Without seeing a floorplan with measurements my first inclination was to suggest moving sofa, TV over but you stated that’s not really an option. If it were mine I would hold off on the shelving, what would you place on it, books, knickknacks? I would live there awhile, maybe just a nice large live plant in a nice planter?

Btw, you didn’t ask, but that picture looks a tad high?

Are you planning the shelving unit for things you already have and want to display or because you think it will be good for filling the space? What's your budget for furnishings?

Thanks for the replies! I'm not sure how (if I can) reply to your posts directly??

K Laurence, for the shelving, yes, I am planning on putting books, mini paintings, sculptures, and decor on it. (All stuff that I already have. I had a shelving unit in my last home, but sold it before moving.)

I think the picture might look higher in that photo than it actually is. Here is a photo taken at a better angle. The center of the picture is eye level. (I'm almost 5'8" so maybe it is slighter higher than most people's eye level.) Does it still look too high?

katinparadise, yes, I am planning on putting stuff that I already have on the shelving unit. For furnishings, I don't really have a budget because I plan to buy things bit by bit.

I can’t really tell, but the center of it should be 60” from the floor, that’s what I do. Well, if you already have books, art, etc. maybe the shelving will look good, just wouldn’t want to clutter it up with”stuff”. You probably will want some ambient lighting, table lamp/floor lamp?

Btw, I have a very large oil painting hung 2-3” too high over a sofa for the past 3 years, it’s a big deal to move ( size, plaster walls) but it has bugged me since it was hung.

Have you thought about moving the tv to the wall where the artwork currently resides. The current sofa position is way too close to your dining space.

Some thoughts:

--Get a tall, LIVE plant to the left of the TV.

--The shelving unit you show will look good there. Go for it, but try to get wood shelves the same finish as floor and TV cabinet.

--Bring your armchair towards the rug at an angle. At some point get a pair of armchairs to face the sofa to create a conversation grouping.

--Consider replacing dog portrait with a vertical skyscape (connects to outdoors) and find another place of honor for your pooch. A palette of grays and cream would harmonize with your rug.

--Add textured ceiling to floor white drapes.

shirlpp No, I hadn't considered that. I'm not sure that would work though because the sun shines on that side of the house all day. So that could be annoying while watching tv. (The blinds are light filtering, so they don't completely block the sun.) Do you know approximately how much space there should be between the back of the couch to the dining table?

housegal200 Thanks for the tips!

Yes, I definitely plan to add plants once I get the furniture set up. I had over 30 plants in my last home, but couldn't take them with me when I moved. :(

Yes, I plan to eventually replace the *fox* portrait with abstract art. :) (I'm a wildlife photographer and that's one of my photos of a silver fox.) :) I really like the artwork you have attached.

Ideally you'd want 36" between the back of the dining chair and sofa. It looks like you can't have all 4 chairs at the dining table.

I see quite a bit of glare in the tv in it's current location.

It just seems that you'd be able to have more seating by moving the tv.

Apologies for suggesting an art work instead of your professional wildlife photo. Can you blow it up larger? Or place it elsewhere in the living room? I didn't get a good look at it, so thought it was a pet.

Could you possibly use a bench at that table? Either against the wall or where the “maybe too” close, now missing chair would be?

Love your fox photo, so much more interesting & personal than some commercial abstract chosen because it “goes” with your colors. That is called a “hotel lobby”..

Move your seating arrangement away from the window wall. Center the TV on the wall between the windows and the columns.

Add a tree in the corner

Add end tables with one table lamp and one floor lamp.

Plants go by windows-i agree that a random shelving unit in the middle of a wall will not look good.

shirlpp From the table to the back of the couch is 36". So, with a chair there, I guess it would be a few inches under 36". A couple of people seem to think I don't have a chair there because there is not enough room. I actually had a chair there until a few days ago when I stole it to use in the garage for a few days. I just haven't put it back yet. (The chair in the corner is an arm/captain's chair. I have two of those against the wall right now because I don't have the table leaf put in yet.)

housegal200 No worries! I can see how it would look like a dog at first glance online. :)

BeverlyFLADeziner Thanks, but like I said in my original post, this is what I want to do, but then the couch will be too close to the kitchen countertop. :(

We need to see the spacial relation between the kitchen and the rest of the room. It is not clear from your current pictures.

Jenn-z9b-AZ Some low-light plants are fine away from windows, as long as they do still get light. I had them placed all over the living room of my last home.

So, if you don't think a shelving unit would look good, what do you suggest I put there?

I think the whole living room set up can move down toward the kitchen. There appears to be more space than you feel like there is, although hard to tell without a floor plan. If you spread it out a bit more it will feel better. Even if this wasn’t on your radar it costs you nothing but a bit of time and muscle to give it a try and see if it s what you need.

By the way, this is how the last homeowner had the furniture. Both myself and the realtor didn't like this placement though. And I think it would look weird for me to have the green chair against that long wall (since I don't have two couches). But most people in this area with this house plan have it set up like I do now.

Here's the look with the bookcase you're considering if you have nice items to display. I would lower the picture with the fox. You also have space for another armchair (not shown).

Would be interesting to have the floor plan with dimensions for the best furniture layout.

We never get the view of the countertop and the sofa together in any photo.

I think your shelving unit is the wrong size. Consider an open ladder bookcase that is 96" tall at the minimum. CB2

The coffee table seems to light in scale to compete with any of the items you have assembed, espacially in that blond finish.

Here are some photos including the kitchen. I hope this helps. (Please ignore the mess. I'm still unpacking stuff.) :)

The couch pretty much lines up with the countertop right now...

Here is the space between the couch and countertop.

If you zoom in on the measuring tape, you will see that there is approx. 3 ft between the end of the couch to the island. So if I move the couch over any further, it will be a very tight squeeze.

Focus on the wall first, and design a wall unit to accomodate the t v .

Next, position the rug to the wall.

Place the sofa(s) and coffee table, add another accent chair to the other side of the coffee table. Find another area in the house for the low console table.

Entry?

If you get a narrower, much longer TV stand or floating shelf, it looks like you'll gain about 18" to shift the sofa forward toward the TV and center everything on the wall. The floating shelf below is 14" deep. Wall mount the TV to keep it all looking sleek and tidy and position the rug so it's more centered on the window wall.

Also, it looks like your dining table is square? If so, keep the chairs and consider trading it for a rectangular table which will open up space as well.

In this dilemma, the kitchen island position and the relatively narrow room are the key limiting issues. It would be very helpful to have a scale drawing of the room.

The pictures probably look to you as if they tell the whole story. But for those of us not in the room, the distances are distorted by the perspective of the photography and it's very hard to provide the kind of advice that is most needed.

You'll get a much higher level of help with a scale drawing.

For example, maybe the TV could go where you have the boxes, along the railing. But who knows because we don't have the size of that space.

partim Ok, I will try to do one soon. So, just do it by hand, basically?

Yes. If you have graph paper, that's good but plenty of people just draw it out and put in the distances. We can figure it out if all the numbers are there - the lines on the drawing don't need to be the perfect length.

Also provide the size of the furniture pieces you will be keeping.

JT7abcz I really like that idea! But I'm curious as to how that will give me an extra 18" if that shelf is 14" deep?

My table is rectangle. I just don't have the leaf put in it yet. And it's quite narrow. So, unfortunately, I don't think a different table would create more space as it may be difficult or impossible to find a narrower one.

You have space limitations, have worked with them, and your current layout is fine. Don't over think it. You have adequate space now between the sofa and counter. Just don't place a coffee table on the right side of the sofa. Place the round one you have now on the left side. I like it as it adds a lot of texture to the space.

You don't have guests over so don't over spend on extra living room seating. What you have now works.

Leave two chairs at your dining table on the short ends. This allows you to keep the 3rd and 4th chair elsewhwere (maybe the garage) and you don't need to worry about distance between sofa and chair #4.

If you really need somewhere in your home to store books and items, get the tall thin bookcases Beverly suggested. However, seeing as you are a photographer, you could instead fill that space with two very large vertically stacked photos of yours with black contemporary picture lights above them.

If the center of your fox is at eye level then it is the right height.

Your coffee table and rug seem like the odd ones out. I'd get a rug with some texture and chunkiness to it that isn't as washed out and grounds your whole living room area. Your coffee table seems too blond. Perhaps you can stain it darker?

Your media chest of drawers is really nice. No need to reinvent the wheel there nor buy more than what is needed.

Because we don't have measurements, it was a guesstimate based on eyeballing the depth of your current TV cabinet (20"-24"?) and the number of floorboards in the negative space in front of it. When the TV is placed on a stand like your current setup, there's a big gap behind it. By wall mounting the TV with a more shallow cabinet underneath, there's more wiggle room to move seating forward and still have comfortable viewing.

Like @partim said so well, photos can distort. Inches and feet don't - it's good you're going to provide a scaled drawing.

Here are the measurements. It’s not to scale at all. If it needs to be to scale, does anyone know how to do that?

In case this isn’t clear, the island is 165” from the window wall and 144” from the tv wall. The tv wall is 210" to the bump-out. (It's another 19.5" to the stairs.)

I forgot to add that my tv is 44" long. The dresser that it is on is 72" long and 19" deep, but it is 22" from the wall since it can't sit flush against the wall due to plugs in outlets. I am fine with replacing this, but I thought I would include measurements in case it can be worked with.

Here's a visual of my suggestions.

lisedv I really like that! So, with regards to placement, basically, a new tv console which will allow me to move the couch forward a bit; move everything to the right slightly; and fill the empty space with a couple of plants?

@melissani

Here's the floor plan with the grid. Each square is equal to 1'0" so that you can see where the furniture is to be placed on the floor.

The layout that the previous owners/occupants had is much more expansive.

Here's with the sofa facing the staircase. I would leave the table closer to the wall, and not add a buffet which pushes the table into the traffic path.

@freedomplace1 Yes, it is for sure. But I'm not sure about the tv placement. You don't think it looks odd? Also, I'm not sure how it would look with just a couch and chair. I feel that the wall (that the tv is currently against) would look big and bare. What would I put on/against that wall?

@partim Thanks for the diagram. Is the brown square the chair?

melissanl - their tv placement on the staircase wall is not odd at all; it’s a viable option. ( see images on link below 👇🏼)

https://www.google.com/search?q=tv+on+staircase+wall&client=safari&hs=QfVp&sca_esv=0969567df9557e92&hl=en-us&tbm=isch&sxsrf=ANbL-n4vfHIsrW8517hhQQFbgt_t61W7NA:1773352775110&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj56OLxrZuTAxVOElkFHVlOMwEQ_AUIBigB&biw=552&bih=953

And in this case, tv on staircase wall is a smart choice.

I would follow their lead. A sofa instead of the tv on your current ”tv wall”. And either another sofa or two chairs on the window wall.

Yes, the brown square is the chair. I think I drew it a bit too large.

I would put the sofa crosswise, almost touching the wall. You can then adjust the distance from the TV to the size that is best, and you are not constrained by the width of the room. And it avoids putting the bulkiest piece of furniture mid-room, where you have the traffic path. It's easier to deke around a chair. If you ever replace the chair, a swivel tub chair would work well there. It could swivel to a conversation on the sofa, to the TV or even to the dining area.

Because you would then have space near the windows, you could put a cabinet between the windows, under the wolf photo, to act as a buffet for the dining room table. Would your current TV cabinet fit there? You also have room for plants behind the sofa, either on a shelf in front of the window or on the wall beside, depending on how the sun hits your room.

I wouldn't buy a shelving unit until you have the furniture location nailed down, and have lived with it for a bit to be sure you like it. Without the shelving unit there, you may be able to fit a compact chair against the wall there, if you want more chairs for a conversation area. Items that you want to display could be on a corner shelf in the dining area, or on wall shelves that don't reach the floor. This saves floor space for seating.

I drew a 3ft wide traffic path through the room. Visually, it will be more open because the chair is the barrier, not the sofa.

To fit furniture flat against the wall with a plug, (e.g your TV cabinet) try something like these. It lets the furniture sit flatter, and because the cord is not bent, it avoids possible damage.

sleek socket or

tight space extension cord

Exactly! The house was beautifully staged!

Except I think the TV and the sofa were quite far apart.

Whether it was a stager or the former owner/ residents (or both) who set up the place for the realtor pics- I agree that it was beautifully done. And the furniture layout is totally on point.

I agree that the tv in the staging could be a bit larger. Doesn’t have to be humongous, though.