This is our first remodel project and we've certainly learned some lessons. We interviewed 4 companies - 2 design build firms and 2 architects. DH's uncle is an architect in another state and he was our sounding board as we went through the process, and gave suggestions on floor plan. Ideally, we would've had him do our house, but we couldn't afford it. We liked one architect's design portfolio, but decided we didn't have the money to do what they could've designed to really take advantage of their creativity. One of the design build's firm work was more in line with what we knew we could pull off. The floor plan they came up with is a good use of our space. If we had unlimited money, we would've gone a different option. Be prepared to consider options. We were dead set against touching the 2 bedrooms as we needed the space to live in, but the weird walk-in closet in one bedroom was the perfect location for the master bathroom. There were 2 closets in this room and it was minor change - building a 5' wall to close it off from the bedroom and creating a doorway in the other wall for access to the master. This one change made the entire layout work. We did consider minor changes, but they didn't fix underlying problems with layout. That's why people are suggesting you consider relocating kitchen or opening up some walls. Yes it is more to do that, but it costs so much to do anything in the first place and it may be worth it. You won't know until you check.

I'd center a sofa table under the window, with either some plants or lamps on it, and then push the sofa up against it. With all of those built-ins, you've got ideal toy storage, game storage, blanket storage, more than enough storage, and even better, it is behind doors. Once the couch is pushed back, you can experiment with the chairs, either flanking the fireplace, or flanking the couch. It's hard to tell what exactly will work best from the photos. Are those vertical blinds on the large window? We have a window very similar to that. Our home came with vertical blinds on the picture window that drove me bananas! We replaced the blinds with a single solar shade that rolls up and down with a chain; so much better! Our couch sits up against the window and we can now close the shades without climbing on the couch. (Pictures here.) You could do stationary curtain panels on each side of the windows. I like your paint and trim colors. It looks like you might be gravitating more toward lighter, brighter colors, so you could paint the built-ins white and lighten the space (the wood will be more forgiving of little ones, though...)

No specific reason for not doing the built ins on the other side. My husband would love to have that done, I just wasn't totally on board. The built-ins replaced a weird desk/cabinet situation that was there when we moved in so I was used to having something just on the one side. Currently we've had our tv on a shelving unit to the right of the fireplace so if we put in built-ins we'd have to figure out where to relocate the TV.

Curtains would be a good idea. Even though you have blinds for privacy, curtains make the windows look finished. A little eyeliner besides the mascara. I would not do a colored curtain here. Curtains are just to darn expensive to have to switch out when your color palette changes. I would suggest white or off white, whichever you prefer in a silk or silk-like fabric, and get a marvelous trim for the edge. The edge trim can be in a white and black or whatever color you want to take from your rug or elsewhere in the room. I would not do a curtain trim in gold here because I see 4 windows, for 8 panels, that would be a lot of gold. You want tasteful gold embellishment in a space, not Liberace in Las Vegas. Here are some examples of trimmed curtains. Buy the plain curtain, and then buy the trim of your choice, and buy extra trim to embellish throw pillows, and buy coordinating different scale trim for other throw pillows. Another curtain option is a white curtain with a subtle pattern woven or printed on it.