Lars -- do you mean the grain texture is easier to see? I am also considering painting it gloss black, would that have the same grain issue? I dont particularly like the box detail, so plan to cover them with plywood as others suggested prior to painting, then adding brass hooks (less nooks to dust). Even if we left the boxes intact and hung them at the top, it reminds me of a dresser mirror. Might seem out of place in the entry. However, the age is right for our house, built in 1978 ;-)

I think the 60" table would look wonderful there! Maybe someone with photoshop skills could photoshop it in for you. If you do get the 60" I would take inspiration from the Crate & Barrel styles pictures. Hang or lean a piece of art on the left side (where the stairway wall is a little taller). Put a big vase or two or three on the table. Crate & Barrel Taline Vases Stack a couple of books or place a few sculptural objects on the table. You could put a lamp there if you like.

That placement is SO much better! Slide the whole sectional down the wall about 6 more inches away from the doorway, all the way to the window frame. The tv is fine on an angle. The room looks great. Now you have room at the end of the room if you want to add a desk and chair, a small round table with two chairs, or an armchair with a reading lamp, or just keep one tree in the corner. You only appear to have one ceiling light in the whole room. Consider adding a floor lamp to the end of the sectional by the window, where you currently have your tree. It will give you the height that is needed, as well as the light. As an alternative, you could use a metal and glass console table along the short side of the sectional, with a table lamp.

@Ann Marie Thanks for the suggestion! I will look there. I'm a little partial to painted art rather than photography, but I'll see what they have. @lindac92 That sounds like good advice! How would the need for a lamp change what art would go in that space? I have no idea how to think about that at all. But you're right, probably I would want a table lamp there. I know from browsing around that sometimes art just goes behind a lamp, which honestly feels weird to me, but maybe it's fine. But I'm not sure how that changes what I would want to put on the wall there. @threers Thanks for the advice! I can assure you that I will most definitely only get art I love. If I'm going to look at it every day, it had better make me happy! But I would also like it to match the rest of the room if I can possibly arrange it. :) @Patricia Colwell I actually was originally thinking of having two couches (which I think may have the result of another comment of yours in another thread), but the problem is that I can't seem to make it work with our TV placement. I definitely want a couch to face the TV, and then the only real arrangement that works is to have an L-shaped arrangement. And if I'm going to have that, well, I have always liked couches with corners, so that's how I arrived at a sectional. But I'm open to other alternatives - I just don't know of any good ones. :)