I need help! We plan on opening up the living space of our ranch. Our goal is to add a mudroom for storage and a larger area to do laundry in (instead of my current closet in the kitchen). The second goal is to have a more open space for entertaining. I love the charm of our house and I want to take that into this remodel. I’m not afraid of “character” or “quirk”. We have a beautiful fireplace and a lot of nice real wood touches since the house was built in the 70s. I want to keep my foyer as well as I like the personality it gives to the house. Our GC came the other day and he told me to rethink taking down the wall to the left of the fireplace because it will end up being such a small space (approx. 3-4 feet) and it may look weird. My concern is if we don’t take it down, then the fireplace won’t be symmetrical anymore. We’d have to keep the one book shelf and desk since taking them down but leaving the wall would ruin the current wood paneling (which we actually like and want to keep in the rest of that room). Would you take both sides of the fireplace down? Or just one? I’m adding a picture and our current floor plan and hopefully new floor plan. I’ve highlighted the spot in question. The blue line would be where the wall would stop if we did decide to take it down. On the back side of this will be a dining room. I’m hoping to turn the back of the fireplace that stays into a focus wall like the last photo attached. What would you do?