Thanks for all the great responses! I appreciate you all taking the time to chime in. Oakleyok, the child's chair belonged to my DH's grandparents -the matching "adult chair" resides with his uncle -- no one sits on the little chair, but we like having it on display Rosie, I will work on a floor plan. I have been busy with other things but decided I need to do this so we are ready to entertain this fall. We rarely if ever actually use the fireplace (maybe 3 times in the 25 years we have lived here). You stated it beautifully "You need a room that invites people in and allows them to circulate freely and then find a seat that fits them and, in a few cases, that can be turned to join a conversation or face a speaker, like that nice scroll-arm chair. " My question is how to create a "room that invites people in". Ellendi, we do have a love seat and sofa now because that's what we had when we lived in New York -- 2 sofas sound appealing to me because we can always use more seating -- when you say to line up the sofas with the fireplace, I assume you mean perpendicular to the fireplace and not parallel -is that right? -the chairs are just near the round table because we brought the table from NYC and then my MIL gave us those chairs when she downsized -- we love the china cabinet -we bought it when we were first married and lived in London - it might fit in our dining room but unfortunately that it is the one room in the house that is small -we do sometimes bring in dining room chairs for our meetings and parties Teacats -thanks for the advice about how to use our existing furniture -our sofa is shot, so we will be replacing that and probably the love seat at the same time --it is an excellent point about covering up the air grate -i will have to find something that can be in front of it without blocking airflow -maybe a table with slim bench chairs underneath -and i like the idea of a tall mirror over the fireplace Camlan -i love your suggestion of moving our current furniture around to figure out what works for us -we do not use our dining room much as we have a breakfast room connected to the kitchen where we usually eat -we never go to the dining room from the entry way -and i don't think our friends do so often either One other point -- we are willing to consider a different rug - I like this rug a lot (it has some of Omar Khayyam's Rubiat on it) -but DH thinks we should get something more modern -and we could, of course, get a different size Thanks again!

Great, thanks! I would use a round table that can extend to oval when you have company in the dining area, right over near the kitchen. One chair backing into the corner, rather than a chair with its back to the kitchen door. The desk can stay right where you have it in this photo. Sofa on the wall with the windows with a side table at each end. Two chairs across from it with a table between them. I sketched a pic but can't post comments on my phone, boo :(

Your best basic seating options are a 3-seat sofa and two upholstered armchairs. Placement options are pretty much unlimited. For more flexibility when TV watching is the main goal, the chairs should be swivels. You can place TV opposite the FP and float the seating. The window ends will give you space for some casegoods and some occasional chairs. And don't forget art over the mantel and on the four short pieces of the "north" and "south" walls.

Did you actully check to see if those pillars are load bearing? What space in the middle ? IMO just do more furniture in one space or the other I would porbably do a longer dining table for sure since you will have the space This is pics of a space almost exactly like yours We did not have a TV but the space where the FP was could easily have handled one