Duane: Layout help in Connecticut!!! High-traffic family room/office.

[eve77]

Hi Duane, just started reading your wonderful site last week, very informative, and I'm trying to guess what you'd do in my bare 18 X 18 room (redone after ceiling leak).

Considerations: need enough seating for family of 5 (kids ages 7,9,12); need room to access built-in desk to left of fireplace; sliding door is the middle of the 3 doors and will be used a lot; white door to right of sliders is a bathroom; and...don't want to block much of the view to our nice backyard.

Questions: Would a sectional work for this space? Would you float the furniture around the fireplace to avoid traffic running through the seating area, or put it against the walls to keep the room feeling more spacious (but have people walk past you all the time)? And one last thing...[I]if[I] we put a TV in the room, where????

THANKS SO MUCH!

Eve

p.s. we had to take out one of the built-ins (to right of fireplace) to put in a wall a/c/heater. I will paint the one on the left the same color of the wall in a semi-gloss, and maybe add a smaller desk/bookcase on the right...maybe.