I put the TV on a separate wall than the wall which will eventually have a wood burning stove. (The mantle and backdrop is already in place. Right now I am dealing with homeowners insurance that doesn't want me to have one.) I don't watch much TV at all, and I really dislike - for me - having an ugly black box being the center of living room attention. When I have guests over, we're here to talk. I can think of exceedingly few occasions I'd be watching the idiot box with guests. Probably if they were here several days, we'd rent a movie or two via Amazon Prime. (Moot point right now, COVID and all.... but hopefully that won't last...) And with a wood burning stove, the exhaust pipe will go up and bisect the view of any TV over the mantle. I sat down on the couch to figure out the best viewing height - which is well below what the mantle might ever be, at least on this couch. It would be fine if I could lean back and rest my head, to have something over mantle height - assuming I'd go with a regular fireplace. But at six feet tall - there just isn't a couch or sofa like that. Plus as others have said, what about decorations? I enjoy decorating my mantle for various holidays! After all, that's really what mantles are for, right? The thing is off to the side, and it does not get glare there, either.

I was at a friend's house and they had a built in similar to yours. They had the TV on a sliding shelf in the built in and pulled it forward for viewing , but then had the option of pushing it back all the way and actually had doors that shut to hide it. That may be overkill to close doors to hide the TV, but it looks like you could have a retractable shelf in your built in for the TV. Can you do without the loveseat in the room? I think the loveseat interrupts your flow into the room, both physicially and visually. Instead, how about moving the chaise where the loveseat is and maybe getting a nice upholstered swivel chair to put over on the fireplace side which could be turned to face the TV or the fireplace. It could be placed close to the couch and angled in so it doesn't block the fireplace. Or, if you aren't set on having a chaise, an upholstered swivel chair could be placed on either side of the couch-nothing too big. That would leave the entryway less blocked. I think that would made the room look larger. I really like to look into a room and see an unblocked expanse of floor all the way to the other end, if possible. With a chair on either side of the couch with a small table between each chair and the couch, you'd only lose one seat from what you have now. If you really want something to recline in, consider a smallish lazyboy for one of the side chairs. We love our leather lazyboys. Also, I would move the grouping as far back toward the breakfast nook as possible. I love the built ins, the fireplace and the glass doors out to the deck. It's going to be lovely when it's all furnished.

I certainly hope gray goes with beige because that's what I have in my living room. The combination is accidental since the rug sample was greige and nothing like the gray color I ended up with. I've seen rooms where the accent color with gray was yellow and it looked fabulous. The purple is beautiful, and you could have pillows in yellow and purple both. Lime green would probably also look good. I think an Oriental rug would go quite well if you choose a more transitional rather than very traditional pattern. esalerugs has very reasonable prices and you can return a rug without charge. I paid a lot of money to return a rug from overstock.com and it was only a 5 x 8, so never again. What do you have in your room that is beige? It would be great if you could post some pictures. I'm attaching a picture of my beige and gray living room to give you an idea of the color combination.

Actually, you have a lot of zig-zagging in this room. In addition to the zig-zag created going from the medallion design in the rug and up to the fireplace, there is another big zig-zag. The biggest zig-zag is your eye following the medallion in the carpet and then the eye is thrown over to the red chairs....and those checkered pillows which are even more jarring with the chair fabric. The rug medallion should 'in line' with the fireplace, and the red chairs should flank both sides of the fireplace. The checkered pillows should be removed from the chairs and could be used on the sofa. The wood 'thing' under the coffee table is distracting and should also be removed from the room. The rocking chair is out of place and doesn't belong in the room. Also 'Patricia Colwell Consulting' talked about the sofa. That it should face the tv. This is a second vote for you to please move the sofa to face the tv. Please post a photo after you rearrange the room.