Thanks for clarifying - I suspected the velux windows would be in that back area, but always worth checking! Your 3D View also gives some useful info. To ask another question - are you restricted as to where residual sections of wall may still remain after you have opened out the space? Again I would be speculating on what was load bearing and where there may still be obvious structure left (e.g. hiding RSJs). Your 3D plan shows quite a large section of residual wall by the kitchen. There are so many options, it is difficult to know where to start. One option which may be worth considering is moving your kitchen to where the dining room currently is (if services allow) and bringing a breakfast bar across further back into what is currently the lounge. This might make nice use of the bay windows at a sink, and the hob could be positioned in the breakfast bar so you could chat with dining guests while cooking. It would also open up a larger footprint for the lounge (where the kitchen currently is). The fireplaces sound like another challenge - it would be interesting to know just how close they are and what profile the wall is around chimney breasts etc. Where possibly, I would try to avoid removing chimney breasts (often a can of worms), but work with the existing wall profile - you can use shelves & fitted furniture to create straight clean lines, and a second fireplace "gap" could be used as a log store to avoid assymetry. Wrt doors - I think 3 next to each other is overkill in an open plan area like this, but might still keep 2 depending on where any remaining sections of wall are and how you lay out the area. With so many possibilities, I'd mock up a few on CAD and chat them through with family/friends or a friendly local designer to narrow it down. I'd also think carefully about what furniture you have or will get - sizes and shapes may point you towards a particular layout. Good luck and have fun designing!

This is exactly what we have just done in our clients home and is shown here https://www.houzz.co.uk/projects/2446242/stairs-and-balustrade-hanger-green. It is usually desirable to make the new attic stairs an equal pitch to the existing ones, however often it is necessary to increase the new upper flights pitch to avoid the window, if carried out skillfully and with a proper thought out design the stair and the space it sits in can be manipulated to enhance each other and either not impact on the available light or increase it. Unfortunately, most attic conversion companies will be looking for the fastest and most cost effective solution and a feature staircase may not fit into their scope. Often clients approach a specialist to design and make the stairs and work along side their contractor. The new flight could be designed to sit well next to the existing flight and the details like handrail and newel post of the existing could be copied so that both work together as a single entity. See this project that we also completed https://www.houzz.co.uk/projects/2044758/attic-stairs-and-stairwell we used the existing lower staircase as a starting point for the new stairs to the attic, while they are not the same they appear to have come from the same workshop whilst being constructed 100 years apart. Robert

I would go for half and half approach as per jmcdi, painting the panelling below in keeping with rest of hallway and keeping the large newel posts, balusters, handrails and diagonal bottom section (not sure of its proper name) as they are. The only other option might be to try and remove a bit of the dark varnish from the stairs and see what colour the wood comes up naturally, it could be oak underneath the stain? However if it turned out to be lovely and you went for stripping the whole thing this would be a messy, long and potentially costly process. Best of luck, keep us posted!

Unless the washing machine is a top loader, then you'll also have problems opening the washing machine door against the basin. One of the smallest you can buy is a Naro from Drench at 427mm wide by only 288mm deep, as shown on here to scale. So, as you have the width, i'd go for a corner basin. The room already looks more spacious. Then i'd stack the machines to give you sorting space. You could do one of two things depending on what the gap under the stairs looks like. Put in stair storage, have the machines on the left and a cupboard next to it for bits and bobs and sort on to your cupboard. Or, if you don't want / can't have for structural reasons the stair storage, swap the machines over to cover the stairs and have the cupboard to the left with little shelves above. You could even block the stairs off for a more finished look and still have visually more space. I like this last one the best, but it's your house, your call,