Marti- I vote for the half wall, messy kitchen or not! If you leave the solid wall, you still can't see the fireplace and you're walking over to the doorway, to talk to anyone in that room. Yes, you will be open to the dining area...but you already have a long, narrow space there (no peninsula, right?) so the half wall would open up the kitchen to the fireplace room, making that space feel wider and larger. What's opposite the open area, on the other side of the kitchen? That's all you'd see, as you walk in. Maybe you could change a few of the uppers, on that wall. All you have to do is get new doors, or even cut out areas, in the existing doors and add glass, chicken wire, fabric, a combination of both, etc. It might be nice and it would give you a little color or sparkle, in the kitchen area. Just a thought :)

jackieblue, the windows look fine from the outside. It helps that one is in the corner of an L and the other one on a longer wall. I'm not following your angled chairs or loveseat idea though. I think nosoccermom and Annie are right about the curtains. I tried that when we first moved here and it didn't look good, but there was a light switch between the left window and fireplace then too. Now that it's gone, it should work. I'll worry about curtains once I get the big furniture figured out. I like that plan too geokid. I'm not crazy about the path between the loveseats and little chair though. I don't think I'd be able to use a rug with that arrangement without having the corner of it in the way. And no, there won't be a tv in there. So far I've found two red loveseats on craigslist, one yellow one, and one that looks to be light brown. And tons of old plaid and florals. I like the red ones, except that they are red and most staging I've seen is done with neutral colors.

Anele, you know your paint companies palettes - the ming red was a Sherwin Williams color. I'm not sure it's still an active color, but they still have it in their formulary because I buy small cans for touchup and according to my record book, it's definitely called "Ming Red." Honestly, if it wasn't for wanting to paint the dining room the paprika I found, I'd keep the red in the living room. I'm just ready for changes. When I finally got rid of my eucalyptus-y/sage green in my family room and went to expresso it was kind of galvanizing. The gold is really a bit richer than the washed out picture and it still makes me happy, but I'm in the mood for a change. The current color is just a few shades lighter than the curry (same basic color family) you posted above - and it does make wonderful changes with the light levels throughout the day and evening. It took a lot of painted 4x4' squares I moved around the room to find it, lol. I like the idea of green, but I'm just not sure since I got rid of green in my family room. Then again, shades of green, reds, and golds have always been my comfort zone - although I was blues, browns, white and pops of red before I married. I don't really care that much about the living room rug - I can easily put it somewhere else in the house, probably my office - but I'm stuck with the chairs until my daughter moves out and takes them, she likes the retro Alhambra print, although I've toyed with placing them at the head of the table in the dining room and getting a couple of new chairs eventually for the living room.

And once you get your items in the space, you will see what the colors really look like with your lighting. Trying to find a gray that works is the subject of many., many posts on Houzz. I would recommend an in-home color consultation. With all that light, you should be able to do some fun accent walls (maybe a cool wallpaper behind the entertainment center). The key to making in homey are the plants, textures, and larger-scale knick-knacks. The thing to keep in mind is the dark wood floor you will have. You will want to choose rugs that bring the light down onto your floor.