Since you like the brown walls and red bedding, I think that your room has the potential to be incredibly......well, just no other word except: sexy. I absolutely think you should pull the colors from that metal artwork and use them. I have attached a link to a room that has the potential "feel" that I see when I look at your room. What do you think? I'm not suggesting you put slate on the walls or a black blinds behind the headboard, but with some dark rich paint, some ambiant lighting, and rusty red fabrics, I think you could emulate this. Maybe just a bit of gold in your bedding would tie in the gold tile in the bathroom. Is this a look that you like, or is it the wrong direction? Judging from your accessories in the rest of the house, you are drawn to organic elements (grass, bamboo, rock, etc.). Would you say that is correct? Here is a link that might be useful: bedroom

Wow I LOVE all these perspectives! My DH just wants 1 - keep it for a Long Time, 2 - must hold ALL components with plenty of air circulations and no glass, 3 - I do not complain once we have whatever solution we decide ;-) As much as I like the IDEA of upcycling/re-purposing some cool item from CL -- and I do love much of what I see people create -- my DH is not really interested and I do not have the stick-with-it-ness to do the work in a timely manner (we have a 5 and 9 yo, very busy boys) OR the VISION to hone in on exactly the right item and create the perfect solution. The red wicker dresser we currently use WAS an attempt at re-purposing a CL item. I painted the dresser and bought a custom glass top. I thought a dresser would be great because of all the storage. I thought red would be great to add fun color/eclectic-ness to the room It just really isn't working (for me, DH doesn't love it but it generally meets his criteria). And before that, we had bought a CL oak stereo component cabinet that I tried to stain (fail), then paint (better) but then it had smoked glass doors and DH didn't want to use the doors...and, honestly, it was fugly and unbalanced since we only had the one. In fact, the only CL furniture I've been truly happy with are our bed, my kids' beds, and a very small buffet that is perfect for our small house. BUT -- the buffet was a project piece that I never even started, just use it as-is. I bet I bought it about 10 years ago now. I even posted about it here on the Decorating Forum and got some amazing ideas for how to fix it up! I love it because the back is finished so it doesn't have to sit against a wall (though right now it is). We started to take off the door hinges, and that's it. I believe one door has only one, instead of two, hinges. It's so crazy...I couldn't get started on the project and then decided we needed the storage so put things into it "temporarily" but never did anything beyond clean it. I just start more and more and more and more...anyway I digress (oh I hope my DH doesn't tell me I have to do that buffet project before we can do the living room, but he might!!!) Tibbrix -- Built-ins would be cool, but we've poured too much money into permanent things for this house when I really hope to move. I do not see this place as a forever-home. I just want the room to feel a bit more spacious, look more balanced, and have less clutter and less in-your-face components. mtnrdredux -- I do see them on CL -- a LOT -- but generally they look like they would be kind of dominating. After looking more carefully at the examples I've seen on Houzz that I like...I do not think they are standard entertainment centers. The space for tv is large. Here are some examples of what I thought looked nice: [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/ocean-club-sliding-door-point-break-entertainment-chest-contemporary-living-room-miami-phvw-vp~21520095) [Contemporary Living Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-living-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_718~s_2103) by Pompano Beach Furniture & Accessories Baer's Furniture [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/entertainment-paint-grade-traditional-family-room-dc-metro-phvw-vp~448127) [Traditional Family Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-family-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_720~s_2107) by Church Hill Cabinets & Cabinetry Kent Cabinetry and Millwork Inc I suspect these are all either custom and/or built-in. tinam61 -- In comparison to the rest of the room, the wall that I'd want to put an entertainment center or media console IS a big space...it's the largest open wall space in our house. But the room is pretty narrow, so I worry that a large unit will just make the room feel even narrower. We're planning to remove the carpet and install wood or bamboo flooring, and I want the direction to be oriented to make the room feel a little wider :-) (this will all be part of re-doing the whole room). robin_dc -- the open shelf space is tall enough for everything (assuming the Wii can lay on it's side, maybe it can't). I think DH wants to replace the Wii with something else in the future, guess we'll have to make sure it can also lay on it's side! I love your suggestion of a mock-up...I'm going to start hanging onto boxes to make a mock-up. I've made so many poor furniture choices for that room (the dresser, the couch and chair that are too big for the space...other things that aren't in there any more). The coffee table DH hates, says it's a piece of trash (it was sort of trash)...not sure if it's going to stay or go, but right now it's taken the place of the piano because it needs to hold some of the electronics :-P I'm the kind of person who can't really know if something works or not unless it's actually in the space. That's pretty much a detriment to interior decorating! Do you have any advice on how I can decide if the scale is okay? AnnieDeighnaugh -- That's a pretty nice guest room! I do feel like the EC dominates the wall, though, and I could see that being an issue if we go that route. I'm definitely leaning toward a console type solution at this point (since I'm ruling out built-in/custom). arcy -- sounds like a really nice piece! I started a s/o thread, really leaning toward the long/low media console idea and now I want to be sure I get the correctly proportioned piece :-) Here is a link that might be useful: s/o thread This post was edited by melle_sacto on Wed, Feb 4, 15 at 13:25

Thanks everyone, definitely some good ideas here. I'm reluctant to put anything large into that space, like a screen or a tall shelf, because I think it will block the openness of the room (which I mostly like) plus the ceilings are so tall it would be hard to find anything proportional for that narrow but tall space. For now I'm going to play with the lamp and art/mirror placement, hoping to find something that will visually balance a bit better. I'm hoping Carrie B and auntthelma are right, that the right focal point on the wall will make the gap less noticeable, instead of trying to fill the gap with something. (Though I have thought about putting a table behind there, like Nira Juso and Nicole Shields Design suggested, I just need to find something narrow enough that it doesn't block the entryway to the bathroom.) I also like the idea from housegal200 to put a mirror over the couch to visually open up the wall instead of filling in the gap, as I do sort of think the fireplace is the natural focal point, and I don't want every surface to compete with one another. Negative space is important, I'm just not sure that gap is my ideal negative space :) I'll try to come back and post a follow up once I've got my next arrangement. Thanks again everyone, and if you have more ideas please do keep posting.

I'd bring some color into the room!!! We purchased a 6' long distressed robins egg blue cabinet to go in a niche where our T.V. will either sit or hang above the cabinet. The cabinet has 4 doors opening to 2 shelves for storing equipment. It was actually sold as a buffet. We will cut a small hole in the back to run cords through. An example: Entertainment furniture We purchased our piece from a local furniture store. Looked many places until we found just the one. And it was on sale for less than $1000!