but my experience was that they are more about the 'doing' and 'practicalities'. I found getting some independent design advice (from a concept planner) on the space and layout super helpful and then once we had an idea of what we wanted we were able to ask a couple of builders to price up. The designing of the layout was a fraction of the cost of anything else and saved us a lot of money in the long run. You might want to have a think about chatting to a concept planner (there are several great ones on here) and get an idea of some designs and costs. Just a suggestion :)

Hi Christine, Lots of the projects we work on are similar extended homes - if you look on our pro page there are lots of layouts you can have a look through. Although - bear in mind that they have been designed with those clients to suit them - you'd probably like one that suits you instead, especially if this is going to be a long term home.

The kitchen extension on the back was already done when we bought the house some years back. There has never been a utility room, the current washing machine and dryer are in our kitchen which drives me nuts (noise etc). The living room has an opening onto the dining room that is slightly bigger than two double doors wide (though we have no doors to close the opening). We did think about having two seperate rooms but felt that either a big living space ie a joined up living room and dining room or a medium space ie sitting room with half a dining room and a separate utility would be better than two smaller rooms...