Thank you jck910 and Patricia Colwell Consulting. A couple of follow up questions: 1) what do you think of this fabric for the kitchen roman shades? it's the same blue as the living room drapes. And a hint of grey. 2) This is what the window frame looks like above the sink, underneath/behind the cabinetry "valence". Do you suggest getting shades that cover the entire window AND trim? If so, do you mount it on the ceiling or on the wall? Originally, I was thinking to get the shades to fit INSIDE the window trim. But now when I look it it, if I do it this way (fit inside the frame), then there might be a small sliver of window trim showing under the cabinetry valence (because the valence isn't long enough to cover the top of the window trim).

@betsy Cain I tend to have a traditional/transitional style. They don’t have to be super formal rooms, as the rest of the house has a more relaxed feel, and of course the farmhouse style dining table isn’t “formal”. for now, I think the chaise needs to stay in this room. The only other place it could go is the also empty sun room and I don’t really think it fits there Any better. My husband actually likes the thing and enjoys laying on occasionally. Additionally I have no other furniture to put In its place! We moved into this house last fall and added about 1500-1800 sq ft of “growing space” so we knew we’d have to furnish slowly and with some hand me downs.

Every house plan results in compromises. Only Escher can create a perfect plan without them but few builders are willing to attempt building his designs. :-) For me it's difficult to comment on your living room without seeing your plan. I'm a fan of traditional interiors vs open so I think that's a good move on your part. Fenestration will be important though. I also think that in most cases a bit of separation between the house and garage is very beneficial from an aesthetic standpoint as well as providing more window options. I have a strong preference for windows on at least two sides of each room, lots of windows on the south, limited on the west and extremely few on the north. Our new house (http://bamasotan.us) is limited on the north but has gobs on the west (somewhat protected by a porch and balcony) and not nearly as many as I'd like on the south. The first blog photo with the four windows and furnace is our family room so the four windows look west and the window on the far right is south facing. This is the mostly the total of all windows in our family room (there are actually five west facing windows but one is cut off in the photo). I'd like to have had more south facing but that wall also has a fireplace and a TV next to the fireplace as well as a conservatory on the outside that makes a window difficult. Our lot is on the east side of a lake so west facing windows for lake views was kind of important. Other elements (fireplace & chimney, TV placement in family room, bed in master, master closet placement) limited south facing windows. Our kitchen is in the middle of the west side so has lots of west facing windows but is limited otherwise. It does have one north facing window but that is to a porch and a porch wall so limited light but better than nothing. From within the kitchen you can see through a hallway and the scullery to a small north facing window but otherwise it's just the west windows.

Since the room is so large, I'd make it into two separate seating areas-one for the fireplace area and another for t.v. watching. I would put the t.v. where the love seat is and place the sofa across from it. Then add another chair or two with an area rug to ground the space. In front of the fireplace, place two chairs facing the fireplace with a small table in between them. If you add ottomans, you'll have a cozy, private space to enjoy the fire. Then add new curtains as suggested. If they're lined, they'll look a lot better. You can get shades as suggested for the skylights.