I've got the sofa downstairs now. I covered it with what I had on hand - a huge black blanket and a smaller white one. The red thing behind the sofa is a mattress. It's a safe place for the baby to sleep at night (I block the way out). Now I'm wondering if it makes sense to buy a table and a lamp for the armchair. This part of the living room could be the actual 'living' part, while the other side is dedicated to children and their play. How about some kind of a wall art? I'm sorry, and it probably sounds like I don't know what I want, but I would like this room to look more 'finished'. Do I expect too much? Maybe it would be best to wait for four or five more years and then redesign this space? But can I wait that long? I wish this house was arranged and I didn't have to worry about it all anymore! :( We've been living here for three years now and it upsets me that everything looks so awful. We don't even have a hardwood floor upstairs - just go with carpets on concrete floor. We are currently having a bathroom made, but imagine living all that time with temporary solutions :( There are only a few things that we actually bought for the house - the rest are hand me downs - nothing matches, everything old and not to my style. I'd like to turn this house to home at last. Maybe I should go to ikea, look at those timy flats they have there and order everything there is!!! I'm sorry I just needed to vent :(

Here is a 3D rendition with several of the suggestions incorporated; for your consideration. Yes the furniture is not exactly like yours but it's the placement that is being presented. The seating area is just as you already have it with a slight adjustment. The world globe is not in the rendering The long bench has been replaced with a cubby with containers in it (dollar store, love it!!) A floor lamp like the one you already have was added Two baskets for toys A storage unit with more containers like one you can find at IKEA; Kallax it believe As you can see the dresser and mirror were moved to the opposite wall to make room for the storage unit.

Some suggestions: --Remove, remove, remove gigantic blue chair/beanbag. You have a massive sofa which is sucking up most of the space and light in your room. Get rid of Big Blue today! --Replace the kids' storage cabinet under the window and the cabinet under your TV with a very long, low, wide shelving with baskets, which is the only place the children's toys will go. The shelves should run from one end of that wall right to the edge of the stairs. Rotate kid's toys out elsewhere so that you only have one storage center for them. --Swing the sofa around so that half of it is under the window and the other half is facing the TV and new storage. Move it forward enough so that you create an entryway from the front door with the back of the sofa. --Orientation here isn't right, but here's how to use the entry space you create once the sofa is moved forward, the blue chair is gone. Wouldn't you want your living room to look a little like this? Alternate layout: Bring sofa toward TV wall as suggested but forward enough so that you can use the corner created behind the sofa, that's unused now, for a small play area for the children. Put easel there, some small chairs. We don't have measurements, so I'm not sure how much space you might have to work with. --Decluttering should come first, but if you see some examples of layouts that would really work for you, then move that sofa now. Forget about pillows, throws, etc. Down the road get a really nice art work and those lovely Roman shades Nancy suggested to pull the eye away from the massive sofa. --Going forward: Get two small leather storage ottomans, not one big one. (Measure how much space they'll take up--I'm just showing this one as an example. They're not hard to find in all colors. You want soft corners for the kids' safety.) Pick storage ottomans in a light, pretty color that will echo some art work or Roman shades:

How old are the kids ? IMO kids toys do not all have to availablre all the time nad if the kids are a bit older some of those toys can be played with in their rooms .You need proper storage so all the toys can be out away at night to create a nice adult space for conversation. There are tons of nice closed storge units that are available but the taller ones will need to be tethered to the wall. This is the first space you see when entering your home not IMO a pleasant look. I need a to scale floor plan and you need to decide how many toys need storage at one time. We had 3 kids and my Dad built the most amazing cabinet/ bench it was made to provid more seating in out LR when we had company but our place was small so the kids did play in the LR but the bech had these great drawers on casters that pulled out from under the bench and all the toys went in there before dinner there were 3 drawers and 3 kids it was always clean up time before dinner and the space was nice for adult company . It seems like the kids do not put stuff away now so you will need to retrain them too.