@Beth H et al.. yes, and I'm really thrilled with all of the recommendations, everyone has style and it's great to see varying opinions. So I don't want to think anyone has wasted their time, I think down the road in the near future, we will go with something built out pretty much like you were suggesting early on. As we just finished the remodel within the last year, we are not up for building anything out or even tiling the wall at this point. We don't need new furniture at the moment (kids will ruin it anyway). For now, we were looking for something minor / superficial, if that's the correct verbiage. While we know now, that it may not look "perfect", it's where we're at now. That said, we don't want to do anything (now) with the fireplace, what we are open to is: some type of shelving (which would have to be shallow in depth, I think), definitely plants (faux preferably), artwork or like I mentioned (which may have gotten lost), is maybe B&W canvas print collage (I'm a part-time photographer and we have zero photos of our kids displayed). We are also open to putting a small corner piece to the left side, but it would have to be very small footprint as we only have about 12" from the wall to the lightswitch near the slider, but after hearing/seeing some of the plant options, I think we prefer that. Another note, we (I) have a floor subwoofer to the right hand side, you can see my wife's aerogarden sitting on top of it until we find a home for it :) Hopefully, that helps, again, I really do appreciate everyone weighing in and taking a lot of time for the mock ups. -Matt

Thank you for your opinions. Am going to get some paint samples this weekend. Will first try to see if I can make a shade of beige work...I really want the look of a white/carrera marble kitchen so might have to rethink paint color for entire floor IF I can't find the right cream/beige. I love the warmth of browns/beige, which is why I did not go with grey color originally in our living room area. BUT, the vision for my new kitchen is throwing me. My kitchen currently has brown cabinets so brown tone made sense when we moved in! Would appreciate any other specific paint colors to look at to coordinate with carrera marble. Thank you all!!

Thanks for the suggestions! And thanks for the compliment :) I debated putting the one of my girls but that picture really showed the wood and the green, lol! The pale oak is beautiful and I got some samples of clay beige and manchester tan. Thanks again!

You have a beautiful home! I like your current paint color. Do you know the name of it? I would suggest one color for the entire space. You might consider going a shade lighter than the current color. Take a look at BM Pale Oak. As a side note, I would remove all the items that are on the very top of the wall unit.