Hello. We just moved into a new home and are having trouble deciding how to lay out our new great/living room. The room is 14' x 24' with a step-down in the middle. We would like a relatively open space because we have large, playful dogs.

The room has a beautiful view to the pool and a fireplace on a large metal wall where we anticipate putting a TV.

Is it acceptable to use one large area rug for multiple conversation areas? We anticipate that there will be a conversation area around the fireplace wall, and another toward the back half of the room as well. We have seen several modular sectionals that could be oriented as a two-way couch, which we thought might look great in the center of the room.

I would certainly appreciate any ideas you may have for this room. The furniture in the attached pictures is not our own. We will be purchasing all new furniture/rug(s) for this project. I have also attached two designs I attempted (note the dimensions of the large rug example are accurate with respect to the step down and sliding glass door sizes. The small rug example is not accurate. I need to fix it) and a picture of one of the modular sofas I was referring to.

Thank you so much.