To begin designing a kitchen you draw the entire space to scale on a computer or on paper. Then place your appliances sink table chairs etc on the floor plan. You do this to understand if your ideas can even work the way you envision them. I would recommend using a kitchen designer. Working by yourselves, the kitchen design would be limited by your experience and abilities, and starting the process in the wrong order does not bode well. After the kitchen is designed then have several contractors come to give you bids and their input. This will save their time and make the bids lower and more accurate. After you have potential floor plans and have thought things through, this is when advice from Houzzers can be helpful. When the job is not completely thought out advice on Houzz can be dangerous. You will be encouraged to make decisions also not thought out and coments will seem valid no matter who is making them.

So I think we have decided to stick with the layout that we have and just block up the double doors. I hope it and it will be nice because I have lost a lot of sleep worrying about it. Thanks for letting me post here.

to add, this was original layout. I was worried kitchen would not get much light in mornings. the house is actually Northeast facing. what you prefer it any other options.

We are in the process of renovating our kitchen, including knocking through into the dining room and adding french doors from the dining room to the garden. It's west facing and doesn't get huge amounts of sunlight. I'm trying to figure out what to do about lighting. We have 3 pendants that will go over the peninsula but otherwise no lighting decisions - although as we are redoing the ceiling, recessed spots seem like a good idea. The kitchen cabinets will be pale grey high gloss, with an oak worktop. Other than the oven cabinet and the freezer/fridge/pantry wall, there are no high cabinets. My main issues are: where to place spots centre light in dining area: we tend to move the table depending on season/events/mood so don't necessarily want to be stuck with a pendant light that only works best directly above the table do I need spots interspersed with the pendants over the peninsula (they are heavy ceramic so will likely not cast much ambient light). It will be my main baking/food prep area so light will be important. (General plan of kitchen - not entirely to scale but gives a good idea of plans. About 30 sq m in total - the long wall with window and french doors is about 7 m)