Flo, you are a jewel to share your time and talent with so many!

A tulip table would be nice in that corner, but there isn't enough space for a banquette at least with the measurements I have right now. Of course, it depends on how they want to do things with the space. For the walls, depending on color palette and furniture direction, something like SW Sea Salt might work. But with the black bookcase and some other black touches, I think I would lean toward some off white perhaps with the fireplace wall, being an accent. Maybe dark brown just depending on color direction overall.

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Thank you to everyone who left a comment!

Oh. My. Goodness. Flo Mangan! Thank you tons! That's a lot to think about. I never expected so much help especially packed into a few comments. I'm going to move furniture around this week and try your layout out. Kaye1951, I feel extremely fortunate to have had Flo comment and spend so much time on my post.

Emily Jowers, we did choose blue for the kitchen which we'll paint this weekend. I'm reluctant to have everything blue, however, your photos show a positive perspective on it. Perhaps I could find a bench which would fit in the corner. The wall without mirror measures 50"

Couch from arm to arm measures a whopping 88" x 35" definitely longer than necessary to lounge.

Loveseat measures 66"

Table measures 45" I have it pushed all the way into the corner when not in use.

Thanks again. Lots to think about! Maybe this week we'll move the shelf to the mirrored wall and take it from there.

Keep us in the loop when you move things around for opinions...Good Luck.

Hope our exuberance didn't push you over the edge! We do get excited with interesting rooms, which you have! Good luck this weekend and happy holidays! I will be on line throughout the holiday, so feel free to ask questions, or post photos so we can see your progression!

I really appreciate the thought put into this. It's inspiring in a number of ways. I know that getting feedback can be challenging sometimes but I really do appreciate it.

Here is what the table looks like under the tablecloth. The diameter of the pedestal is 31" and the glass is 45". I'm constantly bang my legs on it. Plus the chairs can't be pushed all the way in when not in use.

That is too large a round for your room and the chairs are too large of a scale. Need narrower backs for easier seating around a table. Also, even with this table, if you place the chairs differently it would help. One should angle at the corner, another opposite and then on angle the other two. Or better yet, if there are routinely only two of you sitting there, move two out to another area. I can't wait to see the bookcase against the mirrored wall. I think you will be shocked at how good that will look and how much more interesting the room will be. One tip: Get a smaller round top for your base table. A 36" would work. In any case, a tulip shaped table would work much better for you when you could make that happen.

I think a corner bench and pedestal table would work. Perhaps with an extension if you need to seat more people occasionally.

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That could work, but you can't sit as comfortably on benches as you can on chairs. Plus they aren't cheap. And they don't move to other areas well. A tulip table would work with the bench concept in that corner if that is the direction you want to take. On the scale drawing, if you do the bench, it will push everything out into your room about 18" at least, plus a little more for additional table clearance, which is why I didn't do that originally. I was looking for as much "space" as I could get. Anyway, you have options.

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Some thoughts:

I like the gray-blue in the previous photo and the banquette. You need a tulip table for that space. Ikea has a great one that you won't bang into and has simple lines. You can easily build, or have built, a banquette with lidded top and measured to the size of outdoor bench cushions in a great color. Some people hack Ikea bookcases by turning them sideways to form seating benches.

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--Repaint the room a great white and lose the mirrors. I think the kitchen, which is open to your living room, should be the same color to extend the view. However, the pale slate blue shown in a previous photo would be better than the red you have. The room will look much bigger if the room is a lighter color.

--Keep one of the white sofas--the longest one--and orient it to the fireplace. Get two comfy side chairs to face the sofa with a small table for drinks in between them. Add a round ottoman on legs or a round coffee table so you don't bang into it.

--Anchor the sofa and two chairs with a beautiful patterned rug that complements whatever chairs, paintings, or drapes that you get.

--Lower your painting or get a much longer, dramatic one.

--Eventually replace the slat shades with long, floor-to-ceiling drapes or woven roman shades.

--Replace all your lighting at some point. Get a great pendant for over the newly reconfigured dining space. Ikea has wonderful, dramatic ones for very little money. Lose the halogen. If you need a fan, replace what you have with a modern white one.

Thanks for the suggestions! Such lovely photos. Last night hubby and I moved the bookshelf to the mirror side and realize its depth is much too deep. Once I get it into some kind of acceptable condition I'll post a photo. The couch we have is too long to do anything with other than the original arrangement. Even an 80" would be too big. My husband thinks maybe we should just get some type of loveseat. I'm not sure what to think at the moment. Taking all these new ideas into account, we don't have the budget to do our living space yet. We need to get the kitchen done first. Sigh. At least we have some ideas about the possibilities for our living room, thank you.

How deep is that bookcase? Is it deeper than 14"? When you just look at one piece without the other elements in place you also don't get the full perspective, so don't give up on that approach. In fact, I'm going to check, because I wonder if the sofa could sit in front of the bookcase, at least temporarily. I'll play around with the layout and see, but in the long run, I agree the sofa is way to long for your space. I have some ideas, but we need to give you a Christmas break and kitchen completion break. I do think you need to finish kitchen because starting too many things at once makes for a crazy brain! lol Take care, have a Happy Holiday!

Here is a way to use what you have in a better way. Even if the bookcase is 20" deep, which I put in this drawing, with a bit of creativity, you could do this.

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Something tells me you need a dumb waiter to get the food from the upstairs kitchen to the dining area. lol!

There is approximately the same distance to the left corner from kitchen as to the far corner in fact, it is a straighter shot. You might want to consider getting "C" tables for using a laptop or even eating a meal. Then you could ditch the coffee table and make more room.

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Hi Adri, Your living room doesn't look that bad. I like the combination of colours and I think its easy to make it warm and cosy. I would just get rid of mirrors, change small sofa for two arm chairs, change a coffee table for one with round corners or get some round one, get some carpet under coffee table, get also some very big plant, get rid of the fun and get some cotton curtains. / Marcin

It's the stairs, Flo, not the distance. I don't know the age of the OP, but stairs will eventually become a problem when your hands are full.

That is very true, sorry, I thought you meant the walk to the new table location.

Flo, that was very nice of you to do that, thank you. Merry Christmas and
season greetings to you too! Here are a couple of photos. The last photo shows how it is currently. I sure wish I had the ability to visualize how things will
look without actually moving anything. Please excuse the dusty
80s mirror (includes recent drywall dust) and pile of sleepy foster kittens.

Decoenthusiast, that's funny and probably why we rarely use the pass-through
for passing. It's easier to just walk the three steps. I'm 41. I often wish our townhouse home was level though. Even the yard slopes further down which exposes us to rather bad traffic
and such.

I do love our home though. It is the nicest place I've ever lived and I don't take it for granted. I never had a chance to even think about furniture
placement or much decorating before. I want to make the most of the space and
work with all the angles as best as possible eventually. I appreciate all the folks on Houzz taking the time to help out others. This appears to be a very special forum.

That looks like a huge improvement! Does it feel and look better to you as you live in the room? Bookcases behind sofas are a very "Houzz" look that provide a great backdrop to a sofa. Here's an example similar to what you did:

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Why so negative horselover? You just posted that you hate someone else's couch on another thread as well. I guess not everyone can have your awesome aesthetic.

We try to be helpful here, respecting the unique situation of each poster, horselover222. Adri - I really like the sofa in front of the bookcase and you hardly notice the wall of mirrors! Good job! It is still a lot of furniture and with a slightly smaller coffee table perhaps even a glass top one, it would look bigger. Blessings to you! Glad I was able to help a little, and I'm sure you will keep tweaking and painting and making your home wonderful!

Housegal, interesting photo! The shelf is very similar to ours. I forgot to mention that the shelf is just under 16" deep. Quite large in that respect so I'm thinking of replace it but I'm not sure with what.

horselover222, I'm not a fan of the couches either and possibly less so for leather. I can't stand the noise and feel of leather. We plan to replace the couches when budget permits. As mentioned above we plan to change the wall color too and are still debating colors.

Flo, the shelf does cover a lot of mirror and I like a backdrop. It is quite deep though at just under 16". If you wouldn't mind one more question--what other shelf shape do you think would look good there? I really like the entry cabinet you had about the window.

It is a bit overwhelming. I mean, what comes first? Paint? Or does one find a couch they like first?

Live with your new arrangement first. The neutral white couch in front of the dark bookcase gives you great contrast. Get some affordable pillows in reds and whites for now for the bigger couch. Ask Houzzers for wall paint recommendations in a white that will work in your space. Then come back with photos and ask for recommendations for future purchases of rugs, drapes, new couch, side chairs and purchase them according to your budget.

We like to start with main furniture pieces first, then rug and art. Art and rugs tend to be hardest and least available, the other things like furniture are easier. So we start with hard, and then go to easiest. Paint is easiest (though not simple!) because there are infinite number of choices. I would want the paint in the kitchen to be in the same "family" as in the living space since they are more or less open to each other and share a common wall. But you could still do a "accent" color on that fireplace wall depending on art. Art could be the way you select wall and furniture, etc. Art is the hardest to find. It is very personal and has to suit both people's likes or at least can live with! As for the bookshelving unit. Most bookshelves are 12" deep and that does the trick, but you have a large collection, so that might not work for you. Look at your books and see how deep they are. I do like the look of the black on the mirror though. I wouldn't spend my money changing that. I would look for more streamlined furniture, then art. Or both of those in concert. If you selected a neutral sofa, then most art would work with it. We can play more with those ideas after the holidays. I'm sure you are busy!

Our kitchen cabinets are in. I'm so excited. We are still struggling with a new color for these living room walls though. I thought we'd go with some kind of light, warm brown but I saw another unit in our townhouse group with a beige and I didn't like how it looked with wood floors. My husband is reluctant to use blue from the kitchen. Is gray really depressing? How about gray with a nice bright white trim? Also, about those terrible eighties mirrors...how about ceiling height custom book shelves to strategically hide most of it? It could be a fun project. I'm not sure how it should be designed though as the space is wider near the window.

I thought the mirrors dilemma was a done deal. There were many suggestions. Can we see a picture of the new kitchen?

You know how it is sometimes--it takes a while to make a decision. We recently decided take batson_cassie's advice to inexpensively update the mirrors. We're going to accent the room with white trim also and paint the walls a color I thought we had ruled out.... Gray. Our kitchen installer mentioned a show called Fixer Upper and by watching it I stumbled upon the possibility of different gray paints! I'm blown away with how little I know about home stuff like this. Sometimes it takes a while to digest. Thanks again everybody.

Oh and instead of that dining set we're going to build a banquette. First job is repairing walls and paint. I took all the pictures down last night. :)

shirlpp we don't have countertops yet or a faucet. We're using cardboard boxes as countertops in the meantime.

Any experience or thoughts about these particular colors?

These
samples will also be used to determine a paint color for the bedroom. So
far they seem either too dark or too light to me. Maybe posting these color samples can help others in the future too.

top (left to right):
1 Crucible by Valspar
2 Raven-Wing by Sherwin Williams
3 Web-grey by Sherwin Williams
4 Slate Tint (I’m liking this shade the best however it has a faint lavender tone) by Rodda Paint

middle (left to right):
5 Babbling-Brook by Valspar
6 Nor'easter by Sherwin Williams
7 Software by Sherwin Williams
8 Nevermore Grey by Sherwin Williams

bottom (left to right):
9 Island View by Glidden
10 Blue-grey shadow by Glidden
11 Night-sky grey by Glidden
12 Northern Star by Pratt and Lambert
13 Storm Cloud by Sherwin Williams

*The floors will be redone with a darker stain.

Here's an update on the mirror. batson_cassie, thanks for the idea!

Quite an improvement. Doesn't the room feel bigger now? Please let us see all of it! You left us hanging at the color choice...

It does feel bigger and cleaner too. I didn't leave anyone hanging this thread just stopped getting replies after agonizing over color choices. I added another photo but it's still in progress. We wound up going with African Grey by Sherwin Williams. Still working on the rest of the room.

I don't think people lost interest, but you slid out of the spotlight for a while. Sometimes when a project seems stalled out with no changes underweigh, people forget about if. Maybe this will revive it.

Looking great Adri! I love the updates to the mirrors!

Wow! This looks great! I am looking forward to seeing the rest of the room.

The rest of the room has a long way to go. Someone had suggested adding tall white cabinets next to the fireplace to create balance but I can't seem to find it now.

What did you need to know about that idea? Perhaps the poster will chime in.

Just how high it should be to balance it out.

Hi Adri, now that you've painted and made some general progress I would love to see some new photos of the entire space (not just the sofa area) so we can all get a feel of the space now that you've made changes. That might generate some new ideas

Ok, I'll post photos as soon as I can. :-)

Sorry this is super late but here some pics in case anyone still interested :) thank you all you helped make the space as good as possible.

Looks great. Thanks for sharing. One thought. If you change art over fireplace choose more narrow and tall piece. Use the width of your firebox to guide your size. Keep width no wider than firebox. (Black part of fireplace). Love the wall color. What color did you use?

Thanks Flo. I totally agree about the artwork not being the best size and shape but I kind of gave up at that point. Also we're actually going to move soon and will have a better place for that artwork. Paint is African Gray SW 9162. I find it a bit too dark but my husband likes it.