I would also encourage you to do a large to-scale floor plan. Cut out pieces of paper to scale for furniture that you have, or are considering, and place on the floor plan. Keep walkways at least 36" wide through the room between the doorways. Concentrate on this floor plan first, then you know what you can re-use and what you need to buy.

Here are more renderings incorporating the latest ideas from people. The sofa in the photos is 71” (close to the one you have in storage). You would def have more room without the shelving between the dining and stairs, but I love its height. You could replace with a tall, slim piece of art. Also LOVE again the idea of switching dining and living. Easier to watch the kiddo, too.

Nice, viratare!

Really nice! Quentin, May we still have pictures of the dining room from the arched door side and the measurements of the dining room? I know you’re wondering why but I may have or we may have some additional suggestions for the furniture that is in the living room. I see the piano and it looks like you have a small dropleaf table over an 8 x 10 rug. By the way Quentin you are a real pleasure to work with.

Are you wanting a TV in the house at some point? I was just wondering.

Wow, thank you all so much. These are some great ideas. I'll get a picture of the dining room. It's a pretty small room and also basically a walk way.

@Mae Day Organizing and Interior Design is this the shot you wanted?

The dining room is small but has a lot more wall space and would probably work a lot better as a living room. It's 10.8 ft by 11.8 ft.

@viratare That looks amazing. Your suggestion of getting a lot of slim furniture to cut down on useless bulk and make the best use of space is a great one. It's amazing what you fit in there. I'm going to try that arrangement with the sofa and chairs now and I'll take some pics.

That large piece would be nice as we have probably five floor to ceiling shelves of books in storage, but I don't think it would fit on this wall because of the light switch and bottom of the stairs. Do you think a shelf would look okay in the far corner by the dining room where you have the large piece of art? Here's a picture of that area by the stairs.

@Mae Day Organizing and Interior Design No, we don't have/need a TV. I think that makes the room set up a little easier.

@decoenthusiaste Here I've marked down the outlets, and yes, they're all in the baseboard except the one above the fireplace.

Thank you Quentin, yes that is perfect. I will be in touch Soon.

I like the thought of switching the dining area and making it your living room.

I love all the great ideas and can’t wait to see what you come up with. The dining / living switch sounds awesome. Here is a rendering with the shelves neat the dining room. It’s from IKEA according to the app, so should be to scale. Might be a tight squeeze.

Piano could stay where is and would make a lovely place to listen to music, etc.

Working on the now. :-) Team work makes the difference!

Would likely create two distinctly separate sitting areas -- one more intimate ( seating for two or three) conversation / reading area by the fireplace and put the tv in the opposite end with seating for all the family that might watch it together. That said, you could add a pair of speakers -- blue tooth or wired -- to the conversation/fireplace end of the room so the tv could be watched/followed by people in the conversation nook if they chose without having the sound so loud -- that could allow for a few people to visit yet still listen to a concert or keep up with the score of the ball game without watching it all. Multipurpose ottoman that could double as seating when you have guests might be useful there.

Thanks for the outlet locations. When do you plan to replace this furniture with your own? Seems a bit futile to work so hard with these pieces when yours will be in place soon, I hope. Do you know the sizes of your own furniture? What kind of art do you own? I think the outlets flanking the door and stairs would make for great locations for lighted art pieces. Less furniture, more interest and more floor space. Do you and your wife enjoy board games?

@viratare The space from the window to the wall dividing the dining room is 65 inches, so a decent sized shelf should fit there. I love the idea of not having the sofa against a wall since it leaves more wall space for bookshelves.

I'll certainly run the idea of switching the dining and living rooms by my wife, and we'll see if she's open to the idea.

@suezbell I definitely like the idea of an ottoman for extra seating and of having the room divided into two distinct areas. We don't have a TV so that certainly makes arranging the room easier. I have a vision impairment that makes watching TV not very easy or enjoyable so we usually find other things to do, which isn't hard with a house that needs this much work. 😄 But over the fireplace would be a good spot for one nd the idea of speakers for the other side of the room is also a creative solution.

Pretty house

@decoenthusiaste We weren't planning on storing our extra furniture this long, but it's been a year already. Basically whenever my wife's parents are available to drive it from five hours away. Or we could get rid of it down there and get new furniture. It can be useful to get new furniture for a new space anyhow, especially a space this unusual. All of it is smaller than what's here.

My wife is working on art; we don't have much at the moment because this is our first home and we've rented up until now. I know she does not like modern stuff. And yes, we do like to play board games!

@craljh Thanks! We've been discouraged about it ever since we bought it, so that's nice to hear.

Quentin I am just about done with the rendition. See you real soon.

MAE

Here is the beginning of the pics. I need to go eat dinner. So I will come back and post the rest.

See you real soon.

Wow, that looks great! Thanks for all the work you put into this. It also looks like our style, which is very traditional (love all the symmetry). I also like the large mirror over the fireplace.

@Mae Day Organizing and Interior Design - that rug in the main room is such a great idea!

Please know that the colors and style of the furniture but the placement is what is being presented.

1. In the living room is a three seater couch similar to the one that is in the front room.

2. As suggested by another fine person, the entry tables are over the radiators allowing you to use the space for lamps, food and decor.

3. To the left of the entry is your baby's play area.

4. On the right as you enter the room through the front door is a coat rack.

5. Tucked into the corner you see the dinning room table with it's leafs down and four chair to accommodate guests for dinning or table games. The table can be pulled out into the space and expanded for those occasions that call for more seating; such as holidays. We often find that when we have our friends or family seated around the table that we enjoy or after meal beverages, dessert, conversation or table games.

I see this room as being a truly beautiful location for holiday meals with beautiful decorations, lots of windows for great views and natural light. Than when the day is done the table can be neatly tucked back into the corner for the next time.

This layout is open and cozy. The dinning room now living room now functions better for a growing family and gathering around the piano. What a lovely time together that would be.

Hope this helps. You have had some truly wonderful ladies make so many wonderful suggestions. We wish you and your family the very best in your new home. We wish you many comfortable and happy days to come.

MAE

@viratare I sincerely enjoyed seeing your work. MAE

This looks amazing. Thanks for doing this! Switching the two spaces around really opens the larger space up a lot. It would also give us room to put the leaves in the table when we have a lot of people over (which we can't do now because the dining room is very crowded...also right now it's hard for people to squeeze past the end chairs into the seats against the wall, another reason to move the dining area). It's also such a great idea to put tall side tables over the radiators and actually make use of those spaces, and the symmetry draws the two separate spaces together. I also like the tall mirror above the fireplace rather than the skinny one we have now. I'm going to have my wife look these over and we'll see what we can do.

So happy to know that you like this.

Best wishes,

MAE

Thanks for all the work everyone has put into helping us with this dilemma. We've hated this poorly laid out room since we've gotten here, especially my wife. Now we've gotten a ton of help and good ideas and can actually get excited about making this space more functional and attractive.

Love May’s design. Side tables over radiators with lamps in windows, so pretty. And, plenty of room to expand dining table for larger groups. Yay

Sorry I spelled your name wrong Mae.

Hi Quentin. Just found your post. A challenging tool, no doubt. Mae’s work on the 3-D rendering is wonderful. She is so kind. One question I have is the desk seems to be missing in the layout. Can you use a room upstairs for your office?

Tool = room.

@Seajay Sparkles Thanks! We're hoping to use a spare bedroom for an office, but the upstairs isn't finished yet, so the desk has to stay for now. To be honest, it's convenient to have it downstairs so it may end up staying permanently.

Would a different style desk work for you? I'm thinking of one that could sit in front of the fireplace and serve as a game table too (bigger than what's shown below.) You might try it with your current desk to see how much space is available. May depend on your need to be plugged in while working. Mae did a wonderful job making two pretty rooms! I think you may need all the square footage you can get if you're a growing family, but the two rooms could be flipped back if the need arises. Best to just start trying out some of the suggestions, living with each one for a couple of days and seeing what works best for you right now. That will also help you decide if you want new furniture or to use the stored things. New and fresh would be fun if you can afford to wait for out of stock items. This is not really a good time for ordering anything much! Shopping 2nd hand can be rewarding though.

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@decoenthusiaste Thanks for the suggestions! I wouldn't have thought to put the desk in front of the fireplace, but that would be a good use of space. I'll try it out there and see. I don't think it would be too far from the outlet.

We're definitely a growing family as we're expecting another baby, and hope to have more. The toys and mess aren't going away anytime soon and we really like having that end of the room set aside for a play area.

Yes, this isn't a good time for ordering things new. We're just starting out so we almost always shop second hand anyhow. It takes much longer, and it's harder to find just the right thing, but we also hate buying something nice and new and having the toddler color on it first thing. We've gotten a lot of ideas on here for things to keep an eye out for.

Yes, I'll try to approximate all the layouts suggested here with the furniture we currently have, just so we can get a general idea of how we like it and whether we could live with it. I did try out your suggestion of placing the couch with the back toward the dining room but I forgot to post the pics. I'll do that below. It looks bad with this beast of a coffee table, but would work with smaller furniture and it does make room for two chairs and possibly a bookshelf against the corner wall. The more bookshelves we can fit in the better.

Smaller scale pieces will make all the difference! You can see the leather chair is better sized for the area. You're a good sport to give the arrangement a shot; lots of potential for your space once you get the right furniture pieces. Don't be afraid to leave some simple spaces for the eye to rest.

Hi... is your sofa bumping out into the walkway? If end table were removed, would a hanging lamp shade work?

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I'm confused cause Idk why sofa can't switch with 2 chairs - would that fit better? ticking type cover --

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ah... or... ha!?

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@everdebz Thanks! A floor lamp could fit in that corner where the end table is. I just didn't bother moving it out, but we definitely wouldn't keep it in that corner if we went with this arrangement. We would put a bookshelf against that wall and a lamp would probably fit. Slipcovers are great with an ugly old sofa like this; my wife has one that she sticks on when we have company. I'm not entirely sure what you mean about switching the sofa with two chairs. Do you mean in the arrangement I just tried out above? I did try the sofa against the radiator, if that's what you mean. Here's a pic. You're right that in the other arrangement it is blocking the walk way, but with a smaller sofa it may work.