Leather! Leather! Leather! I have 5 boys ages from 2 - 16 and when I found our leather couch, very old, at a yard sale it was like a dream come true. No more dirty couches to worry about, just wipe them down. With browns there are plenty of things you can add anywhere in a room to lighten it and your room is pretty light already. Our furniture is a bit mix matched with different woods but what else you place in a room makes the difference. Your entertainment center... too dark if you are going for leather. It is too big and dark. I hope I was of some kind of help. Michelle

Thanks everyone - much more to ponder here. @roarah, I think almost any sofa direction is going to entail a big ottoman. I've avoided it to date because the kids use the coffee table for so much coloring/lego building/etc (which explains why it needs replacing) but if I replace the sectional with anything other than another sectional, I'll definitely want to try a big cushy ottoman. @Beverly27 and @bac717, I like this idea and need to play with it some more. The difficulty is that there is a 4ft wide window on that wall. There would still be enough space to place the TV between the window and the door, but there tends to be a pretty bright glare from the window itself. (That may change within the next few weeks, when the house under construction next door gets its upper floors, sigh.) It's worth shifting the furniture around to see if it might work! My husband is out of town for the next couple of days - time for some experimentation! @suero - the U-shaped sectional is a really interesting idea. I need to hunt around the web to see if I can find something like that...it would eliminate all the battles for prime TV watching seats. @jlc712, I realize I hadn't posted a proper diagram or clear photos; all these are old blurry cell shots in my photobucket library. I'll try for something better after work, but the entry to the dining room is on the same wall where the TV/"fireplace" is currently situated - directly opposite the exterior door. @kidrowlam, the one thing that is staying in the room for the foreseeable future is the Persian rug - it was a wedding gift from my MIL (and we have no other place for it!) The faux fireplace is in the first photo in my first post, under the TV. I'm totally ready to junk it if I can improve the space.... Thanks everyone - I'll try some of these ideas tonight/tomorrow!

Ok. Been awhile and I'm making progress. Sorry, we're painting and repairing walls so ignore the stuff around. New nubby rug and a great coffee table. We are planning on ordering the 80" media console from West Elm. For now we've been doing the chair in front of the fireplace but I think it needs to be farther away if we actually have the fireplace on. If they are together by the window, do I need something on the opposite side or do I just move everything farther onto the rug? Did the SW color consult and planned on skyline steel in the entry, office nook and LR nook, with elephant ear everywhere else. Skyline came out horribly yellow up next to the fireplace (the picture is the second color we tried - Stormy Weather from Ace - that also doesn't seem to work). I would love to skip the grey altogether but it's all open and I don't know where to stop as it extends up and down the stairs... I love this new art piece and would love to put a color accent behind it, but that would mean a plain color for the entryway. The bench I bought is too blue-grey but I cannot return. The office adjacent to the entryway is a deep orange-red color. Will the stupid bench look okay against grey once I get some art up? We are planning on a pretty aqua/mint for the backsplash - you can just see my samples on the far right middle. I think it will look nice with the orange, and keeping the dining room the river way or something similar (maybe needlepoint navy). What should I paint the rest of the walls? One grey all around? Grey with lighter accents? Colors everywhere?

One idea might be to add a very short wall on the left as you enter the living room so the opening to the living room is the same width as the entry ... and, by doing that you could put wall to wall built ins on that end of the living area, with or without a tv, and still create two separate sitting areas. I don't understand the "bar" against the solid wall behind the pantry and refrigerator. If you changed the pantry to a "butler's pantry" with a pass thru window, that would have made more sense. Is your "bar" a cabinet something built in? Have you considered either closing or narrowing the door between dining and living room and/or creating your pass thru bar there with your piano in the adjoining corner adjacent to the fireplace near the dining room wall? https://www.decorpad.com/search/butler-pantry-pass-through