How to improve downstairs layout- help please

[UnknownDecisions]

We don’t have direct access to the garden from the kitchen. There’s a long living/ dining room with French doors to the back where we have a small seating area.
the living/ dining room is too small to split into two rooms and the garden is too small to move the seating area.

there’s a gate at the end of the long drive so we considered moving the gate forwards and then we could use the drive for storage or plants. The fence between the driveways is quite low so if we did that we’d also have to raise the fence to make it private

or we could block up the side door and cut a new one on the other side. But this would affect the kitchen design we’ve got.

opinions please

picture below. The crosses are where we have doors now

So what is your actual goal here? To expand the outside space available or to improve the flow from inside to outside?

Do you have a doorway between the kitchen and dining room?

@illiterato improve the downstairs flow. The kitchen feels very cut off from the rest of the house, even outside. With the driveway gate where it is, there isn’t any privacy when you step out of the kitchen. when we’ve had friends over and they’re sitting outside or on the grass bit it’s hard for the person in the kitchen to be included because of where the door and gates are

@PragmaticWench theres no connection between the dining room and the kitchen. We looked at connecting them but we’d have to make all the downstairs open plan which we don’t want.

How do you get into the dining room living room? Climb through a window?

In that case I'd consider your option of moving the side gate. You'd need to check your council website to be sure about fence height at the side or front of your property as some councils only allow fences to a certain height.

@Geneticsbunny 🤣missed the door between the hallway and living room there! Good spot.