@avesmore- Thanks.. Living with them for the day has helped a little.. I think to answer your question- both physically and visually. Physically b/c i am afraid every time I pull the string to straighten them out they are going to come tumbling down- the material almost seems to heavy for the strings to handle. On my pho=wood blinds in the rest of the house, there are 4 strings/blind probably for this same reason. Visually, when I push them all the way up so as not to block the view of the woods behind the house, they seem too heavy and bunched up. The designer did get back to me and is going to be in touch with me to come look at the treatments. Not that I necessarily value her opinion right now b/c she did encourage me to get the light filter which in my complete UNPROFESSIONAL opinion is adding a bit of weight to the shades and may not necessarily be needed... so i guess. stay tuned....

Some suggestions: --Remove, remove, remove gigantic blue chair/beanbag. You have a massive sofa which is sucking up most of the space and light in your room. Get rid of Big Blue today! --Replace the kids' storage cabinet under the window and the cabinet under your TV with a very long, low, wide shelving with baskets, which is the only place the children's toys will go. The shelves should run from one end of that wall right to the edge of the stairs. Rotate kid's toys out elsewhere so that you only have one storage center for them. --Swing the sofa around so that half of it is under the window and the other half is facing the TV and new storage. Move it forward enough so that you create an entryway from the front door with the back of the sofa. --Orientation here isn't right, but here's how to use the entry space you create once the sofa is moved forward, the blue chair is gone. Wouldn't you want your living room to look a little like this? Alternate layout: Bring sofa toward TV wall as suggested but forward enough so that you can use the corner created behind the sofa, that's unused now, for a small play area for the children. Put easel there, some small chairs. We don't have measurements, so I'm not sure how much space you might have to work with. --Decluttering should come first, but if you see some examples of layouts that would really work for you, then move that sofa now. Forget about pillows, throws, etc. Down the road get a really nice art work and those lovely Roman shades Nancy suggested to pull the eye away from the massive sofa. --Going forward: Get two small leather storage ottomans, not one big one. (Measure how much space they'll take up--I'm just showing this one as an example. They're not hard to find in all colors. You want soft corners for the kids' safety.) Pick storage ottomans in a light, pretty color that will echo some art work or Roman shades:

Cute pooch. Is the eighteen feet from the by window to the tv? If so, you could leave six feet between the back of the sofa (centered with the bay window) and the bay window for your play area. Then use the rest of the area for your living room space. If you want to try centering the back of the sofa across from the bay window, then measure the space between the side of the sofa and the wall with the two smaller windows. It may be that you have room there to place your desk/table with metal legs in that spot with its chair sitting in the play area. A tall thin metal lamp with large white shade on it could serve the living room as well as the desk. If not, find another side table/cabinet for that space for that purpose. You could plan a place in the play room for a bed for the family pet. Underneath the bay window, you might want a window seat that doubles as toy storage, preferably with front doors if the children are small. A top lid can pinch little fingers. https://angelarosehome.com/ikea-besta-bench-hack-with-diy-cushion/ Unless you're wanting a wall to wall built in underneath the bay window -- if you're wanting separate pieces of furniture, then on each side of the window seat, you might consider tall shallow cabinets with solid doors at the bottom for some hidden storage) and either open shelves or glass doors above for displaying family photographs and family treasures.

How old are the kids ? IMO kids toys do not all have to availablre all the time nad if the kids are a bit older some of those toys can be played with in their rooms .You need proper storage so all the toys can be out away at night to create a nice adult space for conversation. There are tons of nice closed storge units that are available but the taller ones will need to be tethered to the wall. This is the first space you see when entering your home not IMO a pleasant look. I need a to scale floor plan and you need to decide how many toys need storage at one time. We had 3 kids and my Dad built the most amazing cabinet/ bench it was made to provid more seating in out LR when we had company but our place was small so the kids did play in the LR but the bech had these great drawers on casters that pulled out from under the bench and all the toys went in there before dinner there were 3 drawers and 3 kids it was always clean up time before dinner and the space was nice for adult company . It seems like the kids do not put stuff away now so you will need to retrain them too.