Hi Caroline, wow, that is a challenging space! When are you doing your "four seasons" room? I'm just wondering because it seems like the things you want and your DH has agreed to are a fairly large undertaking, in time, expense, and big furniture that might be difficult to repurpose. What will this space become when you have the new TV/company space? Also, if I may ask, what region of the country do you live in? I agree with you about not wanting the open storage. The picture you posted with those open shelves is my least favorite, although I realize you were really looking at the bottom cabinets. The wood against that green wall in that picture is unattractive, in my personal opinion. Also, it's really, really hard to pull off open shelving or even open bookshelves unless you're super organized and have some very nice things to display; otherwise it just looks messy and cluttered. The white unit is by far my favorite, because it looks the least "heavy." I know your DH wants hickory, but, and this is just my personal opinion, a long room like that with wood floors and then a massive wood wall structure just looks very unbalanced to me. The hugeness of the entertainment center and TV just completely dominate the room. The white one lightens up the whole room and just automatically looks cleaner and not like a mess. I would hope that you're not planning to completely fill every inch of shelf space; if you can balance the space on either side of the TV, that would be nice. My understanding is that you want the bottom cabinets to hold over-sized photo albums and photography equipment? That seems like a great idea! I think the whole concept is solid. I would just urge you to think about lighter colors, and using white areas, i.e. not filling all the space, giving it a light, airy look to counter balance the room both spatially and color wise and not make one end "wood heavy." Also, think about what you want that room to be when it's no longer the TV lounge. Maybe a kind of library/quiet space/conversation room? Perhaps where the TV was you could do a small gallery wall-or one big work of art, with a few smaller framed pieces on the shelves, breaking up the space between the stacks. Just some thoughts.

Such great character in your home! It's a tricky layout to work with because either way, the back would be facing either the TV or the fireplace. I believe this could be considered a "Keeping Room" which is on trend right now, so you should have lots of great options for furniture. I think your best bet is to find two big, comfortable chairs with a low profile as not to ruin sight lines to your dining room. Get them on rockers/swivels and either place them in the middle of the room facing each other for easy maneuvering to face the TV or fireplace - or angle them with their backs to the the fireplace towards the TV. Find a nice light colored rug to place below them to anchor the space and get small round coffee table or tufted ottoman to use as a footrest or with a tray for beverages. Here are a few images I found when googling 'Keeping Room' that could work in your space.

The way you have it now is fine. Add a couple swivel chairs when you buy a new couch if you need more seating. New Ikea Billy bookcases with doors for storage and matching tv stand will look good. Or equivalent from Target or your favorite store. If you need advice on decluttering outgrown kid stuff, just start a new post.

The judges liked the flavors the contestants came up with. I don't make a lot of fancy desserts. Simple ones, yes, but not fancy. I still found the challenge intriguing. We're home cooks, here, not pros, so I'm only asking about the flavors--no time limit, open book (don't need to only use memorized proportions, but no fair finding an existing recipe for the special ingredients). Also, The visual design is a separate kind of trouble, which requires non-cooking skills which we can skip. ;) For me, the odd one out was the sauerkraut. I don't like it, which makes it harder, and it's the only one that isn't naturally sweet. My only thought was to rinse and brown sugar it, then taste. Probably, blend it up into a cake batter and choose some fruit to go with it, like I do for popsicles. Thinking some more, I'd bet pineapple would go well and the acid might pair well with the brininess, offset by the sugar, with a pineapple chili sticky glaze. The beets and chilis are obvious for red velvet cupcakes. (I'm good at improvisational cakes so I guess that's my first thought for anything.) Perhaps the long popular chocolate tomato soup cake is too obvious. On the show, what they had sounded like what I remember--acidic and metallic tasting. I don't have enough knowledge to turn it into a pleasant wobbly along the lines of a panna cotta, so I'm thinking more like a a granita, or maybe even an ice cream. The chilis can only improve it and help with the metallic taste. Tamarinds--one of my all time favorite flavors-- are jammy sweet. The paste they were using was very dark. Usually, tamarind paste is just the goo boiled off the fibers then reduce back to its original texture. I think I'd like to make a bonbon with a pistachio in a dried cherry in a shell of white chocolate, covered by tamarind, enrobed in a chili infused chocolate. Dang. I want to taste that! But spinach? It's sweet, for greens, but it tastes green. I haven't done it, so I don't know if it would work, but I'm thinking I'd like to soak them in simple syrup then dry them at low temperature, hoping for something crisp and sweet. Maybe infuse the syrup with the chili. Stand them in bases of gingersnaps. It depends on how the leaves came out. Crumpling them into the gingersnaps might work well. The main thing is that they have to be dry enough so that when they get wet they won't be chewy. Another approach might be to make a dessert take on stuffed grape leaves, with dried fruit and nuts, and chilis chopped for the filling, maybe with some spinach stems--perhaps go full on charoset with sweet wine--and wrapped in the larger leaves. Maybe with a fruit reduction dipping sauce. Parmesan. The obvious, given the salt level, is caramel, but I didn't think of it until they said it on the show. This is the only flavor that wasn't successful. I'm toast it, perhaps as tuilles, to get the nuttiness and sweetness to come out. They;d go well with chili jam. Maybe crushed and rolled into a nut ball. Or perhaps better a parm and chocolate cookie crusted cheesecake with a chili glaze. That might be a good way to manage the funk. It might be fun to try making all these things and see if they come out well, but I'm not going to. Given the continuing heat, I'm not baking at all, and cooking minimally. This can't continue. I must start cooking some proper meals...