I disagree l am going with 2.5 in or 63 cm cause they are medium blade and look more traditional. We want for master bedroom with sideways view. If l go larger blade 3.5 larger opening meant for room with great view whereas l want to understate view and enhance plantation shutter look. Also l believe larger blade does not sit flush with the outside frame so can stick out. I want a clean line also medium blade let's in less light so good for bedroom. But if l wanted to put them in my lounge with a great view l would select 3.5 or 89 cm. Horses for courses...but l guess l remember WHY l wanted a plantation shutter look and that was based off a traditional look!! l am happy with my compromise of 63 cm 2.5 in med blade.

just had a look at your existing plans for the second storey.. 1/ I'd make it all open plan .. First I'd move your bed 4 downstairs into the theatre room..reason ? bathroom is existing down there..you can turn it into a master suite..bathroom..study as retreat. which then leave you all that room ..bed 4 ..kitchen ..meals..lounge..foyer to just be one huge living area.. from that living area you can pop in a stacker door/bi folds to lead to your screen verandah. Personally I'd get rid of the screens and open it right up with banisters so you can have fresh air flowing in. You can do the same with the front as well to make it one huge area without much changes.

Without looking in the roof space you'll never know if it load bearing or not. Builders knock out load bearing walls regularly so its nothing new or difficult. They may even consult an engineer to work out loads depending on construction. Could use timber or steel depending on spans, etc. Have a local builder inspect and price it up.

Hi Renata, from a Kitchen designers perspective it is not just about access or reach. Foshan Yubang is correct and it all depends on the style of your kitchen and the end look that you are after. Door and window heights in most basic spec homes are a standard 2100mm high and the old thinking was to pick up this 2100mm room line with your tall kitchen cabinets but things have changed. If you are building a modern / contemporary home with 2700mm high ceilings and using large tall glass windows and tall sliding glass doors then a modern style 2100mm high kitchen will look quite squat, even with a standard style bulkhead. Modern Style Kitchen trends also tend to have single line overheads (not stepped) sitting above 700mm high splashbacks and so with 2100mm high cabinets this makes the overheads only around 480mm high and again making the kitchen look squat compared to going all the way up to the ceiling and finishing with a shadow mould and having larger overheads or even just going up to 2400mm high which you then have around 780mm high overheads that again makes your kitchen look better balanced in a tall room. A good example of this is actually Dreamers image above where this kitchen is modern in style, has around 700mm high splashbacks around 2400mm high tall cabinetry (not 2100mm) with around 750mm - 780mm high overheads and a stepped out bulkhead that is around 200mm high (not 600mm high) and square set to the ceiling. It all depends on the style of your kitchen and how you want it to look, perhaps start looking at lots of kitchen photos to pin down how you want your kitchen to look and then decide from there. I would suggest though that if you are lucky enough to have the extra height, then to use it. Hope this helps, Malcolm