I"d love some input on how to design some custom shelves for our living room space. This room is adjacent to our our entrance / foyer. We also watch TV in this room (even though it's a living room and not a "family" room). I"m planning to put up some custom shelves beside the large window (where you see the art work there in the photo). The shelves will be stained the same as our oak floors (dark brown). Dimensions of the space are shown.

We have 8' ceilings MINUS crown molding and baseboards. The space across that wall is 56" from the the window casing to the corner of the wall. BUT, the curtains come out 9" from the casing and the top bit of the rod extends out another 3.5".

So, my questions are:

1. ideal length of shelves?

2. what thickness should they be?

3. placement (vertically and horizontally)?

4. how many shelves?

INSPIRATION PHOTO:

CURRENT SPACE:

DIMENSIONS (sorry, don't know how to flip it back!):