One possibility would be to swap the living room and the dining room. Since the current living room is larger than the current dining room you could still keep some comfortable seating (couch and upholstered chairs?) against the front wall for a keeping room/dining concept. Then your new dining areas (kitchen and dining room) and living areas (living and drawing room) would have good flow between them, which would work well both for family and entertaining. You could also add some builtin bookshelves in the drawing room or new living room to create a library area to add another fun element to the living areas. These bookshelves could be against the long walls in the drawing room, around the window with a window seat in the living room (former dining room), or built to create some separation in the open area between the drawing room and living room/stair area. Your plan seems to show some sort of builtin there, but I'm not sure what it is.

There is contrast between the traditional furniture and the focal point of the floor which pops, draws attention. I would recover the sofas in cream colored soft fabric - suede. I would leave the curtains grey, and put down a large neutral area rug. The edges of the room would show the pattern of the floor. I would color the wall and add texture to it, but not too dark as the room will appear smaller. Add a picture and put a nice plant holder, large vase in the left corner of the room - an oriental-style vase. Or, a cream-stripe fabric on the sofas. You could go soft or bold in this room - depending on your taste.

Thank you Groveraxle for the virtual ! you are too good a designer that is why I cannot help troubling you ;) you have your biggest fan in me ever since your first advice:)) As for an in-house designer I am certainly going to call somebody soon . Just that I get such a lot of options and great advice from highly accomplished and talented Houzz designers ..I would be better prepared after these conversations ..please forgive me for pestering you guys like this:)

If you love the marble tile, go for it! You can always buy a stainless or white range hood backsplash like this http://www.wayfair.com/Air-King-Range-Hood-Back-Splash-SP2430-AXK1174.html to slip in place when you are cooking something really messy. I have a travertine backsplash and use a stainless sheet when frying. It works great and no worries about stains ruining the stone.