When we added onto our house (a first floor great room, and a second floor master suite) we moved our dining area into the former living room and I did just what you are thinking about - I have a sitting room where the dining area used to be. The spaces are not large - they all open to each other and the kitchen. We took the chandelier down from the old dining area and installed a ceiling fan. I have baker's racks with pottery, plants and baskets of table linens. I have a loveseat and a comfortable reading chair + ottoman in the space. I call it the "cook's nook". No t.v. - I refuse to have one in that end of the house. I have one of those compact Bose Wave radio/CD players and I listen to it all of the time. My husband built bookshelves under the overhanging countertop of the old breakfast bar - we took the stools out. I have my cookbooks and gardening books there, and can display pottery there too. So now we only have one place where we have meals, and that's at the dining room table. It's in front of the old fireplace that used to be the living room. We hung a chandelier from the cathedral ceiling in that space. There's a staircase in the room that goes up to the spare bedrooms. I have room for several large buffets, one along the staircase and one under a bank of windows. Overall, we love the repurposing. We have no "only use it a few times a year" formal areas in our house. It works very well for us. The t.v. is in the new great room. I can get away from it whenever I want lol. seagrass

I move the TV and console in front of the window. I know that will block light but I don't see many other functional options. I would then remove the excess table and chair. For a place for drinks I would add a thin console table for behind the couch, similar to this... I would also remove the small little rug and get a large rug to fill the space. I would keep this space fairly bare as to not overwhelm. I'm also wondering what your light fixture looks like?? I would add something sculptural as well, since everything else will be very clean and minimal. Hope this helps!

I have this same problem. Our living room is 11x20, with two radiators, two double width doorways and an extra wide staircase, and a corner fireplace. There's really nothing to be done but divide a space like that into two. It's half office and half living room, which means that practically we only have about an 11x8 space for a living room. At least you have a lot of wall space. I would use the sofa as a divider between the spaces, and a sectional would definitely be the best. Is there a doorway that we can't see on the wall past the stairs?

I can’t tell how much space there is between the sofa and stairs. Can you put the TV where the sofa is now and float the sofa so that the back of it creates a bit of an entrance/ foyer space? Ideally a sofa table would fit behind it to have a landing zone and to not have to just stare at the back of the sofa.