Hey! We have a covered terrace off of our family room. It faces east. I was petrified of the room being dark, so our builder suggested skylights even though he thought it would be fine without them. We had them installed, and I do think they make the porch more "sunshiny." :) However, I think several other factors contribute to our kitchen, breakfast room, great room being light-filled much moreso than the skylights. First, even though our ceiling in the kitchen/great room is a standard 10' ceiling (no vault) the foyer which leads into the family is 2 story. It has a large window at the top, and our double front doors are 3/4 glass. Sunlight pours into the great room in the afternoon from them. Also, the study and formal dining room have cased openings that open into the back of the house. Finally, we have large windows in the breakfast room, kitchen, and my little office. These are south facing windows (and west, my office has windows on 2 walls.) plus, 3 glass doors to terrace. I think, looking at your plan, you'd be ok. Personally, I'd move that fireplace out of that corner and onto that left wall, then put in another set of doors or windows, but that is just a balance thing for me, probably not necessary for light. If you do get skylights, we haven't had any problem with them. The window cleaning company we use just charges them as another window. We could also easily access them ourselves from upstairs windows onto the porch roof. They really weren't that expensive, maybe $600 each? (or total, I can't remember, we have 2.) here are some pics: Back of house, showing terrace and roof Here is one skylight. Oh, and we painted the tongue and groove ceiling blue, which helps, too.

Hi all, I know this reveal is a long time in coming (4 years!!). Little things got the better of me and it took me FOREVER to finish the few more custom pieces and pick my cabinet colors. And then our kitchen was just a cluttered mess for a long time. But I wanted to thank you all SO MUCH for all of your help. My reveal is a little bittersweet because after finally finishing the kitchen, we moved to a new place in PNW this summer! The bright side is, I have a new kitchen to design soon, though I will miss my homey fireplace kitchen! Here are the pics from when I staged the kitchen. Above, you can see the copper sink with removable drainboard. It is great for draining pasta, or washing veggies! Below the stained glass cabinets are sliding glass doors that hide a pass-through. Behind the pass-through was the old dining area, now converted to an office. The pullout island table was useful for when we had overflow guests and needed an extra table, aka the kids' table. In the corner is an appliance garage and wine cubbies. I was able to find some old vintage sewing machine drawers that fit inside the wine cubbies perfectly, where I kept our vitamins. The center stained glass cabinet is actually my dish drying rack (where I took out the bottom of a regular cabinet and put in wire shelving. Below, you can see the pull-out table pushed in, and hidden. Here is the fireplace, flanked by pantry cabinets which offered so much storage!! I put an outlet on the fireplace mantel for a TV but ended up not putting one there. I loved also having a dutch door to during times when I needed extra venting of the kitchen. Main dining area as seen from kitchen. On the end of the island is the hidden under counter fridge and freezer. I left the main fridge's freezer for ice cream and frozen foods and kept meat in the under counter freezer. Thank you again to everybody! I know you pored over so many hours in looking at my layouts and wacky ideas, offering your help and suggestions. It was really so appreciated! I am afraid to thank anyone personally for fear of leaving anyone out. But please know that all of your kind advice and encouragement really helped me get it done! I am happy to give more details on anything for anyone interested, though may not be able to provide more detailed pics since I no longer live here.

Neither inspo photo looks good. Sorry. I would give UP the fire, before I'd use the corner and most everyone who has tried it would tell you the same thing. Put a fire and smaller tv in this FORMAL space that will become the DEAD space.......unless it has a tv. Treat it as the escape space for you and hubby. Then just face the fact that a honkin" tv and console alongside a corner hearth......? Is basically a REVERSE of all the corner TELEVISIONS that were ripped out of bult-ins that surrounded center fire boxes, twenty five years ago. And a regret waiting to happen. Failing that? Build a SEE THROUGH and give up a totally open area behind your island, dividing great room space from kitchen. . Two feet deep, and five feet wide. Fire view both sides. Or adjust your front elevation left of entry door, center a fire, and windows on BOTH sides. Which means anything is better than the corner. Scale it down......and a lovely view from a centered bump /window on front elevation Use the loooooooog wall for the honkin black hole : ) even add a small tv above fire on kitchen side. Now THAT is honesty in living lol!. TV everywhere anyone may want to be.

I have a post up now to reconfigure my living room - so this might be the blind leading the blind... but here are my thoughts. I agree about 2 matching slip covers for the sofas, something light/neutral. The sofas looked cramped – can you pull the lighter one a foot closer to the TV so the arms have some space? Next – declutter, get rid of anything you don’t need/want. Maybe buy some storage piece for games. Those big dark green drapes are probably blocking all your light – I’d replace them with cream/white. Good luck!