It will be interesting to hear what others think. My first reaction when I saw your pics is that your DR table and chairs , beautiful as they are are lost amongst everything. I hate to say it but I do think it may be too crowded in the LR/DR area.

I'm sure you will get great help here. Good luck!

Do you need seating for four at all times? Can you tuck the table more back into the corner?

How does it feel and look when you're actually in the room? How does it work for you?

Actually we NEVER use the dining room table at all... I thought we might use it more this way... maybe more as a game table, etc.

If you never use the dining room table, I would try removing it (if only just for a while, to see how the room works without it.) You could use some sort of coffee table that stores games and such, add another chair and still have so much more room.

Your paint color is beautiful, and your house is very warm and inviting.

Okay... I pulled the host chair away and placed it by the tree (I will probably ditch that tree in favor of something real -- maybe a palm). I pushed the table against the wall with three side chairs around it. I need to find a lamp... perhaps a wall-mounted swing arm one... to light that table.

Since that table and chairs are literally the highest quality and most expensive furniture pieces I own, I hesitate to hide them away. They will eventually be completely out of style and so far have seen very little use. I would really like to use them. We do not do "formal" dining hardly at all. We have 3 small children and a very large eating area in the kitchen where we host most of our family get-togethers. We also have a large family room that currently houses a sectional, coffee table, leather chair and ottoman, TV cabinet, fireplace, and toy box. It is more open and airy and I do like it. It is not the right style to take any of this furniture and put it there.

Could you the big and little desks in another room?

And simply use the dining table as your desk?

Then you could designate the "dining room" as The Study. Move the table back in there -- and if possible -- and measure CAREFULLY! -- see if there is enough room for thin bookshelves along the main wall. Then the room would look more like A Study.

And the lving room could be the Living Room. But I do think that the room doesn't need the tree -- it takes up valuable real estate (floor space!)

JUST some thoughts -- you have wonderful furniture! :)

Okay... a few pics of the changes... they are subtle. I moved the piano slightly further away from the sofa to make more breathing space. I also moved the table and took a chair away... moved near the tree. Feels better, no?

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Wanna get radical? What about this........ Moving the piano to the wall where the stairs are (where dining table is currently?). Moving the desk to where the piano is. Putting 2 of the dining chairs on either side of the desk (if the "regular" chairs won't fit). Put the dining table back into the dining room. Eliminate the small desk and artificial tree and possibly the ottoman (takes up a lot of floor space). If the dining table is back in the DR, maybe the 2 big chairs could still fit (sans the ottoman, though), maybe on either side of the window. Pull 2 of the dining chairs into the other corners, leaving only 1 at the table (open at the window end--maybe put the ottoman up under it--great for a kid to climb up on his knees on to color at the table). The other chairs would be in use in the LR (at the desk and on either side of it).

Or, what about putting your DR table in the kitchen and letting it get used before it's "out of style with so little use"?

I contemplated putting the desk in the LR, but I like it in the window because I can watch my children play in the yard from there. Good idea, though. (I'm difficult, aren't I?)

So what you have are two rooms - full of furniture - that you don't use, and you want to add a desk. The obvious answer is to put the furniture pieces back into their expected rooms and add the desk to the dining room. Even if you have to off-center it to the chandelier to make room for the desk, it would still be a more logical arrangement than what you have now.

The current configuration looks odd because it's not functional. The two chairs currently in the dining room need to be in the living room to form a conversation group. The dining table could be used for playing board games regardless of what room it is in.

I think that I would create a living room and then a dining room / office.
I would put the table back into the dining room with your large desk which could be a sideboard if you ever needed.
Could the small desk go between the sofa and front door?

Do you happen to have a copy of March's "Cottage Living?" There's an article that begins on pages 88-89, "It's our Happily Ever After Cottage" and the interiors remind me of yours.

They comment that their rooms have to serve multiple purposes, so their dining room doubles as a library. They have the dr table in the center of the room with bookshelves on either end. You could put your dr table and chairs back in the dining room, draped in a pretty tablecloth, and accented with perhaps a plant, some stacked books, a pretty vase or candlesticks.

In lieu of bookshelves, put your computer table on the left wall, where the smaller table and chair is (remove those, just to see how it does.)

Now you've got room back in your living room for your pretty floral chair and ottoman. Put it in the corner where the dining room table took up so much space, and it becomes a cozy reading nook, with your floor lamp that's already there.

ORRRR - If you still are wanting to keep your dr table where you have it now, you could trade places and put the computer table and chair where the sofa was, accent it with a pretty lamp and put the sofa in the window where the computer table was. You would still be able to sit and watch your children play. Put your floral chair and ottoman by the side of the computer table. If this worked by giving you more room, make your dining room nook cozier by adding sconces on either wall?

I like all of the suggestions. Perhaps it would be helpful for me to post some dimensions.

My dining room is 11' x 11'. My table is 4' 8" (56")round (plus I have an 18" leaf). This leaves a little more than 3' all around the table when it is in the dining room (without the leaf) -- not enough space to add anything else, I'm afraid.

The little bump out window in the dining room is 80" x 16". My sofa is 90". My desk is 66" x 30".

My living room is 13'4" long x 13' wide.

I have thought about swapping the floral chair and small desk with the sofa. The floral chair, however, is very deep (about 42" without the ottoman) and takes up a sizable corner.

I guess I just need to buy a larger house. ;)

Thanks everyone for taking the time to post responses. I guess the consensus is it doesn't look right as it is. I suppose I'm stuck unless I can part with some things. I really hate to... it all felt so nice in my old house and you never know when you might move again, tho we have no immediate plans to.

Lis

You may be trying to put things back at this point, but if you really want the table in the lr -- since you don't actually use it, can you put the chairs elsewhere? Then put a big lamp and assorted family pics, a few books, plant or arrangement, that sort of thing. That's often done with a larger table and that one doesn't look huge from here. (Although there are a number of large scale pieces in the room already.) Maybe flank the extra chairs around another rectangular piece in the foyer or elsewhere.

I'd rather have a great office and a doable lr that doesn't get used much than a so-so work space. The chair and ottoman looks like a good spot to take a break or do some necessary reading or thinking to me : ) Do you need a lot of desk space, though? The dr table would be a great place to spread things out if you work that way.

squirrel... you're right. I actually really like the feel of the whole office space right now, and it most definitely is the space I will be using more. I just want to make the living room look okay and possibly actually use it more too. I was thinking with the table there, it might be used for games, or homework... things like that. I seriously considered putting the table in the kitchen... but I would HATE for it to be TRASHED like the current one has been. (Little kids, artwork, spills, etc.) This is an expensive Ethan Allen table and I do love it.

creeklys, don't get discouraged. You have a beautiful home filled with beautiful things. If you really feel that you need to change or move something, you'll figure out what works best for you and your family's lifestyle. Just take your time and play with ideas, look at your magazines. Have fun with it.

You really do have beautiful things, but honestly the way you have it currently, there is just too much. It detracts from the beauty of the furniture. I know you don't want the table to get "trashed" and I dont mean to treat it with disregard, but wouldnt it be nice to use it every day in the kitchen and enjoy it? If it did get "trashed" - it could be refinished. Why have it take up needed space in the living room where it takes away from the comfort of the room? (also regarding your hopes or using it for a game table or homework table etc, that has potential but that is not exactly gentle use either).
You do have a beautiful home with great furniture - use it and enjoy it.

lis, do you have a picture of your kitchen that you could post? Maybe that would help with suggestions and ideas. Thanks.

Well -- to save the lovely table from being trashed from art projects in the kitchen -- how about investing in a bunch of brightly colored vinyl tablecloths?? A cheap-and-easy fix -- and will save the table!

Then you could get to use the pretty table everyday!

I really like the idea of games or a quiet spot for homework for one of the kids. How many do you think would be at the table at a time. The chair at the front curve could maybe be put somewhere else and then place the chairs skewed to each side (rather than tucked in for dining) -- comfortable for guests and conversation when you use the lr a bit more as you say. Two for games unless you pull the other chairs in.

It is a beautiful table and chairs, so I wouldn't get rid of it or want to hide it either.

First, love your stuff! I am especially in love with that beautiful sofa. :)

For me, the table and chairs don't work at all in that room. It makes the room look like a storage space. Do you have a basement where it can be stored--until such time as you decided to either: 1) put it in the kitchen, 2) sell it, or 3) move--lol?

The table is beautiful and I've always loved the look of a game table. If it were me I'd get rid of the plant just to make it all look a little less crowded. Then I'd get a nice game or puzzle to have set out on the table. Then it would LOOK like it's a game table and not a dining table that's sort of crowded.

You could get a piece of glass cut to protect the table if you want to use it in the kitchen. I am currently contemplating that same table for my kitchen and will put glass on it if I get it. The only thing holding me back is the shape -- I really need a rectangular extension but I really like the metal pedastal.

I'm with organic_smallhome. Although it's a lovely table, when I first looked at the picture, I couldn't help wondering why the dining room table was in the living room. For me, I would put the table in the dining room (I think it's the room toward the back) and maybe move one of the desks more toward the living room and do away with the other. Or, move the dining table and piano into the back room and move one of the desks to the living room.

I think you need to move the two desks that are in the dining room to "the office" wherever that may be. The dining room should contain the dining table, buffet, server, etc. The chair with matching ottoman I would return to the living room tucked into the corner by the stairs. The wicker chair I would put out on the patio or sun porch along with the wicker bench by the piano. The piano deserves a piano bench.

Then make sure you schedule weekly meals )if you cannot do daily ones) in the newly done dining room. Good luck! As the host of Project Runway always said - Make it work!!

This is blunt and to the point:

Put the large round table in storage. You don't have room for it and in the living room it is too much. The children can draw or play games in the kitchen. Don't want to trash it? Buy a glass top, a vinyl table cloth.

Also, that huge bench wedged under the piano. Can you get a real piano bench? It looks odd under there. Like there was no other place to put it.

You say in your old house you had a separate office and loved it. But now you have a tiny little desk and a big desk. Is that going to really be practical? Lose the tiny little desk completely and keep the one you have.

I know you love your things, but the fact is you don't have room for them all. The rooms are way too small and all of that makes it claustrophic. You have so many pieces it is like a furniture store.

Hi. I've been lurking for a week or so...actually used to post fairly regularly a couple of years ago but then had a baby and got a little distracted. So anyway, my .02 is just that I think the room would feel less crowded if you were able to get a smaller piano bench. That will open up the space underneath the piano so that more wall is visible. In its current location, the tight fit heightens the crowded effect, while distracting from the beautiful piano. I do really like the bench--I think it would be a great accent piece if it were by itself.

I think the rattan bench would look great at the end of a bed or under a window. Could you place it there ( master or guest room) instead? It looks like a great piece. And maybe the wicker/rattan chair can join the bench in the master/guest bedroom? Is there room there?
Use the basement if you have one. Mine is my furniture grave-yard. ( When I hear of someone in need of something, I seem to have it for them, and it brings me much joy to see "my old stuff" being enjoyed and used by someone else.) But maybe you can store the table there, just until the children are a bit older.
Sometimes editing is the hardest thing to do, especially when we are so attached to "our stuff", but I do think that lots of people on this page have posted some great ideas and advise.

I agree with some of the posters. When I first saw the photos the 2 things that stood out were, of course, why the dining room table was in the livingroom and that the piano bench doesn't go with the piano. All the pieces are lovely, but it does look like a furniture store. Ultimately, it has to be whatever works for you and it doesn't matter what we think, but you asked...
Good luck. Can't wait to see more pics if you change anything around.

It's a very pretty and cozy house and furniture.

I agree with the suggestion to remove the artificial plant. It would give you some room to breathe. Also between the piano and the plant there is wicker basket with some books on top. Do you need it?

Good luck.

The tree might look good in the far corner, dining room side, clustered with the floor plant that's there.

I'd try a different piano bench as suggested also. If you keep the table in the lr, I just wouldn't wrap the chairs all around it like a dr table. Just one off to each side, offsetting each other casually.