Thanks for your input. Bungalow, the furniture is by Statesville Chair, and I had it custom ordered in the wine plush corduroy from a local furniture store. I suppose I could order a couch through them, but as I recall they were enormously expensive and I'm not willing to ante up that much at this point in my life. I did do a quick search for Vanguard Eastlake/bungalow collection, but couldn't find anything. Is Vanguard the name of the furniture company? I'll also look into Drexel. Thanks for the tips! It may just be that I decide to sell these items and start all over again -- if so, I will let you know :)

You can add a strip of molding on the wall vertically where the paint can change between rooms. In our last house it was all open plan and I had a heck of a time figuring out where to change the kitchen to living room color as it had a lot of angles and breaks in the ceilings and yet the wall went straight along the whole front of our house with no break or corner anywhere. Once it was done, it was never an issue and I bet no one would have noticed whichever way I did it. You can always try one way and rework if it does not look right. I agree about making it along the same color family in different shades or making it an equal shade (like one light color to another, or a medium to another). I don't think you'd want great contrast from one to another. We are making it open plan on this house and will have a light lavender in the kitchen, to a light green color on the back wall to a darker green color on the next wall that is 2 steps from back wall. The front wall will end up the same light green as the back. This way each transition is smooth and yet we won't have it be monochromatic. The space is too big for one color and it will cover 4 separate function rooms (kitchen, den, dr & lr). Some designers would do all one color for drama, but I love to pick paint colors and mix it up, so that is not an option for me. ;) I can also change a wall or 2 without having to do the whole space if I get bored.

I’m laughing at the thought of my squishy, comfy pillows being called forbidding or them fighting with anyone. I took a couple of more pictures, including the chairs without the pillows and I think you’ll agree that the cushions make them look more inviting, not less. Also rearranged so that people can see that the sofa facing the fireplace, chair at each side will not work in the space. I tried it as the most obvious answer and discarded it. It’s awkward to me, like the sofa is turning it’s back on everyone. Also, due to the placement of the fireplace, the sofa and chairs cannot be centered on the fireplace or the bedroom will be blocked completely. I can’t pull the sofa back much more without blocking the walkway. The fact is, space for the ‘living room” is much smaller than you think. I also pulled the rug away, to demonstrate that the rug and sofa not going together is kind of the least of this room’s problems. I wish I could get a good angle that shows just how off center the couch and chairs are.

Is your baseboard heat electric or hot water? Can you really remove it or do you need to add an alternative heat source? There are heaters which fit in the toekick space, either all electric or hot water with a fan to circulate the air. What is the reason for the offset of the stove and hood? I can't tell what is between your hood and the cabinet on that side. A floorplan sketch showing the space around the kitchen would be helpful as well as whether your house is on a slab, crawl space or basement and one or two stories. I have friends with a bungalow who were able to expand their kitchen by putting a wall oven into the space over the basement stairs and having a cooktop instead of a range. They also installed an 18 inch dishwasher and a deep single bowl sink turned so the short side was parallel to the cabinet front.