Unless you absolutely need them I would get rid of the french doors.Often in older homes these were installed because the living room was rather special and you kept them closed so the room would always look nice for guests.We don't live like that nowadays and if you removed them you would have far more usable space in the room. Hope this helps.

You don't have to get rid of the French doors, but you can keep a set permanently closed, maybe put a curtain on them, and place furniture in front. Or keep them permanently open and put furniture in front of the open doors if necessary.

Could the couch float in the room so the tv could go across from the fireplace?

Many ppl on Houzz hate TVs over the fireplace, but I love mine. I also never burn a fire :)

Would be helpful to see the other walls when you take possession.

I agree we need to see the other walls. I would not get rid of the French doors--they're beautiful and really open up the small space--I would not put any furniture in front of them, open or closed, and I would do anything to avoid putting the TV over the mantel. It's way too high and you can't sit far enough away to make it comfortable.

Is there another room that can hold the TV?

You might also consider a lift cabinet:

it's good to have an open mind when moving into a new house, especially an interesting one, as yours is. assuming this is a genuinely old house, when it was built the architect didnt say "this is where the tv will go" because they hadnt been invented yet. we live in an 1870 house and there was no appropriate space on the first floor for a tv, and the basement is not the sort to be finished off. we did some work arounds and the den is actually on the second floor. just decide that some things cannot be decided right away and enjoy the journey to become acquainted with your new old house.

I would remove the French door and leave it as doorway with arch, and offset the doorway opening a foot and half to the right if possible then relocate the fireplace in the corner

No harm tv , don't put over fp. It's hard on neck & can ruin decore. I like tv where it is. Or pick a different wall.

you could remove the hallway french doors and put the couch floating in front of it. This way it is close to the fireplace- that's where one wants to be in the winter! The TV would opposite facing the hallway, where the french doors once were.

As suggested by Grover, get a nice cabinet or console. I would put it and the t.v. in the same place the current owner have it. These photos have similar elements to your own room, showing what a cabinet beside the fireplace might look like:

Thanks for the suggestions. We have thought about other spaces to set up the tv/living room and as of yet this is really the only room suitable. Yes it's a 100 year old house so that was clearly not in their plans.
Where the picture is taken from is the third set of French doors which leads out to a small sunroom

I have 3 additional photos that may help give some perspective. First is of couch wall across from fireplace. 2nd is dinning room looking in to living room. Last is outside to give perspective on living and sun room. Again all these photos are from the listing as we have not been able to move yet. Thanks again!

Four swivel chairs gathered in front of the FP can swivel to watch TV mounted opposite it. The other end of the room could be for a sofa and chair or two if large enough. Or flank the FP with two chairs and float a sofa perpendicular to FP, facing the entry. Scale of furniture may be the trick here..

Essentially, you have zero wall space. I would not be messing with windows and French doors in a 100-year-old house. That's a quick way to destroy its character.

How about the TV in the sun room on the back side of the fireplace wall?

Could you perhaps make the fireplace end of the room more like a study with bookcases on the wall opposite the fireplace and then a desk placed so that a person, when seated at the desk, is looking toward the fireplace and the entry door? Then, perhaps you could put a sort of room divider -- maybe a credenza or low, two-sided bookcase about where the end of the sofa is now and move the sofa down so that the credenza/divider is between the end of the sofa and the study area. The credenza in such a place could hold a table lamp you would want next to the sofa anyway. Then, I would suggest you put the TV on some sort of stand s across from the sofa that it can be seen by people seated on the sofa.

Upon looking at your photo again, the chest-like coffee table in the middle of the room could serve as such a divider. Since the TV and stand are near the other set of French doors, you might close the right door to give the TV area more "wall space" and keep the left door open. If the room allows, perhaps there is another wall space on the other side of the French doors where you could place the TV and stand. Please post more photos so that everyone can get a better idea of your room. Your home does look lovely, and the vintage style is great!

Get in the house, make accurate floor plans, then come back for help - folks here can be quite creative when given concrete information to work with. Otherwise it is all guessing as to what will fit where and how doors and windows relate.

One thing is that it looks like the house is in fantastic shape for the age - I absolutely would not go in planning to rip things like doors out right from the start. (Modernizing a bathroom or kitchen or the like is somewhat of a necessary evil for safety and function.) I never understand that - why are you buying an old home in good condition if you don't plan to keep the old well maintained features? There are plenty of older homes that have already been gutted, leave the ones that still have the woodwork and so on as an example of the craftsmanship people had, and appreciate it for the character and history it brings. (Sorry, let pet peeve rant, not aimed at OP in particular.)

I just wanted to comment that your new home looks extremely well taken care of, and is really lovely!

It look like the sun room was an add on? I am hoping that the interior wall is solid somewhere along its length? Make the sun room your main level family room and turn the living room into a study library for projects, home work, reading. Put a large table in the center of the room with small chairs around it and make it a room for working and have the sun room be the room for playing.

Cozy, hmmmm?

This was originally posted in Jan 2015 and the thread got picked up again today by Houzzers. Wonder if homeowner [ http://www.houzz.com/user/bob-grenier ] could share what they chose to do, once they purchased this beautiful home.

Just noticed all the new comments. in the midst of a long renovation/facelift after a LONG buying process. But it's ours and we are very happy with it and how excellent it was built in it's day. Will post pictures of the entire home once it's more complete.