We just bought this house and moved in a few weeks ago. The downstairs is an open concept L-shaped “great room” that’s huge. We are currently stumped with what to do with the 9x15 foot dead space at the top of the L. Honestly, it looks kind of ridiculous so empty. We already created a pretty large living room on one side with a big couch and accent chairs. On the other end of the L is our dining room. We’ve ordered a custom 9 foot table and 10 chairs for that space.

The only thing we can really think of to do with the “dead” space is another seating area, but we don’t really need that, so we’re hoping to find another way to make the space functional. The sellers had young babies, so they had used that space for the play pen/changing table/toys/etc and that stuff had filled the space and made it seem less barren. We don’t need that (our daughter is 8 and out of the baby stage!).

We know we need a storage bench near the entry way, and we’ll put some kind of credenza/buffet somewhere. Additionally, we will also likely put floating shelves up on the gray accent wall. But that’s all stuff that will be against walls and doesn’t solve the issue of the giant empty space in the center.

Any ideas appreciated here on how to make that space functional.

A few caveats about the pictures:

• Please ignore the tools/art/wire shelving on one side of the picture. As I said, we are still in the process of moving and we haven’t figured out where the art will go yet and the shelves are there temporarily to hold all the stuff we don’t have a place for yet. The shelves will eventually go in the basement. The tools are obviously there because we’re using them daily still.
• The dining room has a fold out table right now and mismatched chairs while our table set is being built.
• Yes, I know there isn’t decor anywhere yet. That’s phase 2…we’re focusing first on making each space functional and then making it aesthetically pleasing. We will be hanging art, getting plants, etc.
• The TV will be mounted on the wall, just waiting for the hardware to arrive.
• Please ignore the yellow pillows on the couch--they are temporary until we find something that matches.
• I should also note that we each have our own office in the house and both offices already have bookshelves in them (I am an author—we have a lot of books!), so we are not looking to put bookshelves in the living room. That said, I have thought about getting a shelving unit and decorating it with non-book stuff, I just don’t know where to put it and I also don’t think it will help much since our main problem here is the center and not the walls.