Mama Rachel You make a lot of good points. We have never used TV shows, or big games as a jumping off point for entertaining (kids have, but not us). For those wanting two main TV areas built for entertaining (basement and great room) our plan would not work. I am very pleased to get your suggestion on where to get a good arm swivel for the TV to improve upon the position for viewing. I have posted below a floor plan of the open concept space. As per glare, there are lots of windows in this area, so we will need to buy the best glare free TV we can find. The large window behind the couch is south facing. There are windows located directly across from the proposed TV location (as well as across from the cab on other side of fireplace), but they are over 36 feet away in the dining room (west facing windows). There are also west facing windows in the kitchen that might make the left hand side even more prone to glare. Also if we keep it in its proposed location, we of DS can see it when dishes are washed (yeah). MommyToc, Thanks again for your comments and for thinking through the drawer and shelf depth. I think we are going to increase the depth of the upper part of this built in to 11 inches so we can accommodate books behind the closed doors. We can put a false back on the plate display part as that part does not need 11 inches of depth. Glad you think the plate display will look good too. We are thinking of putting a grove in the shelves for the plates, and then leaning the plates against the back of the shelf. In addition to those blue plates I posted, we also have some brown Hummel plates (we own less of those than blue) but we will display both for some visual variety and put Hummel figurines in between the plates. We are also planning on lighting the plates shelves. There will also be can lights cross lighting the fireplace and possibly uplights near the base of the stone surround. Carol

I think you need to decide flooring first since it is the largest thing in the space then the tile for the fireplace will be easier to choose The last thing is paint color especially since you have gray sofas in the mix too. I love gray but it can be a bit of too much sometimes maybe just a simple really large format white tile on the fireplace would be a better choice. Porcelanosa makes fabulous large format tile with some texture .

It looks like the best thing is to start with a new 3 seat sofa. Since you have the TV above the mantle, we assume you want your seating positioned that way. Then you will want two chairs to go on the wall directly across from the slider. You also may like a rug? Below you can get a lot of great ideas from designs of ours. Note the furniture, rugs, end tables, pillows, lamps, artwork, window treatments, coffee tables, and various other decor accessories.

Neither inspo photo looks good. Sorry. I would give UP the fire, before I'd use the corner and most everyone who has tried it would tell you the same thing. Put a fire and smaller tv in this FORMAL space that will become the DEAD space.......unless it has a tv. Treat it as the escape space for you and hubby. Then just face the fact that a honkin" tv and console alongside a corner hearth......? Is basically a REVERSE of all the corner TELEVISIONS that were ripped out of bult-ins that surrounded center fire boxes, twenty five years ago. And a regret waiting to happen. Failing that? Build a SEE THROUGH and give up a totally open area behind your island, dividing great room space from kitchen. . Two feet deep, and five feet wide. Fire view both sides. Or adjust your front elevation left of entry door, center a fire, and windows on BOTH sides. Which means anything is better than the corner. Scale it down......and a lovely view from a centered bump /window on front elevation Use the loooooooog wall for the honkin black hole : ) even add a small tv above fire on kitchen side. Now THAT is honesty in living lol!. TV everywhere anyone may want to be.