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.

I am so happy to see you here! I will have to go back and see if i can retrieve my posts... thought I would make them into a little book for my daughter, with photos. Quick run-down on the bathroom (not travels, no time) - The kitchen has a rather elegant sliding door with beveled glass panels. Painted white, since this was the original colour. GD's new bathroom has the doors I had picked earlier; i thought of polishing them but decided sprayed automobile paint (on a resin primer) would wear better. Especially since it is such a small bathroom, and she is so splashy. I have this finish in my kitchen and it has lasted 15 years now. A tad chipped here and there, but only needs a wipe down once a week. Same finish for the balcony doors, also split like the bathroom. We have a new wardrobe, a study table with built-in shelves, and a small chest of drawers for her odds and ends. I want to re-tile the tiny balcony, more as a little statement. Currently we are looking at Portuguese tiles, though I did think a mosaic with a funky cat might be nice. Let me see the costing. The room will be painted a neutral adobe, with bright white woodwork and an off-white ceiling. This means she can go wild with cushions and covers. Other changes in the flat; We have changed the glass in the master bedroom and living room from small cramped panes to a single pane for each section with a 1" bevel all round. Doubles the cost of the glass, but looks so elegant! The air-conditioning is being re-located. The compressors were all mounted in the bedroom and living room balconies, which looked terrible and meant the balconies (very narrow, only 30" deep) couldn't be used for anything. Not even plants. So they are being moved so that the compressors can be mounted at the rear of the building. two down, one to go. Now we can put in some nice plants, fishtail palms etc. The kitchen counter on one side came out intact and will be reused elsewhere. I am planning overhead storage, cupboards, and a draining cupboard for plates and glasses. Right now there is no dish washer, though a place is earmarked, but for now I will put in a cupboard with steel racks for cups, glasses and plates, all hidden behind pressed glass doors. This is all in the planning stage.... Pictures in a little while, they are mostly on my ipad and don't transfer well to the mac. They come without numbers... so I have to rename the or something. Somebody tell me how to do this!

Nadia, You need to provide some more snaps showing the entire room, including the location of the beam, its height & clear height of the slab etc. One idea could be to extend the width of the beam by just about 25 mm with gypsum board on either sides, at the bottom level, with a right angular vertical of 25 mm as well & provide LED lighting strip for indirect lighting...

My suggestions: - Go for parallel counter units as shown in picture (below) - Dark blue: fridge, light blue sink - Opp. to fridge, left of hob, you may go for a tall unit (7' tall x 2' wide unit, to maximize storage space)... the remaining 7' width in room (I see room width is 9'4", 2' goes for tall unit, assume 4" wastage)... get 75cm or 60cm hob, this is will still give 2'+ area on either side of hob as 'work area', which is sufficient - I would suggest against U space kitchen, as it will create two corners, and you will be left cramped for 'work area' around hob and sink. Corners pose a challenge for effective usage of storage as well. Might compel you to buy expensive corner units - if you feel you have less storage, either go for loft, or make that tall unit 7'6" and have overhead (above counter units) as 2'6" instead of standard 2' - If you go for loft, you may make the loft U shape (if you have an interior designer, ask them to render it, to see whether you like it aesthetically) All the best, Gopi