Pictures Please.

Hoping to have a couple of pictures by tomorrow. Thanks for looking and for the suggestion.

Sounds like you have an 11.5x8.5' living room and a 11.5x7.5' hall? A
nearly a wall to wall window at the far end in the living room area?

I'd
put wall to wall floor to ceiling panels on the window. That takes up
at least .5' of space. The soft vertical folds should lift the ceiling.
Small sofa centered on the 8.5' wall facing the TV which might be on a
console running the length of its wall. You would be about 8' from the
TV and have plenty of room to have a nice comfy chair at the window
facing the hall area and probably another smaller chair on the hall side
of the room as well. A nice normal seating area. Use floor and table
lamps rather than ceiling hung I think.

What else to do you
need from the space besides living and entry? Dining, storage, office?
Without seeing photos and knowing your needs cannot go further but this
part of the room will be its own space. If that's so I don't think it
will look like a bowling alley. Have art grouping on a wall/walls in
each 'room' to divide and with furniture oriented to the center of each
'room' there's plenty of division, no need for furniture or a
room divider to separate areas.
I had a 20x10' family room years ago, feel your
pain. There was a big square of lino in one corner of the entry half of
the room so the half with openings/doors wasn't easy to use as a room
and a too long hand me down sofa bed complicated things but I had babies
and open space is a good thing with babies.

Kathy, thank you for sharing your ideas. Floor to ceiling panels on the window? Love it and I think it will help with the low ceiling. And as soon as I read 'art grouping' I had a sudden vision of how one of the short walls could look. I hope to have some photos soon, and I love your ideas.
Cheers and thanks again!

Try apartment sized - 6' sofas facing each other perpendicular to the long window - so the front of sofas are near the edges/opening of the 9' window . . a round coffee table between for flow. Use narrow end tables on the window wall and behind one of the two - the one with the most space, or alternatively, the dead end, , add a writing desk oriented as a sofa table with an upholstered straight chair.

This will create a 12 x 11 conversation area in the heart of the room, and provide a useful surface / station / desk behind for tablet, lists, laptop / mail. Try a narrow console or bench with a flat screen hung on the wall opposite the coffee table and window. Use an adjacent room's closet shelf for the media components and run a sensor thru the wall to top of tv.