First of all, you aren't clueless :) I would follow your gut and turn the couch to face the fireplace, put the TV on the oak box near the window, the armchair and side table over near the built in dresser, and the red cabinet between the two windows where the armchair was. I like both your pieces of art on the other side of the room. If the red cabinet is between the two windows, you might want to switch the vertical piece with the one that is on the wall above the dining table - just see how it looks. Actually, I think the bird painting could look really good above the fireplace - it will add visual height (as jonathan suggested) and brings some red to that side of the room and it has bits of black and charcoal to tie in the fireplace and the couch...... If you have the TV to the left of the fireplace, I'd move the map (I like it for personal reasons :). Anyway, you really want a mirror up there.... it's a bit tricky because the fireplace is off set. Something this shape would be fab because most other items in there are really angular, but this one is too big and the price is crazy: Otherwise maybe a couple of small mirrors that you can also off set and put in a group, which would also add height: I'd do three or five of different sizes and shapes. I actually like the rug size and colour - it ties in with the blinds and the taupe in two pieces of your art and has good texture. Add a few more cushions to the couch and armchair in a couple of different fabrics. Maybe some of these:

Hi all, Thank you so much for all the helpful comments and suggestions, and sorry that it's taken me so long to respond - house renovation and work have been keeping us on our toes! This has become a long post, so a quick reminder - we were looking to renovate and rewire our 60s house to update it and also make it more wheelchair friendly downstairs for when my mother-in-law comes to visit. We employed an architect and came up with what turned out to be an 'aspirational' design (much more than the budget!) so we ended up deciding to split things into two stages: Stage One to add a downstairs wetroom for accessibility, remove chimney throughout and add a porch Stage Two to do the extension across the rear, removing the conservatory to open out a large kitchen/diner and add a utility room The layout below shows both Stages One and Two as complete. Bits shown in red are existing walls which have been/will be removed (apart from the wall in red in the seating area below which is between the existing kitchen and dining room - that's a mistake). So.....the building work is now done - hurray! Stage One is complete, we are much poorer, and we now need to decorate the whole house :-) Some before and after photos below - please bear with the terrible photography skills. The rooms aren't big enough to allow for expansive photos!: We've re-plastered throughout, apart from in the kitchen and upstairs bathroom, as we'll deal with those later. Current challenge is deciding how on earth to pick paint colours and flooring throughout.... Anyway - hopefully that gives you a sense of where we've got to. Best wishes

Hi - I think the first thing you could look into is cleaning off the soot on the back of the chimney wall its quite over powering from the picture and because dark colours draw you in, you naturally keep looking into the darker areas of the chimney. I did a quick search on Google and found several websites selling and advising how to clean the soot off a stone fireplace. If you do your research I'm sure you can find the right product for you. Maybe something like this? https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HF3HWIS/ref=asc_df_B00HF3HWIS57026930/?tag=googshopuk-21&creative=22110&creativeASIN=B00HF3HWIS&linkCode=df0&hvadid=205312686904&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2991103248144586249&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006933&hvtargid=pla-485995364397&th=1&psc=1 Secondly have you thought about replacing the orange tiles? I don't think they go well with the yellow stone. You could replace them with similar coloured stone or grey. Do you even need the tiles? I would check with your local fireplace installer as they will know what you can and can't do according to fire regs. Then I would suggest to pimp out your fireplace! Add beautiful wood like silverbirch to brighten up the space and add texture to soften it up. Place them on either side for a symmetrical put them in a basket to one side. Also consider adding a companion set and a small plant if you have the space. Hope this helps! :) Rukmini Patel Interiors

Hi Diane, I think this has all gotten a little confused. Brandler the idea looks to be to remove the walls either side of the fireplace not to add alcoves. The new steel beam would be needed to pick up the floors and any walls above the removed walls. Maths Wife I don't think you are far off but the RSJ would be on the opposite side (over the existing wall), so where you have marked a false beam. The two options I can think to remedy the problem of the fireplace looking more within one room than the other are to extend the boxing around the new beam so that it comes to the front of the fireplace on both sides and so that both sides are even. This may not give the look you are after. So the other option is to form a false chimney breast in the room which will be sharing the fire. This will though set the fire deeper into the recess. Or as a bonus third option you could combine the two and come out with a false chimney a little into the second room and then extend the beam boxing almost to the front of the existing chimney breast. Good luck and let us all know how you get on. Ohh and as a shameless plug, which seems to upset some people, here is a double sided fire we designed on a previous project.