Hello Design Junkies, We have been slowly redoing our home and it is time to make our living room a place I actually want to be. I have some ideas and have collected pictures and links but I don't really have the confidence to just start buying and I really don't know what shapes and arrangements or groupings of furniture will work best in our space. I would hate to buy a new couch and then realize that a different shape would have made the space KWIM? We just did a full (to the studs) redo on our guest bath so this will be a penny pinching mission. My husband is onboard to replace the rug, couch, and grudgingly paint- I have a few other ideas... We have a little boy on the autism spectrum and a toddler that is more like a tornado so that definitely informs our design choices (and explains why the pillows on our couch are usually askew).

The room needs to serve multiple functions- so I guess I'll just jump right in. Our laundry is located oustide our front door and there isn't a spare inch anywhere else in the house so as you can see the dirty laundry collects in two wicker baskets next to the front door, the clean laundry in a playpen adjacent to the fireplace and gets folded 2-3 times a week on the chair. I'm working to keep the toys in the kid's rooms but the train table will be in the living room for at least another year or so when they are old enough to share a room (and free up a play room).
What size and shape couch would work best here? Would we do better with an L shape or something on a smaller scale, or? I am interested in learning to slip cover so I could try that as a interim fix but we are open to buying a couch in the near future. I'm also thinking new rug, slip cover the dining room chairs(keep the table and china cab), new window coverings all around, revamp the cubby bookcase/shoe bench/coat hook shelf with paint and patterned paper, add 3d decals behind the couch (heavy artwork at arms reach above the sofa is asking for it), do something with the entertainment area, and since we can't hardwire any overhead lighting maybe a swag or one of those floor lights that hangs over? We have always been worried that a floor light would end up being a danger to the kids. I don't know what could be done to make the fireplace better looking- it might have to just be what it is for now.

I am wondering if there is some sort of ikea (or other) system that could be on the green wall or the bookshelf wall- that could organize and hide the laundry.
The only thing in the room I am attached to is the painting of the girl (my grandmother painted it) so I would like to choose colors that work with her. I would rather have a nice slipper chair than the leather chair- but my husband likes that chair- so we'll see what happens- for now I could try to slip cover it or just work with it- people claim it is comfy.
The house gets cleaned on Friday, these pics are taken on a Thursday so you can really see what our problem