Hard to say without seeing the rest of the room. Can you share pics showing more of the space?

First thing I would do is pull off the landscape fabric and throw it away. Then lay down all the cardboard and newspaper you can find, wet it with a hose, and pile on mulch. Wet again. Plant in a week, cutting holes in the cardboard/newspaper. Do you want flowers? Evergreens? Grasses? Do you like to fiddle with your plants or are you a plant-and-ignore gardener? Are any of the existing plants staying? Good rules-of-thumb to follow: 1. Plant your tallest plants in the back next to the house and the shortest ones next to the sidewalk 2. Leave at least one foot of empty space between the house and MATURE FULL-GROWN shrubs/grasses/plants. What little I can see of the house is really pretty. I love the porch!

Consider what might be most useful to you and if you want matching configurations. Storage, library, displaying, desk, etc. No matter what you decide, I would reduce the depth in half by drywalling as I think it will provide lots more options. There may be a need to redo fireplace moldings and even mantle if going with builtins.

Got teens? Where's the gaming area? Can you pull the sofa forward? I don't like them hanging over the edge of a wall or the stairwell. Just leave a walkway behind it and hang up some art on the stairwell wall.