This is a suggestion that has worked marvelously for us - although it's not cheap. We have a projector tv. The screen is mounted on the ceiling in a bay area. My husband made a soffit to go in front of it so unless you're standing behind it in the bay area, you don't see the screen when it's in retracted. We don't have windows in this area because it's actually under the dining room bay window. The projector is attached to the ceiling, but I've seen them on the top shelf of bookcases. We love this solution because then the room isn't arranged around a large object that when 'off' is otherwise useless (and unattractive). I personally don't like entertainment centers because it just makes it take up more space - and most people leave the tv exposed anyway. The only issue with a projector tv is that you need the room fairly dark when watching so you would need some window coverings or shades that are room darkening. Man, is it ever great for popcorn and a movie, though! We haven't been to a theatre for a single movie since we did this.

@Annie: Thank you for the link, it's from a reliable source so I am considering carefully what it says. Both of our stoves are connected to outside air and have been for decades. The inlets are on the typically upwind side of the house. Except of course, when we're having a Nor'easter. This house was built before the Civil War and has no insulation in its wall cavities (and none is possible due to the contruction of the wall assembly). So it defines a "leaky house". No problems here with "sick-building" issues related to being too tightly sealed. Sometimes I think we might as well be living outside! When we installed the O/A inlets it made an immediate difference in the draftiness of the rooms so I would be reluctant to go back, but fire safety is a paramount concern for us so I will be talking to my husband about this. We have no other combustion stacks (obviously no furnace or boiler, and our DHW is electric) so we have no carbon monoxide risks with or withhut the OCA. But I am planning on installing powerful vent fan in the current kitchen which is where the wood-burning stove is. (I'm moving the kitchen to another room to get away from the woodstove, but it will still close enough to be affected by the fan's power, I think.) I'm picturing in my mind the pathway of the combustion air within our stove and trying to decide if I have a risk of drawing super-heated air or coals back down into the combustion inlet piping (which is utterly unshielded along its entire length as it lies slap up against the wood sheathing of the wood room) if the system was depressurized, and I think not. But this is particular to my stove, and model, and not true for many other stoves that would simply feed the air directly into the firebox. I really appreciate the heads up and will ponder it some more, especially as we are slowly getting around to installing the new stove (which likely has an intake air pathway that is completely different.) @mjlb: LOL at your DH's association to arched doors and a crematorium. Fortunately the woodburning stoves like the Jotul, while perhaps slightly arched on top have lovely glass doors that don't seem like crematoria, at least to me. Soapstone (or other masonry) thermal mass stoves are fab, but not really the same fire-appreciation sense as any fire place or regular woodstove. They are intended to burn much smaller, hotter fires, often only a couple of times per day. They also are not really retrofitable into an existing hearth and chimney stack since they require different stack pathways and massing. Plus they are extremely heavy and must have a substantial foundation. I love them though, and am considering converting from woodstoves to masonry as we age in place. Woodstoves require such constant vigilance for safety and a considerable amount of physical activity to attend (even leaving aside processing the fuel from tree to firewood) that I can see it may be a problem at some point. We're in our 60's now. With no other source of heat if we couldn't burn wood we'd have to leave the house. My late MIL in the last year or two before she died had issues around her wood heating and cooking arrangements. Her cognition was becoming muzzy enough that I had decided she couldn't live alone there another heating season. Plus as she became frailer just loading the logs into her stove started to become a problem. I remember one miserable day when I split her entire winter's wood down into smaller pieces because she was forbidden to pick up anything more than 2 lbs. She wept the whole time I did it, and I felt so sad for her. A masonry stove since it is fired only two, or at most three times a day could be managed by someone paid to come in and attend to it. The rest of the day it just radiates heat, mildly enough so that you can sit on it safely. I considered getting a soapstone-walled woodstove before choosing the cast-iron Jotul. The soapstone walls are NOT safer to touch than cast-iron (unlike a masonry heater made of soapstone which relies on thermal mass). And having looked at several in the shop being repaired (cracking) we decided to stick with the familar cast-iron. There is one nagging issue for me around wood-burning: it can contribute to diminshed air quality from particulates in the smoke. When you get a whiff of a wood-burn, it usually smells quite pleasant, but in truth you are inhaling particulates and smoke, even in the cleanest, most efficient burning ones. One wood-stove is a trivial air degradation, but wood-burners in every household is a community problem. In many parts of the UK (and some cities here in the US) wood-burning, not to mention coal which is even worse air-quality-wise, is illegal. Stilll this is a harsh climate and some form of heat is necessary. As we have the woods (and generally only use thinnings and blow-downs), and process it on the farm, it seems environmentally better than oil or worse, fracked gas. But it is not totally environmentally benign. We have installed more solar panels to make power, and will add more to provide some electric heating capacity as well. There are no free lunches when it comes to heating in a cold climate. L.

As I don't see photos and floor colors & structures I can only predict that the colour scheme You've choose is grays-beige-navy accents. I ve made some sketches below on which You can see that due to walkways from room to room there are different ways to establish a seating places. You can add an arm chair to complete seating zone with Your Kivik seat. As it 2,50 m length its better to put it alongside the longer wall. Also I propose to install Tv over the fireplace (honestly I dislike this combination, but here, in this space this option is useful. To support navy colour in dining room and connect spaces, I advise to get distressed carpets with a bit of viscose knitting, they are soft and have a smooth brilliance. You also have to establish a main low table to comfort seating area and 1-2 cute coffee tables. The place between front entrance and coat closet is very logical to install a console table with a) 2 lamps or b) 2 pair vases and c) a painting or a large mirror over the console. Mirror is more useful as it near the door. You can add a nice touch, making diffrent seasonal decorations on that console. Or a chest, as You wish, the main idea is to put long furniture along that wall. You can choose a mirrored wood with light golden or silver leaf nuances for console. To support your Kallax shelves I would recommend dark metal/wood legs for main table. Finally, You have to choose basics as table, chest or console, and after work on carpetry and tissues. You can visually change Your lounge room appearance by changing accesories and pillow cases etc. P.S. I did not put the main table in fromt of Kivik but its there))) Regards!

I'm with the crew who has no great love of a wood-burning fireplace. I grew up with one, and -- yes -- it's a chore: - Bringing in wood /storing wood near the fireplace is a chore. If you're going this direction, one of our fireplaces had a great set-up: a wide-wide fireplace with a built-in wood box next to the fire box ... the wood box opened from both sides, so you could load wood in from outside /not bring it in through the people door. That fireplace was MUCH less work than the other one. - If you do such a thing, be sure to place a lock on the exterior door, or thieves could remove your wood and climb into your house. - You're constantly sweeping up bits of twigs and bark. - You're constantly cleaning out ash. Like the wood box above, a well-designed fireplace will have an ash-door so you can open a little hatch, push the ashes into it, and go outside to finish the job. - Bugs come in on your wood. - You must store your wood away from the house itself, or you'll get termites. - We lived on a farm and spent several weekends every fall cutting wood for the next year. Even with five kids working, it was a big prospect ... but buying firewood isn't cheap. - A wood fire takes the better part of an hour to get started /really give you some warmth. A wood fire doesn't "die down" immediately, which can be a concern if you're going to bed or leaving the house. - You must have your chimney cleaned every year, or it's a huge fire hazard. In contrast to this, a gas or electric stove -- while not quite the same as a real wood fire -- can give you an instant fire, and you can turn it off-off in an instant. Don't rule out wood stoves, which -- if you want real heat, not just ambiance -- are more efficient than fireplaces. If you've never lived with a wood-burning fireplace (as an adult who's responsible for the thing), I strongly recommend you try to rent a weekend place that has one. I'm a huge fan of try-before-you-buy.