Congratulations on your lovely new home! First, let me applaud your plan to have the tv over a console instead of above the fireplace, where art (yes art!) should be. I am sure you know that the seller's rug was very small for the room, so yours will be much larger. If you are buying new furniture for the living room, be sure to take your floor plan with you. Make a copy of it and include all measurements on the plan to avoid buying things that are too small or too big. Placement of furniture will depend on the placement of your tv. I like to plan on seating for eight people, and a pair of sofas and two chairs can accomplish that, or a sofa , a loveseat and three chairs will work, too.

LazyBoy makes comfortable recliners in all colors, leather or fabric. It doesn't have to be dark. Go online and you can show hubby all kinds of colors and styles. There are also slim-armed recliners which are just as comfortable as big fat roll-arm recliners without the bulk...we have two of them and use them daily. Take him to a LazyBoy store and have him try out the slimmer styles. Your living room isn't huge, and the slimmer style will fit better. Our recliners are side-by-side and take up less space than a loveseat...they just need to be placed so they don't hit a wall.

HI -- We hunted for a long time to find a chair for my ( 6 ft. 1 ) husband with a bad neck , that I would like the look of . We found one that has an adjustable head rest ( only kind ) and isn't a big lumpy looking chair that fills a room. Urbanbarn.com --- it is modern and has nice smaller square arms and it is electric and Italian leather . So if I had to have one in my living room this one is one I could live with . Lazboy 's did not look good for my modern style -- too big and too lumpy and not modern and too nursing home . Your husband's big chair would look better in the garage !! I would back a sofa to the front window with the new recliner beside beside the fireplace . Do not get the love seat that matches the sofa ... hard to place in a room.You should have room for a sofa chair or an accent arm chair . Put the TV and a console under on the wall beside the stairs . Wall mount the TV on a swing bracket to adjust TV for viewing . Try not to angle things into corners as it makes a small room look smaller . You can also put a couple of small square ottomans or the ottoman from a sofa beside the stairs .. for extra seating . For the windows you could have blinds with full drape side panels hung from ceiling height to floor (96 inches) and on the wall beside the window ... to make window look bigger . For a rug --- get as big as you can ... room size less about 18 inches around if possible .

@felizlady @lefty47 Thank you for your advice about taking floor plan with me. I've read so many comments on here about out of scale furnishings, so am definitely wary of that! Just walked thru the house again and the living room/ dining spaces are pretty small, although adjacent. Husband has knee and hip issues and finds great relief in his chair at the end if the day, so @lefty47 putting it in the garage means putting HIM in the garage, which I'd feel bad about :-)

Like the idea of putting tv console under stairs, so not focal point of room, but accessible for viewing. Also, not blocking traffic flow. I wonder, alternatively, if husband's chair might go there, in the corner. (It takes up SO much space when it's open for business, argh.) Or does that qualify as "angling things into corners", which I see your point about...

We will not be buying matching sets of anything. Looking at Room and Board, Lee Industries, possibly Flexsteel, for sofa ideas. Willing to spend 3-4K for "investment" sofa, so budget is real and not huge. Will look into Urban Barn and LazyBoy for sleeker recliner options, but that's not my first priority.

Appreciate all the input so far, including rug and curtain suggestions. I'm taking notes.

Many thanks!

HI -- I was joking about putting the recliner in the garage . My husband fell off a building years ago and had a broken neck and broken hip which is all pinned into place and he may need to have a hip replacement some day . This has also given him back problems now as he ages . He loves the recliner we got for him from Urban Barn -- the adjustable head rest is a great relief for him and it lays out so much he can sleep in it . And his chair has a 10 year warranty . The Lazboy chairs are really not worth what they charge for them .