You placed the dark chairs on the dark side of the room making that side even heavier.

Maybe the chairs and the loveseat should switch locations.

Select a larger rug with some blue tones

if it were me, I might try a set of curtain panels on either side of the large window to bring in some richer color to help balance the heaviness of the wood?

I’m with lalagirl-curtains are a great way to warm up a room and pull together the decor.

My first thought is that everything dark is on the right side, and everything light on the left. Maybe try switching the two navy chairs and the sofa by the windows? Might also pull the whole seating area closer to the stairs and move the light blue/gray chair and lamp from the left corner to the right windowed corner where the tree is. An end table and lamp could turn the sofa/chairs corner to keep light on that side at night. Then see if tall dark-ish drapery panels are needed flanking the taller windows to balance the height of the mahogany unit. (Would illustrate, but moving furniture very much with Paint is hard! Any AI experts want to try it?)

I would swap a sofa with the dark chairs at the window.

Put the lt. blue reading chair and floor lamp up near the built in. add another chair.

Push the sofa back to the pony wall.

You have room for a sofa table behind the new sofa position

A larger rug, or spin the rug, centered on the fireplace.

Yes, soften up the room with blinds on the smaller windows and drapes.

These are all great ideas- thank you! I did try flipping and found that it actually looked more unbalanced with the heavier couch near the built- ins. I love the idea of a rug pulling in blue and bigger and the drapes is a great suggestion too.

That furniture arrangement is better. What size rug did you want? It should go under the feet of all the pieces in the conversation area.

Here's a mockup of the suggested changes. All of the details of position, like pulling the conversation area back toward the stairs and moving the armchair to the other corner, will matter for balance. (It does look like the navy chairs are smaller than shown here, though.)

Alternate layout

You CAN paint the built ins, but I understand if you don't WANT to paint them. Instead, take the shelves out, paint a piece of thin board the same as your wall color. Put it in the back of the unit and reinstall the shelves. It will make that whole side of the room look a lot lighter without having to paint the unit.

Then do whatever Beverly recommends because she is the best at layout!

^ agree, you can also use wallpaper on the foamboard cutouts if you wanted to add some pattern

IMO thta wall of dark is the elephant in the room all the rest is light and airy and then the monster wall Ther eis no reason it can't be painted but IMO just a really outdated piec taking all the bestspace . I see aFP is that electric, do you use it ? The TV is way to high for proper viewing. If you cannot afford a new way to do that wall then paint it to match th e walls for sure . Love Beverleys layout ideas to get the best from the spac e.

Thank you all for these helpful suggestions. The mahogany built in does flow with the kitchen which is adjacent and is also mahogany and I worry about painting mahogany white as it may bleed through. We also use the gas fireplace often.

You need window treatments. Hopefully pretty panels to being some color an interest into the space, coordinate with the new much larger rug. After that arrange as Beverly suggested.

Beverly's layout looks great. She makes good points about balancing the dark and light pieces in relation to the massive built-in, which looms over the room. Good idea to add bright window treatments to pull the eye to the window. Another thought to lighten that wall is to add wallpaper backing, or painted backing, to the bookshelves. (You don't need to paint directly on the wood but on foam board.) If you do that, try to get some gold to echo the flooring. The mahogony just doesn't work with your light floors.