Hi everyone; first post on this board (woot!) Need some serious help on furniture layout. I am going to do my best to attach the floorplan of our living room, with my current tentative layout. But I have concerns.

First, to explain the layout. At the foot of the living room (bottom of the page) it is mostly open to the foyer, though when you move your line of sight towards the stairs you are at the beginning of the hallway, where there is a powder room and on into the kitchen. At the right side of the page, you will see three large windows (and they are large - about 11 feet tall I believe). The ceiling in the room is 12 feet at each end (ie. foot of page and top of page) but it is a vaulted barrel ceiling, and is about 14 feet at the center). At the top of the page, you see built-ins. They will be floor to ceiling, almost entirely books (I am a bibliophile!) but some objet d'arts here and there as well. To the left of the page where the built-ins are is an opening. That leads into the dining room.

OK, so I hope that explains what you're kind of looking at when you look at the living room layout. So my goals/concerns/thoughts are as follows:

1. I think the room is too big to be one large, single seating area. I think it needs to be broken up right?

2. The fireplace is the middle of the room - if you break up into two seating areas, suddenly neither area is oriented towards the fireplace.

3. The drawing does not show the size of coffee I want. I tentively intend to get the eames ellipitical coffee table, which has the shape as shown, but is larger (I think 80" long).

4. Ideally I wanted some cozy seating in front of the bookshelves, but with enough room to get in behind them and access books (but I could live with it all squished right up against the bookshelves if I needed.

5. I thought the best way to do 2 seating areas, but still have "flow" and make it seem open and bring the two areas together for large gatherings was to have a chaise/daybed in demarcating the two areas. I am finding, however, that daybed are all very large. This means it would kind of block the access into the dining room. But chaises are all curved, slanted, etc. and I want this piece to be something people could actually sit comfortably upright on (ie. a flat bench/daybed look). I am having trouble finding such a piece. Maybe I can get it custom made? Anyway, that's my current thinking on that area.

6. Overall aesthetic of our house - modern/contemporary urban (sleek, relatively minimalist), but with some warmth, since we have children and want a comfortable, inviting home. But certainly the house as a whole has been designed to have quite a modern feel to it.

7. I like the idea of a large sectional - it helps demarcate the foyer from the living room, and there are some great, sleek modern pieces out there. But I am not married to a sectional.

OK everyone, I think that's it. Please give me any and all thoughts and suggestions. I really want this room to work for large gatherings, to take advantage of the windows, fireplace and lovely large built-ins. I want a sleek look, but welcoming. Many thanks in advance to all who reply!