If you post a picture of the wall in question it would help a lot!

Sue

Thanks. I'll be in the space tomorrow and post a picture. To the extent it helps, I just drew a quick layout - not exactly to scale but gives the basic idea. So the question would be: should the built-in bookshelves extend all the way to the corner or would that look off balance. Also, if the bookshelves do extend to the corner, how far along on the other side should we go? We didn't want to quite go to the entrance of the livingroom because then we would be narrowing the entranceway, but maybe we have to under to balance things out. Thanks so much for any thoughts!

sorry, maybe my qyestion wasn't clear. We have decided to bring the bookshelf all the way to the corner of the livingroom - the question is how far on the other side does it have to go? My husband does not want to bring it out the entire length of the wall because he wants to keep the entrance way to the livingroom wide. my only concern with that is that since we are going to the end of the wall on one side it will look off balance.

I believe I did understand the question and answered it...perhaps my answer was confusing. The end of the bookcase will be up against the same wall as the sofa, yes? You are worried about how far down along the wall to bring it. You can stop it wherever you want. You can look at the side of the bookcase or you can have a triangular shaped piece fill in that meets the wall on the right and the end of the bookcase on the left.

I would like to know the distance between the tv stand and the wall. And when you are in the great room sitting on the couch what do you consider to be the "visual boundaries" of the sitting area. Perhaps it's at the front edge of the tv stand. That may be where you can end it.

How deep will the bookcase be?

Unless getting from the living room to the kitchen on the side of the room where the bookcase will go is already a tight squeeze, I'd end the bookcase where the wall turns 90 degrees to go toward the front door.

Stop it where your husband says. You can put something like an umbrella stand in the blank section that is left where the bookcase stops.

Or some artwork.

Ideally, I'd bring it to the corner by the front entrance. If there isn't enough space there, bring it to wherever the red line (the new entrance to the living room) is 36".

Personally, I'm not a fan of the corner shelf. I find them too small to put anything but dust collectors.

I agree about the angled shelf, amberm145. It seems like a really dated concept.