I recommend having the TV in a separate well-insulated room if you're having a great room/open floor plan. We combined a play room/media room and put french doors on so TV is visible from great room/kitchen, but noise is contained. Also, love having hand-scraped distressed wood floors that have withstood our kids and dog. Quartz counters have been proven crayon/paint/marker/anything-resistant. A mudroom with cabinets helps contain backpacks and coats by entry (ours is by garage entry since that's how we get in the house). Maximize built- in storage in every room--it's nice to have the option to store away all the toys/school projects/art supplies where they're used and played with. Consequently, we also put in a walk in pantry to store packaged foods and craft supplies. Can keep going, but these are good to start with. Goodluck!

Fritz Johnson is a great architect there. Call him.

Teal sounds beautiful for your splashback, I love vibrant and bright colours in the kitchen - you never see them enough! I think your worries are right as well, dark carpet and a dark bench would be too much darkness - a lighter benchtop would work well with the other colours! Marble is a classic for benchtops, but depending on how you did the wood, it wouldn't look fake at all! What did you decide on doing?

my flat land area is about 330m2 intend to build a new low budget house say floor area 1000 sqft consisting of living dining kitchen 3 rooms 2 full bathrooms no garage no deck house will be built in whenuapai area Auckland NZ kindly quote your lowest possible price with some pictures of designs thanks Best regards Ashraf email : kseashraf@gmail.com