Here's the sofa area with the picture lowered and area filled out. Showing the addition of a coffee table in two shapes. And also trying lighter mats on the pics to brighten things up. I love what you have going. It just needs to be completed and filled out some : ) The colors are just gorgeous and make for a wonderful and comforting setting to spend time. You might want to start another thread, as this one is bogged down with a lot of pics. Also, once the images become oversized and the text doesn't wrap anymore, a lot of people won't look anymore as it can't be read easily.

I am very belatedly returning to this thread, as I turn to the next project in the room. clairebuoyant1, karenseb, wma89, amck2, dilly_ny, caminnc, gsciencechick, debbi branka, louisianapurchase - Thank you for the lovely things you've said, big smile on my face as I reread them:) beachpea3 - Glad you saw this! I would love to have you over to see in person, but please give me a few days notice for a thorough cleaning:) arcy_gw - After having lived with the molding, I agree with you! We'll be redoing this. One of the projects for this spring.

Mama Rachel You make a lot of good points. We have never used TV shows, or big games as a jumping off point for entertaining (kids have, but not us). For those wanting two main TV areas built for entertaining (basement and great room) our plan would not work. I am very pleased to get your suggestion on where to get a good arm swivel for the TV to improve upon the position for viewing. I have posted below a floor plan of the open concept space. As per glare, there are lots of windows in this area, so we will need to buy the best glare free TV we can find. The large window behind the couch is south facing. There are windows located directly across from the proposed TV location (as well as across from the cab on other side of fireplace), but they are over 36 feet away in the dining room (west facing windows). There are also west facing windows in the kitchen that might make the left hand side even more prone to glare. Also if we keep it in its proposed location, we of DS can see it when dishes are washed (yeah). MommyToc, Thanks again for your comments and for thinking through the drawer and shelf depth. I think we are going to increase the depth of the upper part of this built in to 11 inches so we can accommodate books behind the closed doors. We can put a false back on the plate display part as that part does not need 11 inches of depth. Glad you think the plate display will look good too. We are thinking of putting a grove in the shelves for the plates, and then leaning the plates against the back of the shelf. In addition to those blue plates I posted, we also have some brown Hummel plates (we own less of those than blue) but we will display both for some visual variety and put Hummel figurines in between the plates. We are also planning on lighting the plates shelves. There will also be can lights cross lighting the fireplace and possibly uplights near the base of the stone surround. Carol

If you get semi custom kitchen cabinets, as in you order the pieces from the factory rather than just picking up in stock ones from IKEA or Home Depot, you can usually specify custom depths and heights. For example, for a short run next to my fridge, I wanted deeper uppers. This allowed me to store larger plates than standard 12' cabinets would. It also let me get a standard depth fridge and make it look cabinet depth. So I ordered the uppers 15". For the bases, I had them installed 3" out from the wall, and then the end is covered with a decorative panel, so you can't see the gap. That's another option, is to just place them out from the wall and cover the sides. You could also order bases in shallower sizes than the standard 25", or modify the height so they aren't 3' high. Also, they might offer window seat and book case pieces. I have some drawer units on a stair landing that I ordered in custom length and depth. I've seen bookcases in the catalogues (which are just cabinets without doors), and you can probably get those in custom height. Going with a semi custom kitchen cabinet will be more expensive than stock pieces, but a lot less work, and much cheaper than hiring a custom cabinet maker to come in and build the whole thing from scratch. My cabinets are from Signature by Omega and Kitchen Craft. But I'm sure the kitchen forum can recommend other companies that offer this as well. Kitchen Craft used to have their catalogue online (no prices, you'll have to find a local retailer for that) so you can see what's possible.