When my kids were really little our formal dining room, which is what you have here, was empty for a long time because we lived mostly in the kitchen and playroom. Over time we added to it and it ended up being a space we grew to spend more time in and hosted family events and holidays in. We still spent more time in the playroom. Don’t feel it had to all be done immediately. We actually had a stretch of time where it was all empty and my kids would run and play in the empty room and push their toy cars etc around.

That’s how it is now kind of a “Rec room” but it’s the first room you see when you walk in the house & there’s no door it’s a big archway entrance so I’d like to make it presentable

Same with ours. My point is not to rush it with your choices. Take time and make good choices for the space. Think about what kind of seating you want and how your family will use it. Do you have a floor plan from when you bought the house? That will help people generate ideas.

Is your goal to make this room into a usable guest space or to just make it look like a nicer room because you don't really use it for anything but want it to look ok when people come over and walk into your home?

Can you post a pic from far back so we can see the entryway to the room?

a few more photos, please, all the walls and their relation to the other room...

I would love to make the room into a usable space that’s also presentable.

Here are some updated photos of our dumping site.

Do you want this to be a family space or more of an adult space with Tue family space off kitchen in back?

My thoughts are to have it be an area that can function as both - the kids are so young (my one son is only 6 weeks old)so if it could be a space that’s has an area for children to play but safe for the adults to supervise comfortably / possibly even have some sort of pull out couch to double as as bed for out of town family to sleep in ?

Do you want a TV in it?

You have a lovely home. The windows and woodwork are beautiful! What is the room located to the left of the stairs?

A dining room? As you consider furniture, rather than a large coffee table, consider a large round ottoman where little ones

Will be less likely to bang into corners or the hard surface. I bought one myself because I am such a klutz and was tired of bruising my
legs. Another benefit is there are many with storage so it’s an easy cleanup space for small toys, blankies and magazines.

Good luck! Keep us updated.

debra

Preferably no tv !

My home is set up like yours - when you enter my foyer, I have a dining room to the left and a study to the right (my staircase is located in the center of the first floor - but towards the back of my house).

Both rooms have pretty cased openings with trim (I don't have dentil moulding but it is formal like yours). I assume that WestCoast Hopeful was confused about the room's intended use as a formal dining room (the room to the left appears to have an opening to the kitchen = formal dining room).

You can make the room into a living room or an office (or whatever else you decide that you need) that doubles as a guest room when needed.

You can have doors added to the cased opening. You can have some type of window covering that is up (out of sight) except when it's needed for guests' privacy.

There are many different types of doors that can be installed in order to provide privacy when needed (there are also different ways to install the doors - however, since you have a traditional style cased opening, I think some type of french doors would work best - or maybe a set of really pretty wood doors).

If you use it as a living room, you could use a pull out sofa:

You could add some loungers instead of sofas that convert into twin beds (or can be pushed together to make a king bed) when you have guests.

A murphy bed is a nice way to use one of the public spaces in your home as a guest room when needed. There are many different ones - either to purchase or use as part of a DIY.

Below is a murphy bed used in a room that doubles as a study/office.

Below are twin sized murphy beds:

Sorry! I meant to say living room all along. I knew it was a living room. No idea where dining came from. No wonder my comments were confusing! 🫤

The room seems excessively large to devote to an office space? I would also greatly dislike it as a guest space personally. It’s very right out front and everyone would be going by it regularly.

Design a very comfortable guest room, with either a sofa bed or murphy bed. (Use a stellar hotel room as your model, with bed, storage, and sitting area.) Then furnish it using pieces that look like living room furniture.

@dani_m08 has, as usual, provided great pictures of usable and convertible furniture. Also get a large console or media piece to store bedding and pillows. Once they are placed on the bed, the empty console becomes a dresser for guest belongings. End tables and reading lamps become bedside tables. A coffee table bench becomes a foot of the bed bench. It will look like another living space but transform into a guest space.

Have made doors solid wood French doors, no glass, nothing hollow. Have them hinge 180-degrees. They will open into the room and live flat against the walls all of the time, but when you have guests, they can swing them closed for total privacy.

Get top down bottom up black out blinds for privacy. Position the sofa/bed on the wall farthest away from the doorway for privacy.

After this room is designed as a guest space, to look like a living room, you will then begin to gravitate there and find different uses for it on a regular basis. Maybe you like nursing there, reading bedtime stories, having a place to close the door and be away from the rest of your family. You'll figure it out.

We created a guest room based on a hotel room layout, made it look like a living space, and we love sitting in there with laptops, pulling out an exercise mat in there, and I love talking on the phone to friends in there.

This is all amazing intel / thank you all so much!

Do you have any other space for a guest room or just this? Is there a full washroom on this floor for guests?

I also love the idea of a Murphy bed! A great option…..however I would not recommend plain wood doors be added. I think that would change the more formal look of the room detract from your beautiful woodwork. Is a pocket door a possibility?
Otherwise French doors with windows with a high rod for room darkening drapes for privacy. How do you intend to do

privacy for the front windows? Room darkening blinds could work there. I have room darkening blinds in my bedroom and
they really make a difference! Keep us posted.

debra

We had thick custom pocket doors made and they are great at blocking out sound and create a lot of privacy. However, you would have to move the electric switch off of one wall, and I don't know if your walls are thick enough to house them. We had new walls made to house our pocket doors. It was not a simple fix but they were for a new kitchen we were building so it was just part of a larger construction job.