Kitchen Remodel and Design Advice - how to start

Hello:

We have a 1960's split level home (5 beds, 2.5 baths, 4 levels) (~3000 sq ft.). It is located in a suburb of Milwaukee, WI, in an older neighborhood. Most of the homes around us are 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths.

So mostly, modest homes.

The home was purchased prior to the Pandemic in 2017 for $280K - now it's worth significantly more.

The current layout looks like this (top view):

Current Kitchen Layout

Kitchen Facing In

Dining Area

Kitchen Entry

Processing img u5imi1va57ag1...

I'm looking to remodel the kitchen, and I understand to knock out the wall and change the layout of utilities is not inexpensive.

At the moment, I'm more looking to get some basic design concepts laid out.

I'm not a kitchen designer - so I'm looking to get some people to assist in the design.

The kitchen entry has a sliding glass door that was installed prior to us purchasing the home. One option would be to remove the door and seal up that nook and update the layout of the existing kitchen space and keep the dining room separated. The other idea is to knock out the wall separating the kitchen and dining space and open it up.

I was thinking of hiring Ikea to do the in-house consultation to do the design concepts using the options sketched out above. Any other thoughts on how to do some initial design concepts to get some rough price estimates?

I want to keep the remodel costs within the framework of the value of the home. We are not planning to sell it anytime soon, however.

Thanks for your thoughts.