do you have any photos or a floorplan that you could post?

Yes, pics would help a lot. Having trouble picturing this room in my head!

You're right! :-) The unit needs to go against the wall which is highlighted in yellow.. The red cross marks the front door. There is very little space for sofa + coffee table + unit as you can see...

You're right - it is a very tight space, not just for the ?TV but for seating as well.

First the built-in - just have it built with simple, clean lines - minimal mouldings - and as much of it closed,storage as possible. The more open storage you have on it,the more "clutter" you will have, which will add to the distractions.

If you have enough space in the seating area, try and have a sofa plus two arm chairs - one on each side of the sofa and sitting at right angles to the sofa - to create a tight little conversation group. The intent is to more or less huddle the furniture together so they are not open to, or facing, doorways. You will need about 12 or 13' to fit this all in length-wise, and this area should be set back from the TV a good 10 - 12'.

I hope this can work for you - it is really hard to guess what the dimensions of the room are. If you can fit in an 8X10' area rug and get at least the front legs of the sofa and chairs on the rug,you will be doing good!

Digigal, if you post them in the morning, it will refresh your dilemma when more people are on the site, and you should get more ideas!

I'm on the other side of the world (Europe)....it's morning here :-p

Ha ha! I forgot about the Brits and the Aussies! If you post the dimensions now, you'll get lots of help from them. The Americans are (mostly) asleep. I'm in PST, but I'm just about ready to call it a day!