Love to share suggestions. Tell more? Do you own? As in, can you paint? The room to the left of your front door, is that laundry or kitchen? Budget? No need for amounts…low/medium/high. Dining table and benches are a good starting point. Corner piece…what is it for? Shelving , I could see with the dining table. And, the bone of everyone’s contention…the tv. Where? One thing for sure….from me to you…that front door is going to be painted a color.

@ SapphireStitch While it would be nice to wave a magic wand with an unlimited checkbook - I don't have that. I do have access to some money (got a HELOC). If some of the changes need to be done in stages and can be done effectively - we can do that, because the more money I have to pull upfront from the HELOC, the more I'll end up paying in interest. (yuck). I'm also not averse to acting as my own general contractor/project manager, if needed; I've done that before (successfully) But I'd rather not have to overall manage the project, just because my current employment is a boatload more demanding than my previous employment. The nice thing is that we don't have a defined deadline where "this must be done by" - no one is getting married, boatloads of relatives aren't coming to visit, etc. However, the kitchen as it currently stands is a source of daily irritation. We're getting to the point that if anyone is already in the kitchen, we try to avoid going in there until that person has left the kitchen. Tempers flare....we've got my boyfriend (who was envisioning a quiet, child-free retirement), my teenager (while she's not as much of a drama queen as some teens - she's just starting the teenage years, LOL), and me - frustrated as the primary food purchaser, preparer, organizer, clean-up person. And if my boyfriend happens to suddenly realize his blood sugar has dropped - get the hell out of the way in the kitchen. He's not very good at listening to his body - he literally passed out one time when his blood sugar dropped too low - he dashed into the kitchen, grabbed a glucerna and the last thing he remembered was opening it up - but he woke up on the floor sitting in a puddle of the stuff. (I wasn't home at the time). When either I or my teen are in the kitchen and if boyfriend does the mad dash into the kitchen - we pretty much have to drop what we are doing so he can grab something and while he stands there and he starts shoveling whatever down his throat. And since the space is so tight - it can mean leaving stuff cooking on the stove, etc. One time he dashed in, grabbed a breakfast sandwich out of the refrigerator, yanked what was already cooking in the microwave out, and threw his sandwich in. Anyhow, I digress. I know that some of the things we want are going to be big-ticket items - new cabinets, granite or quartzite countertops, slide-in induction stove. That's why I'm also looking for cost-efficient plans, such as instead of moving the sink to the middle of the room, let's keep it on the same wall and just shorten the distance from the hot water heater to the new sink location. Let's not blow out any of the exterior walls, and we can keep the current windows, dishwasher, and refrigerator. If replacing the 10'x13' current laminate would be cheapest to match new hardwood to the existing hardwood, rather than ripping it all out and putting tile down in a 20'x13' space, I'm fine keeping hardwood. If a nice, medium-stain maple cabinet is cheaper than white painted cabinets, I'm find with the the stained version... I prefer it, personally. Rather than a huge pantry cabinet, if building a pantry closet with adjustable shelves is cheaper, I'm fine with that (plus with all the small appliances and bulk-purchases from Costco and BJ's - I think it would suit our storage needs better). If getting an island fits the layout, but is out of reach - I'm fine holding off on installing island cabinets and countertop and using a kitchen table in the meantime. And because we don't have a "get it done by" date... once I have a really solid design/layout... I have the time to shop different cabinet lines and stoves, wait for sales and then to be ready to capitalize on hopefully a decent deal. I don't know if it's true, but I did see some articles that indicate the best time to shop for kitchen cabinets is November to early January.

J Castellanos - Sorry, you didn't deserve that in your thread. It's just that these Houzz "pros" are supposed to know not to pop into a thread with the sole intent of advertising their own products, and that is what the aforementioned "pro" does repeatedly. It's tiresome. Now, regarding your decorating issues ... What is on the wall across from the sectional? I see you've got your TV and console set up on the one wall, but wonder if you could move to the wall opposite the sofa and then "flip" the sofa around so that it's open to the fireplace? As it is now, it doesn't look like the fireplace gets much enjoyment by those seated on the sectional. I'm thinking that if you could rearrange things a bit, you might have space for a desk behind the sofa on the wall where the TV is now. I would not move the dining set into the living room, as that will cramp the space.

An observation: the chandelier in the dark room doesn’t work with the sputnik one. Something like this light would work. Rectangular in shape, so great for over the table, and the same metal as the sputnik. Assuming the dark room is the dining room, then bring that color into the living room with a sofa in that color. Art can be whatever you love, and considering It is a playroom, something fun would be appropriate.