Generally, the only piece of furniture in the room would be the sectional.

I would remove the shelves to the right of the tv and put the tv in that niche....You don't need all those shelves over there...It's extra stuff and extra stuff to dust :(

That would be job one for me. If they're like mine, the shelves just lift off...so I would move those and put the tv there to see if it works for you...if it does, then go ahead and get rid of the center support.

Then we can work on the fireplace..

Could you leave the fireplace but do the rest of the wall in some type of stone. That would mean getting rid of the shelves.

Similar to this but over the whole fireplace wall.

Thank you both, I started out with the stone idea but again, it will still be offset, plus it would be difficult to tile around from the mantle down because of all the angles and paneling I’ve been told. And I can’t do anything about the black fire box it is a real wood burning.

The firebox itself is actually centered in the room. Where The wall “protrudes” is what is off-center. It is flush with the paneling that touches the wall on either side that we painted, you can see one side is longer than the other.

The shelves are very solid and built in. If I was going to put the TV there I think we would need to put a piece of drywall or solid board over it first to cover the shelves, I guess that would be a thought. Do you think if I move the TV over, it would “fix“ the centering issue if I had a piece of art or something over the mantle that was larger than the firebox? And if I had no shelves on one side I’m wondering if that might emphasize the offset issue even more? This truly is a serious design dilemma I believe! No easy solution that I have thought of so far that is not costly. I hope I get lots of suggestions from this wonderful and generous community!

Leelee, I had to look twice because leelee is what I call my daughter Leah. ❤️

If the firebox is centered then you remove mantel and shelves and only keep the firebox. Would that be too modern?

If you're open to having the tv there, I think it solves a lot of the problem...

What I would do: ...Try out the tv (you don't even have to do anything other than clear out the stuff so you can get a visual and see if the family is okay with the tv over there). That costs nothing. If no objections, then:

I would see if I could smash out the shelves, but keep the lower cabinets (if you have kids, you know...)...HOPEFULLY, the center support is in front of the backing (shiplap??) and you'll only have nail holes in both that and the top of the cabs. So far costs nothing but sweat and a few dollars in the curse jar. Then patch and paint.

Now you have the fireplace wall to deal with. The inset bit is clearly for fireplace tools but what's confusing to look at is that it blends with the rest. So you need to emphasize that part, (seems counter-intuitive, I know). I would either tile the back of it, or paint it black...both of those things are easy to diy...

Now the top is a preferential/budget thing.

You could leave it and paint it white to blend with the built-ins. I'm not so crazy about this because the design of the wood emphasizes a central point that's not the same as the firebox.

So however you re-do it, it needs to have no center...shiplap may work, tiling may work, drywall may work....it's the kind of thing I couldn't make a decision on until the other stuff is done and I can see it.

Then you have to have multiple things on there...like a collage wall...so that there isn't a center line.

This is a bit too busy for me, but just so you get the idea...

Anyway, that's how I would tackle this problem....

Thank you, I don’t quite understand some of the suggestions but I am intrigued! Think I need to take some closer up pictures because above the cabinets is sort of a shelf and then set back from that is a built-in bookshelf. When you said to move the TV there I wasn’t sure how there would be nail holes on top of the cabinets? So set the TV on that counter (we had done that before but it always looked kind of sloppy to me) or mount it to thecbookshelf? And what did you think of my concern that if there no shelves to the right that it may emphasize the lack of balance even more since there will still be shelves on the left? Penny did you mean, just paint black or tile in the niche which is to the left of the left “column” underneath the mantle, and then do something else with the rest of it? Thanks!

We weren’t sure what we were going to do with the “wings” that the ceiling on either part of the unpainted wood above the fireplace – there had been a light filtering piece of plastic as there are lights at the ceiling. The easiest would be to put a piece of drywall or paneling and put recessed lights in there and that’s probably what we’ll do. We weren’t sure if we were going to try to knock those out and bring the bookshelves all the way up to the ceiling but again that would emphasize the off-centeredness I think

I wish we could, that would be such a big project because of taking out the left half of the center section part of the wall that protrudes. It would be like pulling a string that goes on forever I’m afraid, as then I have the bookshelves over there that would be pretty impossible to match up or just have a blank wall that is flush with the outer edge of the built in shelves, and that would not match the other side etc. I need to take your suggestion and drape a white sheet over the bookcase on the right and see what the TV would look like over there, not sure when I will get to this hopefully in the next day or two, thanks!

pennydesign, I posted a pic of it painted under a new thread, can you help again? Many thanks!