Would this work? I like the idea of not stepping into the seating area from the front door. Walk behind a large sectional. There is an armchair/recliner in the corner that could swivel to face the fireplace. There is a console table in the nook. A coffee table/ottoman and the area rug is the dashed line.

There is a dining banquette against the wall with a round table and chairs, and that does not impede too closely into the sectional.

This concept rendering is not to scale, I did not measure the pieces.

Congratulations on your new home. It looks like a craftsman. I really love craftsman homes. My team and I will be happy to put together A 3-D rendition with suggestions for furniture layouts. It helps to know that you won’t have a TV in the room. As for your fireplace, there are many options. Most of the options are based on the style you want to keep in the room. Do you want to keep the craftsman look?

Katrina, I will say that option number two in your schematics looks really good. This may be the best one. But we will still put together the rendition to see if we can come up with anything else for you to look at and consider. Best wishes, MAE

Wow, thanks, @Mae Day Organizing and Interior Design! I wasn't sure that that second layout would work, but then was inspired by this photo, which looks like it might be from a similar type of room/home ...

So interested in see the final pictures on this cozy home!

@tracefloyd I will play with your design; my instinct is that there's not enough room to move a couch or sectional forward like that, but I could be wrong. Thank you for the idea!

What is the age of the house?

@cpartist - the house was built in 1927, so almost 100 years old. It's a small, simple craftsman bungalow.

Love your house! We lived in a very similar one years ago - we had a challenging small front room as well that had entrances to a 3rd bedroom, hallway and dining room - it was a beast to get right.

We ended up with 2 cozy loungy armchairs and an apartment sized sofa as it enabled our traffic flows to work. The sofa was a tightback leather english arm style so it looked fairly sleek and didn't take up a lot of visual space - so FWIW apartment sized sofas could be another option for the smaller scale room- enjoy your lovely house - I still miss our old bunglaow! ♥

@cpartist - the house was built in 1927, so almost 100 years old. It's a small, simple craftsman bungalow.

I'm sorry to hear you painted the crown molding as people who want a craftsman bungalow, they want it with original woodwork. Please don't paint anymore of the woodwork.

There are several forums about craftsman and bungalow houses on FB. I suggest you join them for advice.

There are also some excellent books about decorating craftsman bungalows.

I always have problems myself with layouts so I'll leave that to those who are better at it.

Stop painting away the character of your Craftsman ….

@cpartist - thanks for the tips! And yes, we're done painting the trim in the front rooms (the only trim that is unpainted). Painting the crown has helped make the small rooms feel larger, so I don't regret doing that. But I do appreciate the viewpoint of the "leave the wood!" purists, and we thought about it for quite a while.

I am a craftsman house lover. I built a new craftsman and we moved in 4 years ago. Why did I build instead of just buying one of the many craftsman bungalows in my area? Because every single one we looked at had been remuddled.

I could tell exactly what decade the house had been remuddled based on what they had done. Most had been remuddled to the point that bringing it back to it's former glory would have been more daunting than building the new craftsman we built.

Those that might have worked would not work for us because of location or because of things like stairs and bedrooms upstairs with no chance to add an elevator, or even a stair lift later on. (We are seniors)

Sadly more and more of these beautiful old homes are being ruined by those who think HGTV is great design.

I love your inspo photo. Very nice open plan.