Thanks guys for your continued input. I am making a simple turkey dinner for the family (It is Thanksgiving in this part of the continent) so can't play around with furniture arrangements until later in the week or next weekend. However, I plan to rework the furniture arrangement multiple time with my little furniture cut-outs to see what I can do in both the great room and the dining room if the window seat moves there. I will post some alternatives later this week and hope you will come back to see them when the post pops up again. Here are few replies: Oakleyok, Your idea of placing a love seat in front of the window seat had not occurred to me at all. I will try out your idea with my furniture cut-outs. I agree that we should have room for a couch facing the TV if we lose the end table. The plant idea on a window ledge is great, although I tend to send plants into palliative care quite quickly LOL. I do see the family using the window seat for reading. Given we are in Canada it is rarely too hot or too sunny near a window. Thanks again for your help. Lavender_lass, Wow that dining room bump out is so beautiful!! Sadly, we won't be able to do that at this point in construction as the brick cladding is already on the back of the house. Also, we have a climber rather close to that side of the back now that the addition is done, and I wouldn't want to reduce the passage between climber and house any more. Yet, I will draw up a window seat in the dining room as I like that look. I was going to make a shallow shelf for decorative plates in the south/west corner of the dining room (top right corner). Maybe I can make some sort of combo window seat/plate shelf. I just have to find a way to accommodate that smaller dining room window on the west side. Thanks for your help and inspiration. Rosie, I am totally with you on disliking the "turn your back on family" seating arrangements. I do think Lavender's arrangement improves upon that problem. I am not worried about anyone walking in front of the TV. We don't even have cable, so mostly use the TV for movies once in a while. The kids use the one in the basement with their X-box a bit more frequently. I will do just as your aptly described to try every possible arrangement with a variety of furniture. Maybe the TV has to move so we are facing the dining room more rather than having our backs to it. Do you think we need a new spot for the TV?? I hate to think about moving that fireplace other than scooting it back a bit as the vent is installed through bricks, but if it has to move....don't tell DH just yet. Thanks ever so much for your kind help, Rosie. Carol P.S. Please come back everyone to see the various alternatives I post by next weekend. In meantime, if you have any more ideas I am all ears.

Hi bristlingacres, I am the writer of the Decorating in Prairie style articles on the rug website. I wanted to explain what I mean by "organic architecture". It is different from what most people think of "organic". Most people describe "organic" as something that looks like plants, flowers, along the lines of "organic gardening". Also people looking at Modern designs describe organic shapes as very elongated curvy types designs. Nothing rigid. I think the shapes the "stuff" in a lava lamp are organic. For "organic architecture" that I write about, it means that the home and all the furnishings are designed for the specific site. Frank Lloyd Wright used the term all the time, so since my rugs are geared towards people who like that concept, I use the term organic in that context. Since the Prairie style houses are generally low, horizontal, rectilinear structures, the furniture designed for those homes were rectilinear. The art glass windows were mostly designs of the wild plants found near the building site of the house. The architects of the time would do geometric abstractions of those plants in the window design. If rugs were designed specifically for the home, then they would echo those geometric designs. Thus (finally got here, whew) the rug designs tend to be geometric motifs and not the curvy or plant like designs that most associate with the term organic. I agree, my designs are not for everyone, but for the people who are attracted to the whole concept and like a linear abstraction - they seem to be the ticket. By the way I think the rug you picked is a great addition to a Craftsman look and feel. Thanks for looking at my website.

By cafe curtains, do you mean the tiered set? I'm just not sure what that means? I always think of kitchen curtains! How would I mount a curtain rod from the ceiling? I once had regular curtain rods before I put in the seat, but with the roller shades, there is no place to put the rod hooks. I don't want to block off the windows as in the first photos-I mostly need to be able to block the extreme sunlight and provide some evening privacy if needed.

Hi, Katie-- I don't necessarily see a Roman shade as an ideal option for either of these spaces. For me, I'd do these windows in a cordless white wood blind treatment with an inside mount. In the style I use most often (https://www.lowes.com/pd/LEVOLOR-2-in-Cordless-White-Faux-Wood-Blinds-Common-35-in-Actual-34-5-in-x-72-in/50260811), an external header is included that would help act as a headrail on your windows that lack full trim but do have traditional muntins and sills. This touch should help lend a little additional architectural character to your existing shaker cabinets and millwork throughout both spaces. Unfortunately it doesn't really look like there's adequate room to either side of your fireplace flanking windows for drapery panels to stack off, but, if so, that would be an excellent addition to the space where you could use your oasis linen fabric to create emphasis and add a bit of softness in an additional layer for depth. For a time, I'd try to live with the slider undraped, as it looks like the only place to stack off drapery there would be to the left of the opening, where you now have several wall switches and is also pet feeding central. :) If privacy there isn't an issue, you may be able to get away with it uncovered and not allow intruding glare into the main TV viewing area, too. It's worth a shot. Cheers!