Sorry I dont have any suggestions for you on what you are asking for but I just wanted to warn you about something. Are you planning on having a plasma tv above your fireplace in the great room? I see the MBR is just behind that wall and looks like the bed is going against that wall. I would change that arrangement. We had that in one house and if someone is staying up and watching TV while the other goes to bed, it is very annoying to be able to hear the TV through that wall.

If we can see the rest of the floorplan that might be helpful. I love transoms over doors but I probably would be consistent- do it both in the dining and great room.

Reducing the doors to 2 1/2 feet would be fine if you want window treatment. That is what we are doing. That will only buy you a foot though.

Are you planning on bringing the wall in as well as adding a soffit- or soffit only?

Since your room is in the planning stage, get sound insulation between the great room and bedroom wall. Use metal rc1 strips to mount the drywall, and you'll be delighted at the effectiveness that this has in reducing the sound transmission between rooms.
Have you looked into sliding panels for your window coverings? They probably can stack on the left hand side.

No TV over the fireplace, but there will be hidden in one of the built-ins on an articulated arm. I understand your concern, so I need to explain more about how the house is arranged.

We're empty nesters with DD heading off to law school in the fall; this will be our retirement home. Through the barrel arch is the kitchen, breakfast area & a keeping room in an open arrangement. For the two of us, most of our TV watching will be in the keeping room which is pretty far removed from the bedroom. Future plans include a home theater in the lower level. We originally had no intention of putting a TV in the great room since that is mostly meant for entertaining.

Right now, it is just us & DD who will occasionally come home from law school & we can all fit in the keeping room. But, eventually, I expect there will be some young man who morphs into a DSIL visiting our home and it would be nice to have a place where we can all watch the evening news or the last half of a ball game without traipsing down to the HT. We deliberately made the keeping room cozy (13'6" x 13'6) for the two of us. But,when DH decided he wanted a direct vent "vintage" looking gas stove in the keeping room, I began worry about accommodating more than 3 people in the room to watch TV. Hence a TV that will rarely be used hidden in the great room. If guests want to watch TV after we retire then there is always the keeping room, the HT or a TV in the guest suite.

Thanks for the forewarning & sorry for the long winded reply of why we don't think it will be an issue.

Jo Ann

@pp7 - I agree that it would help if I posted the plan & I would love to. However, DH, for reasons not entirely clear to me but which I respect, does not wish me to do so. I guess it won't matter if I post a front elevation so you get a "flavor" of the house:

The gable with the double columns is the entrance. To the left of that are the dining room French doors that lead out to the walled terrace. To the right of the entrance is the guest bedroom. The gambrel roof is the garage. (There won't be any "pork chop" eaves - designer has corrected that.)

Since the great room French doors are a quad set with the center two operable I could gain a foot on each side if we went with 2.5 foot sections. The other option is to go with a triple of 3' each with only the one near the barrel arch operable so that would add 1.5 feet to each side.

I think we want the built-ins not to be as deep as the fireplace or as tall. I'm not sure what you mean about bringing the wall in. I'm not sure how the soffit fits in with the coffering we plan to do.

@suero - the builder we want to use has already planned in extra insulation for sound deadening for the bedrooms, baths & laundry room.

Could you show me a picture of the panels, please? Would they have a more contemporary look? The feeling of the house is mostly tradition, but a bit eclectic.

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it - Jo Ann

Such a gorgeous room/home, I would be very happy copying that room...best wishes in your new home!

I like the idea of the 30" sections vs the 36" doors --- I think they look very pretty with larger (wider and taller) grids like this....

Even a small amount of wall space, like the first picture allows for a panel window treatment, so I think you'll be OK.

Looking forward to more, the house is gorgeous!

Sorry for not responding sooner to y'all's great inputs. Saturday evening, I got a virus on my computer & didn't get it all cleaned up until yesterday evening so I was too tired to get on the net, last night.

Thank you for the complements on the front elevation. Its taken us a while to get there, but we think we will be happy with the results. We're trying to give it a "new old house" vibe. The shakes will be Nichiha Sierra Premium in Caramel, so they will be in horizontal lines rather than the staggered texture the architect used.

I do like the look of the 30" French doors which gives me 1 foot extra on each side of the quad to work with. The panels will usually be open, but we might want to close them in on a winter evening when the trees won't be in leaf and we might be able to see the neighbor's house. We will be going to SC in a week, so we can get a better idea of what the situation actually is.

OK, if we do 30" doors, that would make the quad 10' wide giving 4' on each side of the unit. The fireplace comes out 2', but I think we want the bookcase to be recessed from the fireplace, so lets say that is ~18". That leaves 30" between the quad and the bookcase. I know that stackback for pinch pleats is 1/6 the total width on each side. Does it work the same wall for panels with rings on a rod? I'm pathetically out of touch with drapery fashion. (I do know that I am going to take down the traverse rods w/ pinch pleats & install rods w/ inexpensive panels when we go to sell our current house.)

Anyhow, if I follow the stackback formula, there would be a 20" stackback on each side. With 30" to work with, I should be fine, right? Does anyone have suggestions for layering so that the panels on each side don't have to be operable? I know that bamboo shades are very popular. Do they fit with a slightly more formal great room as opposed to a family room? I had a house with French doors across the back that had those 80's pleated shades on them; they were not attractive. And, in that case, the shades were rarely open, so I have a bit of an aversion to shades on French doors.

Gosh, I don't have good ideas, yet, about furniture placement. I have home design SW, so I'll put something together and throw it out there. I think we've been working so hard on the floorplan, elevations & then choosing a builder for so long that we've finally come up for air to realize that how we want to decorate can have an influence on the plan details. We want as much figured out now, before we break ground, so we can minimize the change orders.

Thanks, again for all of the help & sorry for the slow response - Jo Ann

Gorgeous house, JoAnn! I have to agree w/planning everything out before the ground breaking~makes life much easier! I planned out furniture placement in the important rooms such as the GR and MB, but secondary BR's didn't matter as much.

I only wanted to comment on the Bamboo shades. I chose the dark Bamboo shades, but b/c the windows are so big, do not have them in the GR~i've kept the room more formal, and think of it as the LR. I would have *liked* the shades in there also, since I do find them more formal than any sort of blind. I've used sheers w/tension rod on top and bottom instead, since I needed privacy. There is a smaller window above the larger window(not transom), so it really doesn't look or seem as closed in as it sounds. This treatment pleases me because I made them quite full. I did the same treatment in the kitchen eating area, using the sheers to cover about 3/4 of the window, or just enough to look over the top. This is adjacent to the GR, and I needed privacy there, also~i'm not on acreage(I wish!). I used a formal silk plaid valance in the kitchen, and am planning to use the same fabric for panels in the GR, pulling both areas together. The space is very open, and only separated by a peninsula in the kitchen.

I'm happy to read you won't be putting a TV above the FP. That's one decorating trend I find hard to swallow, but then i'm not one to follow trends anyway. LOL

Can't wait to see more of your beautiful home, inside and out! I'm a empty nester also, minus the husband. ;o)

Decorative panels + sheers on tension rods on the French doors is an idea to pursue. We're going to SC to site the house the weekend after this, so I'll have a very good idea of how visible our house is from the neighbors after that.

What do y'all think about how to handle the opening to the great room. Here is a picture from another house by our builder:

I think we would simplify this a little bit, but it fits with a simulation I did of roughly what it will look like when I stand at the main prep area in my kitchen and look toward the breakfast banquette and the keeping room:

I like the idea of repeating the arch and the column.

DH has some slight neck problems, so TV over the fireplace wasn't an option. We didn't want one in the great room, at all, so we will try to hide it as best we can.

Thanks for the help & lovely comments about the house - Jo Ann

P.S. The 2nd picture is a quick simulation I did with my design SW so don't take it too seriously. There will be an actual column at the half wall, the banquette will have cushions & a back, etc., etc. I just wanted to know if I would be able to look up and see the TV while I prepped.

JoAnn, I like the idea of the repeat....balances things out nicely.

May I ask why you're putting the little 'opening' on the left side of the arch. Just my 2 cents, but I find they look dated. Maybe i'm just remembering my '84 condo or the old Mary Tyler Moore show. LOL

Am looking forward to seeing more pictures of your beautiful home. ;o)