Hi Annie, Thanks for your thoughts. Your opinion is valued. Just to clarify, the TV would be in a cabinet a bit like the one below, but with wood painted cabinet in a lighter colour. We are planning on a much smaller TV than pictured too. The electricity and other wires for the TV would go through the floor from the basement below (floor plugs). Powering the TV is not really a challenge, and nor is cord control with the right designed cabinet. [Contemporary Living Room[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-living-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_718~s_2103) by Other Metro Photographers Elad Gonen As per running around the TV, that could be an issue, and maybe it is just plain awkward. My youngest is 8. In general I am striving for a practical design where some seating can see the fireplace and some the TV. We hope to rework a few other versions. Hopefully you will come back and let me know if you like any other other versions better. Is there anything else you dislike about the latest design after my clarification? Any other opinions on the 18:41 version posted today? Thanks for the help! Carol

Thanks so much to everyone. Romy718, your room is beautiful!! You do not need to wait for rugs & accessories to know that, it looks great and the colors are so pretty and work great together. Thanks for showing me. And I need to go on back to the backsplash thread and start looking up info on those tiles. I think the one that you said you were using in your own kitchen is my favorite...is it ok if our houses end up looking like cousins?! gpraceman, someday I hope to replace the slate hearth with soapstone. That was my plan for this remodel but budget got tight and we decided to just scrub down the existing slate hearth, my GC put some sort of sealer/enhancer on it; and we painted the shelf White dove same color as our trim. I'm not crazy about it, I really want a thicker distressed wood mantle, but it'll do for now. nyse2502, first, thank you Im so glad to hear you like my fireplace! This thread is from several months ago, in the meantime I had several other threads going round and round on what countertop material to choose. In the end I went away from the Sea Pearl, the Jet Mist, the Steel gray... and ended up with a Calcutta marble on my island that I love and a very plain almost solid gray Silestone on my perimeter which I am really happy with. It was a great solution for me. I got a (relatively) small little chunk of a gorgeous fragile material that I love, and then I have an extremely durable uncomplicated attractive counter everywhere else that I don't have to worry about. I admit to being totally overwhelmed and absorbed with my own reno that I haven't had tons of time to be looking at all the threads on here so maybe I missed it, but have you posted pics of your whole house reno? Sounds like a huge job, congrats on being done! I'll post a picture of my updated fireplace. This room still needs a lot of work...a rug, something on other side of fireplace, different mirror or something else on mantle, a screen for fp...but you get the idea. Thanks for all the support on this thread!

chispa, Thanks for your comments. This is not the main TV area. There will be a man cave downstairs with a larger TV. We will put the TV in this great room on some sort of swivel arm so it can be angled towards the viewer. Not sure about speaker location as that is DH's job (and need) in our home too. He is talking about some ceiling speakers as well as some resting in the built-ins. Do you know what the correct spots are for speakers? Yes the depth of the deeper part of the built-ins is 16 inches. I will get DH to recheck that measurement and remind him about the space for plugs, etc. I appreciate the heads-up. bpahhome, Thanks for your help and kind words. The TV will go on a swivel/pullout arm of some sort. It would be great if the remote can work from most seats -- but that may not be possible. Too funny that you have those Danish plates too. I inherited a large collection of those blue plates plus hummel plates and figurines from my Mom. I am trying to find an attactive way to show them off in this new build. Your picture is lovely and a Tom Thomson to boot. Ours is an oil original, but not by such a famous painter. It was made by a Quebec painter some years ago and was also inherited from Mom. Carol Note the colour of the built-ins will be SW Alabaster and they will match the colour of the perimeter cabs in our kitchen. For those who are not familiar with SW Alabaster it is very, very close to BM White Dove (warm off white).

What does your architect or interior designer suggest?