That is one difficult room! I remember you posted a funny story about working on your fireplace -- is there a family room for TV viewing, or will it be in this room?

I think your reading chair and light idea is good. And with a 13-ft archway, I think it would look odd NOT to have furniture floating out into it.

How is this room going to be used? Will you have a tv in there at all? Is this going to be used daily as a family space, or less frequently as an adult or entertaining space? How many people do you need to regularly seat in the room?

This is the formal living room. We have a separate familyroom with tv, it is where we spend most our day. The formal livingroom is like most, just for looks. But we do like going in there to relax with coffee or take an afternoon nap. The windows face South so the mornings are really lovely in there. Reading Sunday paper together is fun. We would like to actually use the room. Thought of a pool table or game room but we have an upstairs loft for all that. There will be no tv in there. We want this to be inviting to all. Maybe seating for 5-6. With the dining room so close it is easy to pull a few chairs from there when we have to.

Yes mjb, I do have the fireplace. We are so close to completion, but sis watered a plant while housesitting and ruined the new flooring. I have to remove a few planks. Luckily we have not done with baseboards so I actually can remove them.

I think I will take some pics prior to completing the rest of the projects. Then I can post before/during/after. We are so close to completion. Next weekend is the big finish with grouting tile and installing baseboards. This is why I need help right now. DH said no new furniture until all the major work is done.

Your biggest problem is the arched opening between the rooms. The whole archway becomes a doorway for traffic, which makes furniture placement a problem.

You might want to explore ways to make the archway narrower. Perhaps with the placement of a room-divider bookcase? Maybe built-in bookshelves up the sides of the archway? Something like this? (Not the top of the arch, just the sides)

How far off the floor are the corner windows?

It would be nice to have seating there, but would probably need pretty low backs.

The windows are about 18" off floor. If you look at pic really close you can see the end table is just to bottom of windowframe. The arm of sofa is just below. We tried putting sofa in front of window but due to the turn in wall it looks all scrunched up in corner. Also, the dining room is 12x13 so that adds to the area looking so large. We may consider putting rug under the dining room but not positive. For sure in the livingroom space.

The idea of closing up the archway is nice but not for this house. We really like the open feeling flowing through the house. If this was a cottge style or craftsman it would work.

I warned you this would not be easy. But I know there will be some great ideas out there. Keep em coming. Thanks

You mentioned getting a loveseat and that you don't like bulky furniture. Is the loveseat purchase in the plan?

The problem the room has now is that there is no focal point and the seating is not cozy.

Can you put two nice chairs over by the window with a little table between them? Then put a loveseat across from that. Get one that is light and airy that sits on legs instead of bulk going all the way to the floor. Then you have a seating area that is cozy. A loveseat will not be so wide as to block the pathway to the DR.

Put some large wall art on the big wall. Something a little more three dimensional than a picture in a frame. Maybe some ironwork. Something not symetrical but more random looking, so it does not appear "centered" on the big wall and make the furniture grouping look 'off'.

I would take that big empty ceramic pot, and put it in the corner where the broken TV now sits. Fill it with something with large leaves. Don't do anything with 'sticks' to compete with the spindles on the staircase and don't do anything that is a 'tree' in form. Put an upholtered bench next to it. Don't do a table that has legs, for the same reason and needing lamps and knickknack on it as it would get lost in front of the spindles. The bench can fill in the space and be pulled out into the room for extra seating, as you say that you need seating for up to six people at times.

Oooooh, mjlb that looks absolutely flawless!

It solves the Feng Shui problem that the space has now - those seated feeling like they are on display when people walk through and those walking through feeling like they are 'on stage' when people are sitting on the couch.

I noodled angling the loveseat and even a small one took up too much room and gave bad angles in the space. The curved couch looks great and solves the problem I think. I hope Sahnnon01 likes the arrangement.

You have talent!

Have you considered switching the rooms?

You could move the living room into the room with more wall space & put the dining table/chairs slightly off center in the front room, slightly closer to the wall opposite the staircase. Your serving piece might fit where the tv is now, or on the slanted wall.

I realize that it is rather unusual placement and you would need to work with the lighting, but it might be worth a try.

Thanks a million, dilly dally! With the way my life has been going, I can really use the encouragement.

Nothing in picture is staying. All items are from other house and are just there until I decide what to do with room, what can be reused and what really must go.

Ceiling in room is near 25feet. Lighting other than lamps will come later. Large art is a must. DH says that will come after the furniture. We have been getting ideas as there are also walls in the entry and stairway that need large art.

I kinda like the idea of the curved sofa. Not sure if it facing the big wall will work. It may make room look too skinny.

We actually did consider flipping the room at one point but decided to keep it the way it is.

The room seems long and skinny but the width is actually decent. I think the real problem is that the windows in corner of the front of the room. It makes one want to either be in the area by the windows or be in the area where sofa is. We tried to overlap the sofa on the window and it looked like we were overlapping into that space.

I agree that those sitting on sofa in the current layout feel on display as it is first thing you see when coming down the stairs or coming in the house.

At one time I thought maybe doing a loveseat a few feet from arch with a sofa table behind it. DH was not too sure about that. I think he felt it chopped up the flow of the two rooms and when sitting on loveseat your back would be to the diningroom and anyone coming from there and the kitchen beyond.

I am really into Feng Shui. Flow is important to me. I am just not sure how to achieve it in this room. Here are other views of room from a while ago- note other paint colors.

View across room, looking towards entry from the sofa wall.

Are you going to paint? That intersection at the arch with so many different colors doesn't make me think of a cohesive flow.

If you don't chose the curved sofa, you could have some sort of room divider/bookcase built that tops off at the same height as the spindled stair rail.

All painting is done. In person, extending the green from diningroom into the arch looks better than the tan. At first it was tan inside, then green. Those asked agreed with the green. Trust me, it really does in person.

We like the open flow of the rooms, which is why we purchased house. Since the entry/stairs/livingroom are so open and vast we chose to keep the walls the same color. The diningroom was then painted green to give it some definition. It is probably my favorite room in house so I wanted it to be it's own space, if that makes sense. But then the livingroom just looked like one huge tan space blending up the stairs, like it did when it was all white. By painting the two walls red it allows the livingroom space to be defined more. This is how the colors all came to be. For those who need to know, the color scheme is a pallet from Lowes based on the colors of Biltmore Estates.

So how about some creative ideas on furniture. We are open to any pieces and any placment ideas. Dh likes long sofa tables and we both agree on furniture with feet, unlike sofa that is currently in there. Chair is only there because my dad has no room for it in his place and it matched my sofa. We would possibly like a chair to snuggle up and read in. We rarely have visitors so we want it to be a family friendly/usable room when we are not watching tv.

In order for the room to look inviting and natural, the seating has to face one another to some degree. You want to be able to imagine yourself sitting on the sofa and chairs and talking, with your neck at a comfortable angle.

Your husband's desire not to have the backs of chairs towards the dining room is therefore a hindrance to what you are trying to accomplish. You are almost forced to float chairs in the middle of the room facing away from the dining room. However, if you keep the chairs low and airy, you maintain the openness.

The curved sofa from Room and Board is lovely. I wonder whether it could be inserted in the angled area in front of the window with the 8.5 foot wall.

Then place two occasional chairs facing the sofa and floating in the room. As I said, they would be visually light in weigh and airy, maybe on casters so that one could tuck into the corner against the staircase when you want a more open look.

If I were you, I would try making some fake furniture out of cardboard boxes that approximate the size of what you are looking for and try various set-ups.

I knew there was something off about my plan -- When I looked again at your photos, I realized that your 15-ft wall INCLUDES the 5-ft windows. So my previous furniture configuration would be tighter, and you'd probably want a smaller scale chair than I drew.

I actually have some large pieces of cardboard from recent door delivery. That could help with mock furniture layout.

MJLB- I did not want to be rude because you worked so hard, I was able to still see what you meant. I did like the top rendition this time around. It makes the eye wander around it and into the diningroom.

I can't help with the furniture arrangement, but I just wanted to say that I love the gold/tan color on the walls.

Laurie

As this room is not a tv veiwing room, what do you think about having just chairs? I'm thinking 4 club chairs just pulled up around a circular coffee table.

Or maybe a window seat/banquete type thing under the window, a coffee table and two recliner type chairs. Bookshelves to make it look like a nice library/reading room?

Dh REALLY likes the curved sofa but we both agree that we don't like the back of it facing enty or stairs. We were actually looking at a curved sectional a little bigger than the one posted here for our family room. The room is much larger and square so the curved feature would actually make the room look less square. The curved sofa in the weird shaped livingroom seems out of "shape" with all the squarer features of the stairs, shutters and dining furniture.

Anyone else think of what can be done in this room?

Maybe its time to bring in a professional decorator to work with?