A floor plan showing doorways, windows, stairs and measurements would be a huge help.

And show the kitchen area from the living area.

My first thought is not to remove the entire wall. That's what I advised my daughter and Fiance' to do when they were going to remove the entire wall between their LR and yet to be renovated Kitchen.

Although their room is not as large as yours, and the front door opens up into the LR space opposite the breakfast area, my reasons were the same as your concerns. Where would the TV go? Their short wall has a fireplace with built-ins on either side. They did not want to hang the TV over the fireplace because a brick ledge that would prevent a larger size TV to be hung. Same for putting one on a shelf in the built-ins. Not enough space. They also did not want neck craning if it were hung up over the fireplace.

Because they listened to my advice, and only opened up about 7-8' between LR and the dining area, they now have a pretty feature wall with the TV in the middle. The L-shaped couch is opposite under the large windows. Visitors do not walk into the front door and see what's going on in the kitchen. But just opening up that area a few feet really made a big difference!

As a bonus, by leaving the kitchen wall in place, they were able to move the fridge location to the that wall...opposite the LR side. The original fridge location next to the garage door was cramping the kitchen triangle. Now that space is where a small cabinet and range are located. Daughter and F were also able to add additional cabinets on either side of new fridge location because of this wall space they did not knock down.

This new layout almost doubled their kitchen and cabinet area! The kitchen is now opened to the dining area after knocking out an island that included the oven, a stove top, and over head cabinets. Really opened up that space!

If you have not had an expert determine the wall is not structural (I.e. needed for the house to meet building code requirements and keep the house from falling down), you should do that before completely removing the wall. Just because a house doesn’t fall down immediately when you remove a structural wall doesn’t mean it is okay.

Yes, we’re not just taking the wall down we are installing a beam. It is structural.

I’ll have to try and draw a mock up of the space. Essentially the wall we’re taking down is the only wall that would fit a tv unless we put the couch in the middle of the room with the tv on the left wall.

The sofa would have to float in the room to allow access to the stairs behind it. which means the TV goes where the sofa is now and the couch faces it flanked by 2 chairs. that actually works out because you have a walking path behind it.

RL Relocation - thanks! Would it look weird to come up the stairs from the foyer into the living space and have the couch facing away from the entryway though? I can't picture it. But yes, I think that's the only option - or no tv at all.

i hope you're getting something good out of all this expense to offset wrecking your living space! 0.o

anyway, it's ok to float furniture. if you don't like the unfriendly look of the back of your couch, put a slim console table there with a lamp and/or some decorative items.

Transitional Family Room · More Info

Open link and scroll down to house plan#16. The plan shows a wall (abutting an island perpendicular to it) and the t v is on that narrow wall. Sorry but unable to cut and paste that floor plan.

There is still the open concept. Thinking if you did that with an island, you could also have a t v in the kitchen area on the opposite wall.

https://www.coonrapidsmn.gov/DocumentCenter/View/217/Split-Visions-PDF

I actually do not like my kitchen open to the LR so I would not remove the wall .

You could float the sofa in the room facing the window, with two armchairs on the right side facing the new TV wall on the left. It would look more open when coming up the stairs. Or put the sofa with its back to the window, with the chairs facing the TV.

The house plans don't appear to be numbered on JudyG's link. Is it the plan on p. 16?

groveraxle this layout is very close to what we have now. The only difference is they left the wall up in the one section of the kitchen. I don't really like the cabinets there though... We have this exact layout except the overhead cabinets are on the opposite wall forming a U shape.

Also, we have two sets of stairs - one goes up into the living room and one goes up into the kitchen. We are thinking of getting rid of the second set of stairs because we don't have any pantry the way it's set up now. It's nice to walk down the stairs to the second bathroom, but we would just have to walk into the living room now and down the hallway.

Float the sofa, put a sofa table behind it if it makes you feel weird lol.

Generally, the back of a sofa, with or without a sofa table, can define a room. You should put one end near one wall with only an end table between sofa and wall so you can have a light by the sofa -- on both sides of the sofa, space permitting, by hiding an extension cord to the wall outlet beneath the sofa.

With the sofa facing the large front windows, you can likely put your tv in the far left corner on a swing arm bracket, perhaps with a corner cabinet beneath it -- even if you need to build one in to get the appropriate size.

Have you considered creating a usable front porch by creating a shed roof beside your portico roof from your door to that right corner?

Hey. If you could share your floorplan I can generate some interactive 3D designs to help you imagine your space better.

Thank you! I did a basic layout of my space. I have no idea what I'm doing so take that into consideration! :) The wall lengths are correct though and the window placements. There are stairs right next to each other - one going down to the entryway and one going up stairs. It's a bilevel house I believe. So the bottom right would be where the kitchen is supposed to go. It's an L shaped. The little opening goes out into my office (a sunroom). The left hand wall near the window I currently have a dining table. My goal is to to put in an island somewhere (large if possible). And then the living area would go on the far wall with the larger window. The little space over in the top right is a sorta strange spot as it's broken up by the stairs - that little wall I put in there is only about 3 feet high. I could potentially remove it but I would need a hand railing for the stairs so not sure if that's a good idea? I was thinking I could use this area as a reading area or a yoga type area. Something I am going to use and not just waste that corner. We would like to have a TV so the only thing I can think of is to put the TV on the left wall area and have a couch facing it somehow? Anyway... thanks again and would love any input!

Thank you for the details. I will get back to you with some layout suggestions in a mocked-up 3D build that you can interact with.

RL that's an interesting idea! I wonder if the TV would be big enough from across the room to see? Thanks!

How far away was it before?

RL - closer. It’s about 24 feet from that wall to the smaller opposite wall - feels like it might be kinda far?

maybe you could center the sofa to the window and put a sofa table behind the L part?

I think it will be helpful too to go look at couches and decide what size we need. It's definitely confusing me!

size in the showroom will not be the size in the house what you need to do is possibly tape out a few sizes with blue tape then go look.

Hi @Maegan Coolbaugh. Sorry for the delay. I've generated a 3D build of your room. Placed your tv on the opposite wall with a panel behind it. A couch facing the tv and another one next to it forming an L shape.Two swivel chairs that can easily be rotated in any direction or moved away when not in use. Completed the seating arrangement by adding a rug. It is important to pull up the area together which can be aesthetically achieved by adding a rug that goes well with the items placed on it.

If you are planning to take down the short wall near the stairs, great! Else you can simply place a see through bookshelf which can act as a partition to diving a small space dedicated to reading/work or serve as a private conversation spot.

Placed dining near the window. It could also float a little more towards the kitchen. I placed a crockery unit to provide for some storage. You can add more storage based on your requirements.

Let me know if this was useful or if you would want me to work on more layout for you.

You need to design your kitchen first, and then you can figure out the dining, and whether you have space for an island. I hope you have a kitchen designer for that. It is too important not to use one. You can incorporate a dining table into the kitchen area in lieu of an island, or maybe use a small free standing one, but the main items need to be determined exactly first.

Stamford Kitchen · More Info

Calidesign I love that kitchen! No we don’t have a designer beyond the cabinet store. But yes, this is the general layout. I’d rather have an island for storage though.

Styldod - Do you think it looks OK to have the back of the couch higher than the window? I can't seem to find many styles with a very low back that I like and that are affordable. Most are around 37 to 38 inches high and my window starts at maybe 31-32. What do you think? Thank you!

It's fine for the sofa back to be higher than the window frame. It shouldn't be right up against it.