carol-well I CAN get to Canada from here quite easily...but I think it'd be easier travel with a snowmobile and that I do not have. ;) In our last home we had a fireplace in the corner and the TV on the adjacent wall with a sectional very similar to redroze. It did work out well but I think redroze's dimensions and your own being more square would make it all the better. Our 'TV' wall was much longer than the fireplace wall. I know that putting it in the corner does eat up more room and that is one negative but in our case it made the most sense and I really liked it. I felt like you could very comfortably watch the TV and get the warmth from the fireplace ("my" seat was of course the closest one to it). The TV wasn't massive and really didn't 'steal the show'. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of the fireplace and the tv in one frame and we have moved on from there. I like Senai01's window seat pic - that is awesome. Too bad your window is too far removed, that would really work well otherwise.

Thanks guys for your continued input. I am making a simple turkey dinner for the family (It is Thanksgiving in this part of the continent) so can't play around with furniture arrangements until later in the week or next weekend. However, I plan to rework the furniture arrangement multiple time with my little furniture cut-outs to see what I can do in both the great room and the dining room if the window seat moves there. I will post some alternatives later this week and hope you will come back to see them when the post pops up again. Here are few replies: Oakleyok, Your idea of placing a love seat in front of the window seat had not occurred to me at all. I will try out your idea with my furniture cut-outs. I agree that we should have room for a couch facing the TV if we lose the end table. The plant idea on a window ledge is great, although I tend to send plants into palliative care quite quickly LOL. I do see the family using the window seat for reading. Given we are in Canada it is rarely too hot or too sunny near a window. Thanks again for your help. Lavender_lass, Wow that dining room bump out is so beautiful!! Sadly, we won't be able to do that at this point in construction as the brick cladding is already on the back of the house. Also, we have a climber rather close to that side of the back now that the addition is done, and I wouldn't want to reduce the passage between climber and house any more. Yet, I will draw up a window seat in the dining room as I like that look. I was going to make a shallow shelf for decorative plates in the south/west corner of the dining room (top right corner). Maybe I can make some sort of combo window seat/plate shelf. I just have to find a way to accommodate that smaller dining room window on the west side. Thanks for your help and inspiration. Rosie, I am totally with you on disliking the "turn your back on family" seating arrangements. I do think Lavender's arrangement improves upon that problem. I am not worried about anyone walking in front of the TV. We don't even have cable, so mostly use the TV for movies once in a while. The kids use the one in the basement with their X-box a bit more frequently. I will do just as your aptly described to try every possible arrangement with a variety of furniture. Maybe the TV has to move so we are facing the dining room more rather than having our backs to it. Do you think we need a new spot for the TV?? I hate to think about moving that fireplace other than scooting it back a bit as the vent is installed through bricks, but if it has to move....don't tell DH just yet. Thanks ever so much for your kind help, Rosie. Carol P.S. Please come back everyone to see the various alternatives I post by next weekend. In meantime, if you have any more ideas I am all ears.

By cafe curtains, do you mean the tiered set? I'm just not sure what that means? I always think of kitchen curtains! How would I mount a curtain rod from the ceiling? I once had regular curtain rods before I put in the seat, but with the roller shades, there is no place to put the rod hooks. I don't want to block off the windows as in the first photos-I mostly need to be able to block the extreme sunlight and provide some evening privacy if needed.

I would look at white plantation shutters for the windows and a Vertiglide on the slider since you use it every day. I would then either add a cornice over the Vertiglide or some drapery side panels. Now if you have young children I am going to change my Vertiglide recommendation to a vertical. I know no one like verticals but if you have sticky little hands, you want to be able to clean the blind easily! When they have grown to the point where you don't have to worry about that anymore, then you can move to a Vertiglide or something else. Here are some links to a blog you may want to look at for ideas. https://dressthatwindow.com/beauty-of-shutters/ https://dressthatwindow.com/i-hate-verticals-what-else-is-there-for-sliding-glass-doors/ https://dressthatwindow.com/drapery-side-panels-complete-the-look/ Not a perfect example but just trying to give you a sample of the combination of shutters, a Vertiglide and a cornice board. You can really dress up the windows on that back wall to look great! Good Luck!