I would move the tv to the wall where the couch is now. Move the couch opposite, with its back to the sliding door. Consider adding a sofa table behind with a pair of lamps to bring more warm lighting into the room. Keep the small chair where it is on the right side of the fireplace, and use the floor lamp next to it. Put the chair and a half and ottoman to the right of the couch, the end table and lamp beside it. Move the whole arrangement a bit closer to the fireplace, and make sure that the front legs of the couch and the chairs are on the rug. I agree that the coffeetable is not the best choice. I would love to see something round, perhaps a wood or slate top, with iron legs so that you don't have so much heavy furniture in the space. Down on the end wall where the tv is now, I would think about a game table and chairs in the corner where the screen is, great for snacking or playing games or doing puzzles. I would find a new home for the screen. Then a group of bookshelves with some closed storage in the same finish as the tv cabinet to the right along the wall to allow for storage of some of the toys, as well as a place to house books and media. Take the clock off the fireplace and use that on the end wall where the game table will be. Use the canvas you have on the fireplace, to bring some of the warmer colors of the room onto the grey fireplace. If your DH doesn't want to paint the fireplace, check into staining it. Just giving it a warmer finish would do a lot for the room.

Center the rug with the fireplace. Take the bookcase out of the left corner of the room and put that in the space between the kitchen and FR, where the console table now sits. Move the sectional down toward the fireplace, (after centering the rug), add an end table to the outside of the chaise part of the sectional. Someone sitting there wonâÂÂt want to move to get a drink off the coffee table. Be sure there is a lamp there as well, to light that corner of the room. Move the armoire to angle in the corner where the sectional was sitting originally. Use it for storage, perhaps add shelving or even a pull-out shelf for a computer center which can be closed up and put away. The piece is very nice, and gives good height to balance the fireplace and high ceilings. For now, try the console on the wall to the right of the fireplace, and place the new flatscreen on that. Later you may prefer a more substanial cabinet, which can hide other components and store DVDs, etc. If you do that, then try the console table behind the part of the sectional that has its back to the kitchen. Add a comfy upholstered chair in the corner, a bit closer to the fireplace, where the armoire was, along with another small side table and lamp.

Good point, bbtrix, but relying on the pendants isn't a big deal to us. We're re-using the existing pendants with 75 W halogen bulbs (will likely switch to LED when they burn out). They put out a lot of light. We started out with 100 W halogen to replace 100 W incandescent and they were waaay too bright. Anyhoo, I prefer a mix of lighting from cans, UCL and pendants and the ability to use all or only some of them, depending on what's going on in the kitchen. And dimmers for all, of course. I just talked to my KD. She had designed the cans to be 54" OC (wasn't marked on my plan so I forgot this) so moving those 2 cans to the other side of the joist is only about 3" beyond that, putting their final location closer to her plan than their current placement of 48" OC. We can get away with slightly wider placement between cans because we have 9' ceilings. I'd forgotten about that when I was stressing over this yesterday. = ) I'm happy with this decision. I really didn't like having the 4" and 6" cans so close together in that one spot, plus I know for sure that moving the bottom can out a few inches will definitely provide light to that side cab. It's because of "the wall is open, this is in the way, what do you want to do, we need to know now" situations that I planned and planned and planned all the other details so I'd have to make as few on-the-spot decisions as possible. So far, so good (thank you, thank you, kitchen remodel gods!). ... I've read this sentence several times and can't quite fathom your concern: "At this point though, it looks like the cans by the range are the concern." Is it because it's not centered on the hood? Or for another reason? But to answer your question, I am ok with it, as is hubby. I thought he'd have a problem with it because it's not centered on hood (he can be a little OCD about that kind of stuff) but he's not bothered by it in the least. My new kitchen will be lighted better than my current kitchen, which is lighted better than it was when built 21 yrs ago, simply because we switched from incandescent to halogen bulbs. When I think back to how poorly lit all my childhood kitchens were.... My grandmother's kitchen had a light over the sink, a light over the range and a central ceiling light for a room that was 18'-20' square. How on earth did we never slice off a finger while making a meal?

Thanks, David, but I figured this out thanks to advice from my KD. We moved the 2 cans to the other side of the joist. She had designed them to be 54" OC (9' ceilings, forgot that part of the formula when I was stressing yesterday) and in their new location, they'll be 57" OC. Close enough for the remodeling game. If we run into a similar situation for another room, I will definitely keep disc lights in mind.