We have some "discrepancies" in our ceiling for the kitchen and what we are doing with our crown molding is that the crown will be mounted onto a rail and the rail mounted to the top of the cabinet - and that rail piece will grow or shrink as necessary - we have a 1/4 inch discrepancy with one cabinet, so on the one edge, we will see about 1/4 of an inch of the rail and on the other edge, we will see about 1/2 of an inch of the rail. The crown itself remains level with the ceiling. I will tell you that YOU are likely the only one that will notice most of those discrepancies once everything is in place. Most people look at crown molding and see that it's there and it creates a finished look, but they don't look at the intricacies of the crown unless you get something super elaborate.

Hey it worked. That's a good start. Thanks aok, Didn't address you before because I've written a reply about a half-dozen times to have it get lost in cyber space. Glare is a concern especially with no window treatments but there are ways alleviate that. Just rotating the couch will cut down on it a bit as much of the glare will come from the floor when the sun isn't hitting it directly. I would usually use some type of a scrim/screen when people want privacy/shade but don't want curtains/ blinds etc. Although I didn't show it I did guess at laying out the room as you also need to rearrange the furniture if you block off that access-way too. I rotated the coffee table and centered it on the fireplace put the two mission chairs next to the new unit and the red one off center of the edge of the table. The couch face the TV with the FP on the right and the buffet can go behind the couch with a scrim separating the two if it is needed. They are inexpensive to build and add "wall space" when needed. If you want to post the dimension from the column to the center of the FP and to the window wall along with an indication north and closest major city I can do a sun study to see how we can prevent the glare. Thanks jey

Cloud Swift - We came to the same conclusion as you regarding support. The unfinished pine we selected will basically be 9in depth and we have 2 bookcases (36in and 30in). So that spans 66in and we had just 67 inches. I am hoping the finish trim will take care of the rest. BTW, we did check out IKEA Billy and really liked the height extender and it seemed to be a good option as it had all sorts of other accessories like doors, bookends, lights etc. The depth was 11in and we felt 9in will give us a more builtin look as our recess was exactly that. We also wanted to maximize the seating there. I would have done Billy other wise. For price/ value, can't beat IKEA. As it is less than 10mi for me, it is sort of hard to avoid the temptation :)

I think it would look great, and fit the look and feel you’re wanting. What do you think about going even further and removing the mirror and some shelves, and doing something with your wall color in the back? Grasscloth, paint, etc? And some fun new cabinet knobs, like sea glass or something. Or beadboard: