You have an interesting problem. What sort of lifestyle/living are you trying to achieve? Why wouldn't you swap formal lounge/dining with family room/kitchen to get more in-out flow for family & create moody lounge/dining in darker rooms?

hi, i dont think that would work for a few reasons and main one being cost of changing the 2 areas.
the kitchen works well where it is being the centre and close to the garage. we tend to entertain large numbers a lot and flow from formal lounge to the semi outdoor area.

The formal lounge as it is, is a lot darker than
the kitchen area, because the kitchen has a window on east and west side, where as the lounge has small skinny windows on the west side only.

I'd put in velux skylights in kitchen, get rid of side cupboards and turn current kitchen into a walk in pantry behind a new kitchen built out into the space.

I'd also probably replace the bar with a gas fireplace and maybe install banquette seating

ok now I've looked more closely at plans you're probably better off opening to dining and tilting orientation of kitchen 90degrees that way.

Now I am lost..kitchen has windows on east and west side...how does that work with your floor plan??? Or do you mean the windows in the gable?

The island is very small it looks like an after thought, if you can replace it with longer one and replace dark tiles with something light it would make kitchen much happier place. Swap dining and living room, you don’t need so much light in dining and you can add large pendants above the dining table, use lighter colour rugs to brighten it up.

If you are not attached to black rafters repaint it in white and replace dark floor cover in present dining, I think your place is fine just colours need to change and don’t use cream colour on the walls it tends to look dated if you don’t have enough natural light.

@purplekristi - yes the kitchen has a gable window which makes all the difference to the light!
@oklouise - sorry that's the latest floorplan I have, although most of the changes we complete before we bought the house. we did fill in the cavity slider (highlighted green) off what is marked as dining area on the plan.
I've made some measurements on the attached plan. the filled in green area has been made a front hall with entrance door at the end. and the carport made a filled in garage.
I do know the highlighted orange wall is definitely loadbearing, but would have to check on any others.
thank u all for your input!

Problem you have with place being cold in winter is hard to address in the open plan house . Is there any way you could add sliding doors to close of areas you want to warm up. Otherwise install gas ducted aircon in the whole house.

@KK1000 - do you mean move the dining off the kitchen area?
yes I'd love to change the floorcoverings, I have a lighter timber colour in mind, had thought to put it right through the kitchen family and dining, and maybe a light carpet just in the formal lounge.
We already have gas ducted, but it doesnt have very many outlets in the kitchen/living area so we find the bedrooms are toasty warm in the day and still cold were we are living. so had thought we could turn off ducted during the day if there was another option in the living area. but there may not be room, it's all ideas in my head at the moment. LOL!!

and yes I intend to repaint as well. do u suggest a grey base rather than cream?

Hi , we had the same problem with heating so we added flued gas heater in the dining/ kitchen area so we
Can just heat it up in the morning B4 work . And for the paint colour I am huge fan of light grey but not silver grey more like neutral stone grey , it’s timeless and no need to repaint in a hurry. This is the heater we are using, the only down side is it’s fixed so you have to find a special place for it, if it’s not flued out you may have problem with moisture and gas smell therefore health problem.