After hearing so many of your suggestions, I now know that my concerns about the dreaded wall in my living room were legitimate. I really appreciate all the comments, ideas and helpful suggestions. This site is like having your own private staff of decorators at your disposal. Parma is right, the space was supposed to be for a fireplace, but we decided that we wanted the fireplace in the family room in the basement. Couldn't afford both. Probably was a mistake. I read your suggestions and looked again at my pictures and could see exactly what each of you meant. Things I had never noticed before. 1. The backs of the shelves do need color to make the display pop. Right now everything just fades into the background. 2. There's no cohesiveness to what's on the shelves and there is way too many things. 3. I have already taken down the two small prints on the sides of the mirror. What was I thinking? 4. The jobots are too long. I had never noticed that. Do they need to go to bottom of the window trim? 5. The mirror does not do justice to the space. It may be too small, wrong shape, something's not right. First of all, I really want the upper ledge gone. The problem is talking my DH into letting me find someone to close it in. I love the idea of finishing out the shelves as a bookcase. I think that would look wonderful. Do you think old books would look better in the space rather than newer books? I am a book collector and have many shelves full of novels in various areas of the house. Les917: I really like your idea of the Sunburst Pediment and would like to find a way to incorporate it into the redesign of the space. Any other suggestions or pics would still be appreciated because this project will take place slowly in the spring. Thanks so much in advance.

I didn’t see the other post. I wish I could have seen the ideas! i love your map print (can we call it a chart?)! I’m no expert. I give you kudos for hanging the map at the correct height! And I think you have a good instinct about where to hang the map based on the location of the couch in the first picture. Assuming you’ve tried other locations for the couch and this is where you like it best, perhaps you need to leave the map there and put something to the left of the window above the couch. Something to balance it and distract the eye a bit. Perhaps a shelf with a picture and a vase of flowers. Something tall. The picture can hang on the wall. Nothing that extends past the couch. But you need some kind of a grouping (not a lone picture) that can fill that space. Perhaps some things with the theme of discovering the world. How about a wanderlust theme!!.... I would return the bird cage lamp (love it) to the table (maybe you just moved it for the picture). Then, leaving the map (chart!) exactly where it is, I really like this shelf for above the couch left of the window. It relates well to the chart and the birdcage lamp. Center it in that space over the couch. If it’s too heavy looking, then a few natural wood floating shelves would be nice. It also comes in 2 shelves size. I think you need some height in this area so I like the 3 shelves, BUT, if you put a telescope (for exploring) on a tall-ish tripod on the top shelf of a 2 shelf unit it would give you the height. For the 3 shelf unit use a smaller telescope. You can put things like a telescope, a sextant, a classic miniture airplane, a treasure chest, some old travel books, an antique camera, a small globe, a compass, old family photos of someone in the military, and even a vase with flowers to soften it all up a bit and tie in to your decor. Those are a bunch of ideas, but try to keep it simple. Perhaps world market would have some things If you don’t already have them in your family. I wish i could do photoshop so I could mock it up for you! I’m kind of excited about it really!! At first I thought, oh boy, that’s bad, I got nothin’. But I think you can make the best of it for that odd space!! Here are some idea photos (for the compass you can hang a large one to the right of the front door or a smaller one above the 2 shelf unit next to telescope or above the cutout under your stair landing to carry the theme through). Here are some gorgeous blue ones to lighten up a bit and tie in with your decor...

Soft Stream By Rikki Drotar Also under this listing They might agree to a larger size on canvas https://www.greatbigcanvas.com/view/swifting-through-motion,2399237/?s=D4zJ51pGVOmzcrFaoVNRJ4twq0ttSaG6RJBlhPL36WCmvFEjI1M2Xf1TipjCwk

You have options! North side, have shine - powder-coated iron and hand-painted gold finish. This item includes two panels, to hang in a few ways. 2 panels, and each is 24 x 15 x .5” https://www.dotandbo.com/wildorchid/product/designs4comfort-magnolia-storage-ottoman-with-trays-tan-fabric?cacheBuster=1642497158&osky_campaign=end-of-page&osky_content=29