Oh, thanks for the suggestions! Cal _quail: The house has no garage so the entrance is only through the front door. The family room has a fireplace and I don't want to loose that if we converted it to become a kitchen. Right now I live in a place with "only" one "great room" which is also the living room and play room (no basement). I have no idea how it will work out having two spaces like this, but I am thinking one will become truly the family room and the other will be a little more tidy at all times, no tv, etc. But still useable by the family in our day to day life. Not a formal LR by any means⦠Benjesbride - I think we need to keep the door or at least the door frame otherwise once you get inside the house it will feel too claustrophobic since it would be a long and narrow hallway. If the dining area is right off the kitchen I would mind loosing the "eat-in." In fact, as it is right now I can't imagine how it is used to eat there since the space is so small⦠Oldbat2be - the house is not under construction - it was built in 83 I think. We are under contract and if everything works out I would like to do a kitchen renovation before moving in. Since this house have the optional family room, the DR is closer to the front - I wouldn't want to touch that wall to make a walk in pantry. Besides, I love light! Right now we live in a somewhat dark place and one of the things we wanted in our new home was lots of natural light! I was also thinking about ditching the "formal DR" and break that wall that separates the refrigerator from the DR and use half of the DR as kitchen. The remaining half with a big table for eating in. There are no door between the DR and FR, so, from kitchen I could see the dining table and family room. Would that work? If I do that, what should I do about the wall that separates the kitchen from the "great room?" Remember, right now there is an opening above the sink with view of the great roomâ¦. should I close it? Leave as is?

Put the doors back on the closet, so it looks a bit less cluttery. Get some brighter colors in there, and and put in night stands, and end tables with lamps on. Use led bulbs in the 4000 range so that you get a feel of daylight in the room. First the bed in place, since you say there is a limited space for it, and then fit the other things in where needed. An area rug that has a bit of color in it, would look nice. Right now, it appears a bit cold and unwelcoming

@elcieg, I like this suggestion so much—thank you. It feels like I'm pulling a lot of the furniture into the center of the room and closer to the front door, rather than having dead space in the pathway to the bedroom. @Margaret Carroll, thank you! The width of my space is just too big for the TV and couch to be on opposite walls, I think. I'm going to noodle with something like this—either with the TV square to the TV or angled. I just wish I didn't have piano/desk/TV all along the wall. (And great to see you're in Bethesda—I'm in DC!)

Emily- I actually did take Mark’s and the others’ suggestions into account when doing the revised layout — I looked at the aesthetics and the required space and ultimately drastically shortened the master shower, had a WIC built that would both serve as my (his) closet as well as an area for night clothes and robes, etc, kept the two windows in the master for symmetry, kept the water closet because that’s my wife’s number 2 priority (1 being sufficient WIC space for her closet), made the master square for symmetry, and split her closet into a WIC and library/sitting area. I actually found everyone’s suggestions very helpful even if I didn’t ultimately adopt one of their sketches verbatim and really do appreciate everyone’s views - diversity of thought here helped me see a few things I hadn’t thought of before for sure