Hello! I'm looking for some help with laying out the main living room in my new house. We move in in about 10 days. Our current couch and recliner will go in the finished basement, so I am planning to get an L shaped sectional for the first floor living room.

I have attached a floor plan for the room. For context, this is a 4 story row home in Philadelphia. The living room and kitchen is split level with half a staircase in between. The width is 16'. The door in the bottom right is the front door to the house. There is a large window to the left of the door if you're walking in the house. The upper left wall in the floor plan is a half height wall with a little door on the back wall, toward the right, to a storage area. This is because the half staircase up to the kitchen/dining area leaves room under the dining area.

My husband is planning for a projector for the basement, so the big TV (65") we have now will go in this main living room. The room will probably be used for hanging out, chatting, some TV, but I assume movies and other Netflix binging will be in the basement with the surround sound and projector.

Ok, so my main question is whether we should lay out the L shaped sectional as the floor plan is now with the back of the couch in the middle, facing a TV on the left wall. If so, I assume we'd have the other side of the couch under the window to not close it in. Then we could have some chairs closer to the TV instead of against the back wall. That back wall may have my record player and/or a bar.

Option 2 is to turn around the couch and have it face the room so the TV would be onthe right wall. Then you don't see the back of the couch, but you have the sitting and TV area extend all the way across the room and the walkway as you enter the house. In this arrangement, I'd still have chairs closer to the TV and the other wall of the couch would be under the window.

There is a cable hookup on either wall and a conduit under the floor for wires, so that isn't an issue.

So it really comes down to having the back of the couch against a wall or not and making an open seating area or an cozy one.

Down the road, we may install a gas fireplace on one of the walls. If we did, would that change your answer? Which wall?

Thank you so much! If it would be helpful for me to draw some of these options on the floor plan, I can do that.