oops, Denita, no pics. here are a few from the Houzz store, just for brainstorming. there are lots of consoles that combine housing for the cable box et al with lots of extra cupboard space, so you should have plenty of options. Ikea makes a lot of great pieces in this particular category too, so you could look there. You could maybe even go superlong to take as much advantage of that wall as possible, especially if you go with white or something else that blends into the background a bit.

I can't see the whole room....the comfy chair looks so far from the couch and not fond of the TV in the corner. In the third picture, I see a table or something in the corner by the TV...what is that? Without seeing your whole room, could the TV be put flat on the wall on the other side of the fireplace and the chair nearer the couch, slanted enough to see the TV? I would take all things off the mantle and hearth and depending...try the mirror vertical instead of horizontal. Then on the left side of the fireplace, an accent chair (for conversation not TV watching) with a floor lamp and some sort of pretty art to go with your color scheme.

Thanks to both of you! I don't have access to a floorplan, unfortunately. Also unfortunately, I cannot do any major work at the moment, so the ugly mantel stays (and I did not even notice until now that it doesn't match the fireplace!) I would love to put up some artwork, plants, etc in this room as well, when the big pieces are settled. Already thinking about drapes but very little clue where to start - this side of the house faces the street so I really want to get some noise dampening ones, although they would have to fit onto pinch pleat hooks. What are your opinions on the wall sconces? I didn't even think about those! No plans to paint. It's just me doing the whole thing so for now I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible.

This is not your furniture I am guessing? You will want a real table, and need to find a place for it. You will get way better advice with a measured floor plan, and without it we're just throwing ideas around which might not work. But one of the problems is that your kitchen has many doors and openings, some of which are larger than they need to be. When you redesign your kitchen, don't forget that you can move doors much more easily than you can remove load-bearing walls. Reducing the size of the openings between rooms also gives you wall space in the kitchen, which is needed there. Here is one quick idea but obviously we need to know what's behind the walls etc. This gives you a door-less space in the kitchen for a table. Another idea is to have a table where there is now the china cabinet. That room now becomes the living-dining room, and the whole kitchen is available for cabinets. My son's house is arranged that way - no kitchen seating at all at table or counter but close proximity to a table in the living/dining room. Again, you may want to move the door between the kitchen and living room to an optimal place given your new kitchen design. You'd probably leave the door to the hallway from kitchen, in that case.