I'm not keen on it really. I don't like the walking straight into a sitting room, although it looks like in reality they just use that room as a large hallway. It's a big space to just relegate to being a walk through though.
I'd also be put off by the stairs opening straight into the kitchen. I'm very surprised that building control were happy with the 'reconfigured' staircase as it's the only way out from upstairs and if the kitchen catches fire you'd be fucked.