These pictures are very dark, can you turn some lights on please.

I think your fireplace is screaming for built ins.

Otherwise two matching substantial consoles, wall mount the tv, on a long pull out swivel so it can be view at all angles.

I can see then centering a sofa adding two chairs, a large area rug will really help you define the space. Your floors are beautiful but in order to cozy up the space a rug would really help.

You dont need to spaces, and in fact if you play the cards right the open space will be intentional. as an entry area for both the back and front door.

I would probably flip the tv to the other side of the fireplace for better viewing and more room for a chair at the other end.

As far as paint goes, although you have lots of windows its very dark in there, I would paint the entire space the light beige color you have in there now, instead of the sage green or gray that is in the living area.

I woud also change the light bulbs from a 2700k to a more neutral tone closer to 3000k that will take some of the orange over tones out.

Is this really a dark space, or did your camera over-correct because the pictures were taken facing a window?

Following

Your rooms are very pretty, especially your floors!! Could you run that same flooring into the kitchen? It would unify the space very nicely. I would not paint the kitchen cabinets. I would work with the other rooms first and then see if the kitchen needs something besides those beautiful floors.

Are you thinking about any new furniture? Your style is " rustic and country" which works well with your quilts and vintage record cabinet(?). Your sofa and chair do not work with that vibe. Also you need real end tables and lamps .

Start by removing your wall art and then replace it once the furniture is worked out. Give the talented folks on here an idea of what you are willing to replace, and they will guide you. A rug, curtains, new tv console, etc, will pull this space together.

Mounting the tv to the wall on a long pull out swivel is the answer to being able to set the room up.

For all that have left me such great information, THANK YOU!!

I've responded to each individually below. Since you've been so kind as to give me great ideas,

it has also sparked a few more questions. Please scroll to the end of these comments.

To RL Relocation: Thank you so much for your comments. I should have turned on all recessed lights so you could see how bright it can be in there. I never even thought about putting/mounting tv on other side of fireplace. I've always wanted to get rid of that tv stand and mount the tv. Thank you for confirmation on that idea. Thank you so much for the diagram and the lighting chart.

To Partim: It really isn't that dark in there. I have 6 recessed lights but didn't have them on. My phone camera must have darkened the room because of the sun coming thru the windows. I'm definitely not a decorator or a photographer. : /

Grapefruit1_ar:Thank you for your comments. I didn't carry the hardwoods in to the kitchen because I was nervous about possible water damage. Kitchen floor used to be green linoleum and I changed them to a porcelain tile. I AM ABSOLUTELY GOING TO GET NEW FURNITURE. I

brought that along from a townhouse I used to live in. I had blinds installed but haven't gotten to the curtains yet. I really like the "industrial" look.... such as the iron piping for curtain rods... or should I soften the look? Thoughts?

To HU-538414805: Thank you for your comments. I like the idea of rugs. May I ask.... 2 separate large area rugs on either side of the fireplace? There's usually 2 people watching tv at the same time.

Well, as you can see, I needed your suggestions. When it comes to furniture, I really don't have a preference between leather, material, etc. Thoughts? And as far as going forward with the remodel, what comes first? Do I paint then add furniture that will match or do I buy furniture and paint 2nd? (As you can see, I'm really lost when it comes to decorating.) I promise I will not pick out my own furniture. I will be buying and entire set, couches, chairs, tables, lamps...so that there is no chance of me screwing up and mismatching something.

You all rock!!

Will you be purchasing a sofa? I would place the seating in a funnel layout with two ottomans place where the pole is. TV above fireplace. Create a storage nook at windows. What other colors do you have in the other rooms? Painting should always be the first choice before decorating. If you have piece of art with multi colors, which is your favorite?

Yes, I'll definitely be buying all new furniture. I'm literally starting the remodel with the main level so there is no paint scheme to follow. Sounds like I need to go with lighter/brighter colors. I prefer Sherwin Williams paint and have a paint wheel to choose from. So difficult to make these decisions... But thank you so much for your comments. Big help!

I like that color, thank you! Should the fireplace be an "accent wall" and a different color (like it is now) or all just 1 color? (seriously can't thank you enough for your help)

What is staying in the room? Please take a closer picture of anything that is staying.

Dining table and chairs?

wall art?

quilts? (I hope the answer is yes. These could be a beautiful starting point for a color scheme.)

any other furniture pieces? The piece to the right of the fireplace?

what is the black box to the left of the fireplace? is it staying?

how many people will be watching TV at the same time?

Why do you want to paint your kitchen cabinets? Are they damaged? A closer picture would be helpful. Are you changing your kitchen floor?

Following

Mount the tv over the fireplace.

Paint the walls a lighter color.

Paint the kitchen cabinets white.

Curtain panels on the windows.

An area rug for the living room.

New end tables and coffee table.

To HU-538414805: No accent wall color seems to be the general consensus.. thank you.

To partim: The only thing staying in the living room will be the tv (which I will mount to wall), pictures, quilts and the old Victrola which is right now, to the right of the fireplace. That black box you asked about is part of the surround sound. It can be relocated. All the other furniture is GONE. As far as dining room, the table and chairs will stay. I'm painting the kitchen for 2 reasons.... 1st is because you probably can't tell from the pictures but they are a hideous red color (not my thing) and for $$$ reasons. It's much less expensive to have cabinets painted and change the hardware. I'm shopping for new countertop and will be adding backsplash too. The kitchen floor stays as is. I just replaced the green linoleum (gag) with the porcelain tiles.

How many people do you want to put in your primary conversation area? I assume this will also be where you will want your TV. Since your room is large, do you have any ideas for how you want to use any space that will not be part of the primary conversation area? For example, a reading area for one or 2 people? Small games/chess table?

I would leave the TV in the same location that it is now. If you put it to the right of the fireplace, you will get glare on the screen from the sliding glass doors. Also, your traffic path to the outdoors will interfere with the furniture placement.

I wouldn't put it over the TV. It will be too high for comfortable viewing, especially since your room is relatively shallow and your sofa will be fairly close to it. You will be craning your neck to watch it. You could mount it over the fireplace on an articulating arm and pull it down over the fireplace to watch it, but it's not necessary when you have a perfectly good place to put it to the left of the fireplace.

Remember that when you add curtains, you will lose wall space. So when you buy a TV credenza, be sure that it leaves room for a curtain and doesn't go all the way to the window.

In your space I would purchase a fairly long sofa, and approximately center it over the fireplace and TV. Add a chair on either side for a U shaped conversation area. Buy a rug big enough so that the sofa and each of the chairs sits on it by at least 12". Add a long narrow coffee table for the sofa and 2 end tables with lamps for the chairs. Buy the sofa in one fabric, but the 2 chairs in a different fabric. Or sofa in leather and chairs in fabric. Not a matching set, it's not how it's being done now.

Ok now that we know all that lol, I would like to know how you feel about builtins and or large consoles flanking the fireplace. Second I would like to know the distance from the fireplace to the post in the living room.

The tv would be on an actuating arm and if you put it on the left you will then get glare when it is faced that way for viewing if you put it on the right when it is pulled out you will have less glare as it will be angled inward. people probably dont walk in from the back door and cut in front of the tv, any more than they do from the front door. Plus if it was on the right you might be able to view it while in the kitchen.

But either way PLEASE do not put that TV over the fireplace...no way.

Your fireplace is already accented so no need for it plus it will beautifully with your color choice

What are the dimensions of that whole space? Because built ins which ever way it goes for the seating may not functional.

Once you decide on what style of seating you will be buying, I suggest that you move your existing furniture to that location to see if you like it. And put your TV at the angle that it will be watched. Depending on your room orientation, glare from the windows or French doors may be a possibility. Better to find that out now before you buy new things.

Ok everyone... I took better (I hope) pictures this morning before leaving for work at 0300.. So, no sunlight and only recessed lighting. Hope this helps with the requests I got for better pictures.

Some have also asked about measurements of the livingroom area. The length from front (door) to back (door) is 30feet. The distance from the fireplace to that "pole" or load bearing column is 13 feet. This has been my biggest issue. A long narrow room . Placing a couch centered on the fireplace is going to leave little room to walk thru that area....but maybe that's ok... I really don't know. Would be so much easier if that load bearing column wasn't there, but it is and I have to work the design around it.

I want to thank everyone for their comments and suggestions. You've definitely given me a lot to think about that I hadn't even considered. Please keep them coming if you think of anything else.

If/when I finish this project, I will update pictures one more time.

You will have about 9 feet to the fireplace once the sofa is in place, I wish you could line up the existing pieces like a sofa so we can see that would be good for all of us.

Placing a couch centered on the fireplace is going to leave little room to walk thru that area....but maybe that's ok... I really don't know.

Unless you replace your current furniture with new pieces that are about the same size, and in the same place, you may be changing the traffic paths in the room. That's why, once you have an idea of what you want, you should move your existing furniture to the way it will be in the future, so that you will know whether you like the new arrangement, before you commit.

30 feet is long, but 13 feet is not really a narrow space for a living room. It's pretty normal. My guess is that your house originally had 2 rooms side by side in that space.

If you think the space is tight, look for chairs and sofas that are not as deep, back to front. There can be a big difference. Your brown recliner is very deep. Apartment style furniture can be just as comfortable. Having a foot of padding at the back of a chair doesn't really make it more comfortable - it's just a style. You don't sink back a foot when you sit down.

Here is my mock up of where the traffic path would be if you have a U shaped conversation area in front of the fireplace and TV. I gave you an ottoman instead of a coffee table in front of the sofa. And I made the upholstered furniture about 4 feet deep.

RL Relocation and partim: I will line up the furniture that I have now and see what it looks like. I'll add another picture once that's done. Long shift today so it will have to wait till tmw. Just to give you an idea of what's been done so far, if you look at the 4th picture, I'm standing with the front door behind me. There was a wall (from floor to ceiling) that started at front door and went all the way down to that load bearing beam. It was like walking thru a tunnel every time you came in. We took down that entire wall and it really opened up the space in there. In the 6th picture down there used to be a half wall (I'll never understand why) that used to be to the right of the back door and came all the way out to where that chair is sitting. There was like a little open doorway from the kitchen/dining area to the living room. That had to go too. We were pretty happy with the "openness" of the area but that's when everything came to a screeching halt because neither of us has a decorating bone in our body. hahaha Thank God for people like you!

Julie H, I cannot do a visual until you can supply dimensions of the area in question that we can suggest the sizes of seating to purchase.

The way I see it is either the funnel layout or have the a sectional placed where the tv is at and a little sitting area at the other end

Because of the pillar, I thought you might have had something like that originally.

However you decide to arrange your space (TV on left vs right, number of chairs) I think that:

(1) if you want a sofa (and most people do), it's going to be facing the fireplace. The side of the sofa nearest the TV is going to be heavily used for TV watching so it will need to have a table space for beverages etc, and you may want a footstool or ottoman for it.

(2) Then you'll want a second comfortable space for TV watching. It could be the middle sofa space, or a chair on the TV side. A swivel chair can be useful because it can rotate to the sofa for conversation, or to the TV for viewing.

One option could be to combine these 2 pieces into a L shaped sectional. Then you wouldn't rotate the chair to watch TV, but you could lie on the sofa to watch. Some families like that. You do lose the corner table with a lamp and landing place to put a beverage, so you'd need a coffee table for that area. You also lose comfort for the person on the sofa facing the TV because they don't have a left side arm rest.

(3) The 2nd chair completes the U shaped conversation area.

The openness of the area is what now has you stumped. There is no definition to the space. One immediate fix would be to purchase an area rug to define the living room. I think adding a sofa table behind the furniture would help. Put interesting objects and plants on top of it. Are your kitchen cabinets natural wood or are they painted? They read very red. If you are keeping them, then bring red into your decor. Pillows with red, etc. Also, what is your wall color? It looks to be olive green on my screen.

Hi, Julie H. If I'm reading the measurements right, you've got a 30 X 13 living area with a fireplace and "pole" bisecting it. I would divide the room into two seating areas, with the area in the back for the TV and the area near the entry as a separate sitting space. Both areas would be unified by large area rugs. I agree that the TV would do well to the right of the fireplace. Take a look at the below arrangement and see if it's something that might work for you. As suggested, you can use what you have to simulate the arrangement. The red line is the "pole".

Once you decide on your arrangement and color palette, I would like to see the entire area painted the same color.

I read with interest that there was a wall from the door to the pillar when you moved in and it was like a tunnel. I agree that it would seem so to me also. Now since it seems so hard to arrange the furniture, could you put a half wall on both sides of the pillar....not especially as deep as the pillar but would be a backdrop for your couch or chairs or whatever you put there. The half wall would not have to be even half....just to the top of your couch. and maybe as long as your couch...2 feet on each side maybe. I am sure you don't want to put the wall back in again, but think a half wall might work with furniture arrangement and would not seem closed in. I like the two sitting areas also...Will wait to see what you do in your room.

I like the idea of 2 distinct spaces.

Be sure that the furniture you buy is sized appropriately for the room arrangement that you choose. For example, your current furniture is considerably wider and deeper than some of the furniture in the arrangements shown. If you prefer larger pieces, the arrangement may need to be adjusted. We see this so often on Houzz when the furniture is delivered to the house and people say "It didn't look as big in the show room!".