Thanks for all the great responses! I appreciate you all taking the time to chime in. Oakleyok, the child's chair belonged to my DH's grandparents -the matching "adult chair" resides with his uncle -- no one sits on the little chair, but we like having it on display Rosie, I will work on a floor plan. I have been busy with other things but decided I need to do this so we are ready to entertain this fall. We rarely if ever actually use the fireplace (maybe 3 times in the 25 years we have lived here). You stated it beautifully "You need a room that invites people in and allows them to circulate freely and then find a seat that fits them and, in a few cases, that can be turned to join a conversation or face a speaker, like that nice scroll-arm chair. " My question is how to create a "room that invites people in". Ellendi, we do have a love seat and sofa now because that's what we had when we lived in New York -- 2 sofas sound appealing to me because we can always use more seating -- when you say to line up the sofas with the fireplace, I assume you mean perpendicular to the fireplace and not parallel -is that right? -the chairs are just near the round table because we brought the table from NYC and then my MIL gave us those chairs when she downsized -- we love the china cabinet -we bought it when we were first married and lived in London - it might fit in our dining room but unfortunately that it is the one room in the house that is small -we do sometimes bring in dining room chairs for our meetings and parties Teacats -thanks for the advice about how to use our existing furniture -our sofa is shot, so we will be replacing that and probably the love seat at the same time --it is an excellent point about covering up the air grate -i will have to find something that can be in front of it without blocking airflow -maybe a table with slim bench chairs underneath -and i like the idea of a tall mirror over the fireplace Camlan -i love your suggestion of moving our current furniture around to figure out what works for us -we do not use our dining room much as we have a breakfast room connected to the kitchen where we usually eat -we never go to the dining room from the entry way -and i don't think our friends do so often either One other point -- we are willing to consider a different rug - I like this rug a lot (it has some of Omar Khayyam's Rubiat on it) -but DH thinks we should get something more modern -and we could, of course, get a different size Thanks again!

i wanted to put a TV in here but my husband wants to keep this a formal entertaining area, he won that one. right now everything in the room seems very neutral and its elegant but definitely feel like it'd be nice to introduce some color/pattern/texture to have more character. i was thinking maybe a different rug, chairs near the sofas & throw pillows? open to opinions!

Because you have TV opposite FP sofa will have to go where sectional is now

Thanks for the feedback!  We suspected a bigger rug would be needed. We haven't quite found one we like but we'll need to expand our search.  If I were to move the art behing the sofa, what would I put above the fireplace? I had trouble with this location at my old place and mostly just had a cluttered mantle (which I am aiming to avoid this time).  I was thinking maybe replacing the end table and coffee table. I am not good at mixing woods though, do I go with a wood colour? Do I go with black metal and glass? Or maybe have no coffee table? 🤔 Regarding the dining table, it isn't that close to the island regularly. Not sure weather it is just the picture or if it had gotten moved around but normally there is a walkway in between.