Wawawoo - Thank you for your quick response. I think putting a nice desk under the window is a great dea and should hopefully draw attention away from otherwise a wasted hall space! I had thought about extending the bathroom if we couldn't afford a loft conversion but then as you said, there wouldn't be any natural light and I don't think that it would be worth the sacrifice. Anniet - I can't believe I didn't even think of that! Moving the door to the cupboard makes a lot more sense. Thank you so much for your suggestion ;o)

Here's a quite radical layout change. Internal walls, staircase, yet nothing too unrealistic I guess. Everything on your wishlist is in it: Hallway, bigger Master, open Kitchen with island, even managed to make the family Bath a bit bigger (be it just some extra elbow space). Only thing I've done to the loadbrearing wall, was creating a doorway to the kitchen. The external storage could still be there, but a lot(!) smaller, because of the staircase. The lounge door is moved, to divert traffic, you could close it off completely though. Hallway wider, coats under stairs. Study/playroom still there, sacrificed a bit of it for the staircase. Master bedroom now has space for a massive closet, perhaps return some to the landing for a linen closet and/or move the bottom wall to give some width to the bedroom next to it. Tried to keep the landing (ex staircase) as compact as possible, added the old landing to the bedrooms and family bath. Hope it'll inspire you ;)

Hi - bit late to the party - sorry ! But just popping on to say you don’t seem to have any decor end panels anywhere?! You’ll need those on this range as the fascia is longer than the cabinets, so looks odd without them . Most regulars on Houzz forum will know what I’m about to say next - please be careful with seating behind a hob - hot slashes can cause burns.

Paul's suggested what I was thinking. Move the utility to the back of the garage, pull the kitchen and diner to the left hand end and centre and have the right hand end, with the view, for your sitting room. I would look into fitting doors to this new sitting room, either double doors or possibly a folding arrangement, so it can be a separate space when needed. I'd really want to create a hall with the light/view from the back coming through into the central space. To do that you could look into knocking through, extending the new sitting room further towards the front of the house and use the reduced, old sitting room space as a study or snug. I can't see the sizes of the spaces but a smallish, squarish room could be cosy after the bigger, more dramatic sitting room at the back, while allowing for a reasonably-sized hall. Sorry I can't post a diagram but hopefully you get the idea!