You don't say what room is next through the 8' opening. It could be important in how you use this LR. If you put the tv opposite the fireplace, try putting the sofas facing each other to the sides of the fireplace and tv. Put the coffee table between them. If you try this, then depending on the sizes of the pieces you move and how you like that layout, I may have some other suggestions for what you could do with your leftover spaces. I agree you may get more answers if you post at the decorator forum.

I'm glad you're thinking about room layout at this point. I'm seeing a major issue with viewing the TV from the dining room if the layout is as you suggest. In order for that to happen, the TV would have to be parked in front of one of the windows which is not optimum. If that was really a critical element, then perhaps you can put a separate TV in the dining room. The beautiful new windows will be too nice to obstruct with a TV and TVs still are easier to view without a lot of daylight around them. Beyond that, it's really putting function first... including the flexibility of having the room grow and change over time with the family wants and needs. With 3 little kids right now, I can see using the furniture arrangement to make a defined play space that would be separate and apart from the conversational cluster which may or may not be centered on the TV. I wouldn't worry at this point about designing the room for when your kids are adults...that's a little far afield...make it work for your needs today.

I agree with moving in and considering for a time, but here is something to consider while you're doing that: What drove this idea is the first room you enter into from the front door doesn't seem suited to anything but being a dining room. As a living room, it's odd that it's so small compared to the other living spaces, and, as you already said, there's no good wall for the TV. You also wouldn't want that room to be a kitchen for many, many reasons. However, that room would be a perfectly functional, reasonably-sized, not-weird-seeming dining room. If that room is a dining room, that also means the nook under the stairs would be a very logical area for a buffet. If that first room when you enter is the dining room, then the next room on your way into the house should be the kitchen because you want your kitchen and dining room handy to each other. As it happens, the current-dining-room-suggested-kitchen space is large enough and offset enough from the current-living-room-suggested-dining-room that it would be possible to funnel all traffic past the kitchen rather than through it. So your work zones in the kitchen won't be inundated with unwanted visitors. Furthermore, this suggested location for the kitchen is still handy to the back deck for outdoor eating. If those first two rooms become the dining and kitchen, then that leaves the current kitchen space to become the living room. It's a little unorthodox to have the living room as the room farthest from the front door, but it actually makes a lot of sense for this house. The other two rooms really do lend themselves to being the dining room and kitchen, and the current kitchen space is a good size for a living room and has two walls that could be the TV wall. It's also handier to the back deck/yard than the current living room, which I think will actually be a real upgrade. With the exception of shortening the two dining room windows (which isn't a structural change) so they're above counter height, none of the above requires any changes to any of the walls at all. That's nice because I think you'd get the most out of your space if you do bite the bullet and move some walls in the left half of the floor plan. The way it's currently laid out really, REALLY isn't as good as it could be. Since you don't have a guest bedroom downstairs, you don't need a full bath downstairs. You just need a half bath, and the shower space could be allotted to something else that would be more useful. Furthermore, you also don't really need deck access from the left side of the house, and having that deck access means unnecessarily losing a lot of space to a long hallway. On top of that, you have such an odd, circuitous entrance to the master bedroom that is (a) weird, and (b) means unnecessarily losing even more space to walkways. And lastly, there's a couple chopped up, not-optimally-shaped closets. Moving walls around quite freely in that general area, I was able to fit in a large master bath, a large master walk-in closet, a dedicated laundry room (that is accessible off a hallway, placed where the dryer can vent directly outside, is handy to your room, and yet is still far enough from the room that you won't be hearing the machines while you're trying to sleep), and a bonus hallway closet. Note that I shifted the doorway to the hallway from the current-dining-room-suggested-kitchen slightly so that you couldn't really see either the half bath or the master bedroom from the living areas.

Neither. You might consider altering your option 1 plan to create a guest worthy back entry between the garage and the kitchen rather than a traditional "mudroom" that usually becomes a clutter catch space. Yes, you'd have a much smaller pantry -- and no place in the "mudroom" for a washer and dryer -- none were shown anyway. The breakfast nook (option 1) appears to be on an outside wall. If you could add an "L" shaped screened porch to wrap around that back left corner between the garage and that breakfast nook -- preferably one with half a wall for its sides and then either screen or sun room windows above that half wall -- that could help enable you to avoid fumes from the garage entering the living space. You could have a pair of large windows or even patio doors in your breakfast nook. Where you now have a door from the living area to the mudroom could be your door to your pantry -- all inside walls in a space of about 6'x6' with floor to ceiling shelves all around. Behind that pantry, between the pantry and the outside wall on the side of the house as the garage, you could create your "L" shaped guest worthy back entry hall that wraps around your pantry. As you exit your back entry porch, your guests would have a 6' hallway and then either the option to turn left toward the living area (past two doorways that would be on their right) ... arriving between the kitchen living area space close to across from the bottom of the stairs. The two doors off that "L" shaped entry hallway before it reaches the living area would be either: continue walking straight through a door that would lead down a 3' hallway into the full bath or turn right into a wide hallway with a guest worthy bench with shoe storage against the left (pantry) wall, walking past the bathroom door and past the second door -- a coat closet (or pausing to leave coats in the closet as needed) before arriving at the living area between the kitchen and sitting area (approximately across from the stairs) In this way, you'd have a small pantry near the kitchen -- where it's needed; you'd have a bathroom against an outside wall so it could have a window; you'd have a bathroom door that enters into a hallway rather than directly into any living area; you'd have a closet for coats rather than ending up with a wall of hooks (and you could still add a hat rack next to the bench for temporary use by guests); you'd have a guest worthy back entry space that didn't open into the garage with its fumes and that you wouldn't be ashamed to have visible from the sitting/living area; you'd have a handy coat closet that encourages those staying for more than just a brief visit to pick up after themselves and put away their coats, etc.