Would love to see the room as karemore suggested!!!

It also looks like you could fit a small chair on the left side of the built-ins. Maybe one of these little cuties from World Market? You could put a sheepskin on the seat of the wishbone chair.

The bookshelves are awesome. Karemore nailed the room arrangement. All you need is art. Maybe you'd be interested in a canary?

Move the couch so it faces the build-in. Two chairs where the couch was with art above. Flank it all with some floor lamps. Add some lighting direct at the built-in. Put the TV on a nice minimalistic mid-century stand in front of the build-in. Cheers!

Perfect!

Are the shelves adjustable in the book case? I am thinking you could move the TV in this built in unit somehow...by taking out a couple of the shelves and rewiring the components. The way I see it I would like to keep the focal points in one area. Then the sofa will be able to face the wall unit like Karen suggests.

Pretty room! Don't paint the wood. You could surely put a floor lamp in the corner between couch and chair. Could you add little recessed lights in front of the built ins? That way your overhead lights are highlighting a particular beautiful (!) feature in the room, not just blasting down from the center (though that made for nice clear photos). I imagine the room looks more cozy without that light on.

Is this crazy? What about a pretty lamp between the windows? Because they are so large I would expect light to come from that direction. Perhaps this is counterintuitive, but I think light colored light filtering shades that didn't darken but did block the view of the brick wall might also lighten up the room. The windows are beautiful but the view is claustrophobic.

To your original question, no need to paint the wood.

The curtains are blocking some light (up to 10-15%). If you're going to keep the shades down (to block view), then ditch the curtains, and highlight the trim.

please do better lighting and not paint the wood.

I agree w the suggestions for more light placement. As to the drapes, they could serve a better purpose if their rods were extended, allowing the center panel to cover the pipes, and leaving the windowpanes exposed....but does that panel near the door get in your way? Here are some exs. of window film treatments, to get an idea of how that might work for you:
https://www.houzz.com/photos/window-film-phbr0lbl-bl~l_43609

These comments are so helpful! Thank you! And it's good to know that I'm not totally off as the arrangement of having the couch face the built ins was what we started out trying to do. Unfortunately, the TV (despite being one of the smallest ones in the store that could still pass as being a TV!) is about 2" too wide to fit. TMBRZ's comment about putting the tv on a minimalist table in front of the built ins is an idea I hadn't thought of and is one to explore.

The main reason though that we moved away from having the couch face the built ins is it blocked the flow through the room. The living room is the link between the kitchen and garage to the rest of the house. Sadly, the entrance to the kitchen (next to the couch) and the entrance to the rest of the house (to the left of the TV) are offset. The couch wound up blocking smooth access to this doorway when we rotated it to face the built ins. Also, the pocket doors lead to my hisband's office and It frustated him to have an obstacle right in the middle of the room when going from his office to the kitchen (he is a chef, so this is a well traveled path). Because of all this, we put the couch back in the boring position against the wall. But I think we might try it again facing the built ins as we have gotten rid of a few pieces of furniture since that last attempt.

@kcmnc: these lighting ideas are ingenious. I hadn't considered a lamp by the windows or over the built ins. A standing lamp in the corner was where I was heading, but it seemed an incomplete solution, so these are great ideas.

Extending the curtiain rods out is also one I can do very easily!

My husband was thinking a mirror on the wall above the couch might help reflect more light, but I fear it will just reflect more of the dark wood already in the room. Any thoughts in a color for some throw pillows in the couch to bring this room out of the 'dreary' color family?

Can't say enough how wonderful it is to get all this creative advice.

@groveraxel: love the canary! Where can I find your art?

I am going to go out on a lone limb and say that the color of your drapes is attracting your eye right to the darker molding. Perhaps a color or something not the same value as the wall color would help.

Lovely house, I also vote for not painting the trim or the doors.

Gwynne, here is the canary: http://www.greatbigcanvas.com/view/canary,1053496/?s=iACGz9ibRe1oh3lFFxMW7UrnLfmZpinlkjj8WolnDZ8rpTIuVWAonxvMVkc3s8t

And BTW, it's not mine. It's by an artist named Tim Nyberg.

As for the room arrangement, your traffic patterns cut right through your seating--never desirable--so what about putting the TV on the sofa wall and and floating the sofa in front of the doors? You could leave just enough space between the end of the sofa and the shelf wall for hubby to traverse, but others--e.g. guests when entertaining--would use the pathways behind the furniture and the seating area would remain uninterrupted.

If the sofa is too long for this, consider for the future having all chairs, one or two facing the new TV wall, two facing the bookcase.

Another alternative would be to modify the shelves to hold the TV. I suspect a decent woodworker could do that quite easily. I would not put the TV on a console in front of the shelves. That will just look odd.

You could put the TV on a wall mount that has an arm that would extend just outside the fram of the built in.

Pic

Gwynne, You asked about pillow ideas - Crate & Barrel always has a good selection of pillows in the colors you are working with. Here a few samples below. The striped one is on clearance, I see:))

No more painting unless you decide you want to change the wall color. The TV between the two doors looks like an afterthought and the chest looks bedroomy. Like groveraxle, I'd put TV above a long credenza on the sofa wall, moving the sofa as karemore suggested, 3' in front of the windows. Block out the brick wall with some inside mount sheer roman blind or shades to block the view some and still let the light in. The woodwork will be the feature on that side of the room while the contrast of contemporary shades will be great with the old woodwork and your MCM furniture. Between the windows, hang a piece of art and use the outlet and a chase to cover the cord leading to an art light above it.

I had a chance to move some of the furniture around and, taking the wonderful advice I've received, here is what I came up with. I will need to re-arrange some of the items on the shelves as the more ugly things that were hidden behind the chair before are now in plain view.

Does this new configuration work well? I am still thinking a standing lamp needs to go between the TV and the built ins. Sadly, that is the location of the one and only outlet in the room. The lamp I placed behind the large chair has its cord running through the pocket doors to find an outlet in the office.

Next is art, colorful pillows, and more lamps. Keep the thoughts coming, you have all been inspiring me to get creative!

another picture - as it is only letting me upload one at a time

last pic

Stellar! So much better to have the TV off that tiny wall between the doors.

BTW, I adore that large framed portrait in the bookshelves. No wonder you liked the canary. We seem to have a similar art aesthetic. ;-)

Now, the house was built in 1890, so I'm going to surmise there is at least a crawl space and the subfloor is wood. Easy peasy to fish conductor for new outlets. I'm going to guess you need an electrical upgrade. I'd put that on the list before art, pillows, or lamps. Think of it this way: without an electrical upgrade, you'll have no place to plug the lamps in.

Ooh ya - looks fantastic, Gwynne! And I assume hubby is OK with his new route to the kitchen?

Not sure if those Crate & Barrel pillows did anything for you, so I'll try some Ikea ones. Your chair pillow looks like it could be Ikea as well?

@karemore55: yes! I love the idea of introducing a pop of orange in the pillows, I'm also rethinking the curtain color as handymam advised. I wish you could come to the store with me- I just sit there staring at the overwhelming selections of pillows, unable to make a choice!

@groveraxel: the portrait in the frame is of my husband as drawn by two of his art school buddies 20 years ago. It is one of my favorites too. My husband's paintings were large scale (too big pretty much to fit anywhere in the house!) canvas - but the one that does fit in this space is really heavy in the yellow ocher family - matching the couch too closely. I am really trying to minimize the 'beige' feel of this room so I'm going through our stash to see what might work .

Would you piece a bunch of small frames around the TV or go for one big punch on that wall? I know there is a lot going on in the built ins, so I was steering away from a dynamic cluster of frames there, and making that wall more calm. But that also greatly limits my options.

Yah, the new TV wall is now problematic, but this is one we can solve. The obvious answer is a longer console and bigger TV to fill the wall more, but if that's not in the cards, then I say pull out any art you have that you think will go on that wall and start experimenting. My inclination is to move the TV and console to the left a bit and put a large piece of art on the right.

Actually, I'm wondering......the large piece of art of your husband's - could it go right behind the TV?

Longer console, yes, but keep the TV small and perhaps it will only cover a small portion of his art?

Don't touch that beautiful old wood. I've seen too many people paint it, only to have someone come behind them and have to strip it and try to get it back to it's original glory. I love the dark pocket doors, they look like ones that I had in an old New Orleans house and are hard to find.

Can your husband creat a piece of art in the perfect size and color for thar space? That is the obvious choice, lol!