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I am by no means an expert, but here is my two cents worth:
Ok, sorry, I wrote a lot! I just love pretending to decorate people's houses :)
@likelimeade: That side table between the sofa and the wall is full of books too. We are constantly moving the sofa to get to them. But I could put more books on top! They're just on rotation or something--we are always reading. I even have an ipad full of books :P
I hate the red pillows on our sofa. Those are actually covers too and they don't match our sofa's red. I'm more of a blue/yellow/green girl....and earth tones. We will keep the slipcovers on unless we need to wash them or have a reason to have a red room for a bit.
What color would look good in this room?
I am whiddling away at the bookcase now to see if I can at least get all of the books we own on them.
I think one of the biggest problems is the size of the coffee table. It's way too big for both the couch and the space. What is the ottoman made of? Could it be used in front of the couch in place of the CT, with some kind of tray on top?
Do you have many other spaces where some of your things could go? It looks to me like you're just overwhelmed with 'stuff', and you need to take some time to pick a few favorite things to keep on display, and store the rest.
Have you tried reconfiguring the larger pieces? Can the table and chairs go any closer to the island/bar?
I'd be hiding those bookcases away in the bedrooms too. They are visually taking up too much space.
If you empty all the area of everything but the furniture pieces that have to stay, it will be easier to move everything around and take some pictures of different arrangements so you can really see what will work best.
@smyley: FI loves the tables because they are real wood and wrought iron, and remind him or Puerto Rico. He would kill me before we could ever do that.
We don't have any storage space in this house so it makes things so hard. The whole house is about 1000 sq ft with 0 closets. The spot under the stairs that we turned into a "closet" stores my supplies since I work from home. It makes it hard since we can't get rid of the books. The other "stuff" you see is a vase set from IKEA, 2-3 small statues a friend sent me from Japan, a smelly candle, and a long votive holder. There are also apothecary jars (actually for our wedding, but I put them out because we don't have a closet!) and then live flowers (on dining table, end table, sofa table, and bookcase too!) my problem is that it looks like its a lot, but it's books on top of books on top of books! If I had a closet we could put them in, there is nothing at all there, but that's just to an option for us since we don't have one. :(
Are the floorplan and the drawings of the furniture you gave us done to scale?
That would be the starting point for me.
Only then could anyone make practical suggestions for a layout.
The next would be simplifying the room- getting rid of clutter. You like the look of Young House Love- note the simplicity in everything they do.
I echo what some of the others have said. You have too much stuff on display. Your living room does not need to contain all your earthly posessions. Box up some of the books(ok most of the books) and display only a few. If you have small things you absolutely need to keep in the room, find enclosed boxes or baskets that fit your booksheves for hidden storage.
Take away most of the items on the ? table behind the sofa and on top of the bookcases.
I might move the shorter bookcase someplace else. Maybe replace it with the bar. It isn't working in its' present location.
The ottoman and the coffee table are too much for your space.
If after drawing the room to scale, you decide to keep the sofa in the same place, lower the mirror and pictures.
ETA I read your last post about your lack of storage. Can you put the books under the bed? Or store them at someone else's place?
Here are some ideas you can potentially incorporate.
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/secrets-to-arranging-furniture-in-a-small-space3.htm
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/secrets-to-arranging-furniture-in-a-small-space2.htm
Lots of good ideas and tips on here!
No, the drawing isn't to scale at all. Just to show you an aerial view and make sense of what you are seeing.
My compact office is literally a 24 inch wide, 10 inch deep desk against a spare wall in this room, so we can't move them there.
There are too many woods!!
The books issue....I will google creative book ideas, but please know that storing them is not an option since we use them so often. (i appreciate the help but just want to make that clear.) I work in publication design and typesetting, and so does FI (publications and advertising). It's a problem of that we need them for functionality reasons, but don't have a cute solution for them yet. I tried covering them but then I couldn't find anything! It was a total nightmare. And mind you, what you see isn't even all of our books. I have the ones I know I won't need until like August or so stashed in my office supplies with my paints and pencils.
We don't have space under the bed because that has my winter clothes (we live in FL, but I work in DC). Again, the house of no closets lol.
ETA: just noticed FI brought more flowers home lol. :) thanks honey, now we have 5 vases of fresh flowers!!! I'm trying to clean here!!! Lol
Also, the ottoman doubles as the dog chair and bed, hence the darker color. :)
Omg....was arranging books....and Thought maybe FH could take some of his to his office??? Then he could use them at work instead of looking at them when he gets home, and half of them would be gone! (he has a private office but since he moved jobs last year a ton of these came home).
But! I also realized that like half of his signed editions are MIA....he must have them boxed up since those are more sentimental. But still. That means we have more books hiding somewhere? 
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I really can't find a floorplan that I like. This is as close as I've gotten, but it's just lacking. I also need a new rug.
I love this rug from YoungHouseLove (www.younghouselove.com):
To be honest, I love their style. I aways find stuff I love on their site and wish our house had more of that flow/feel. I like our dark wood coffee & end tables, but our media center doesn't match and I don't like it.
OKay, now here is our house:
You can see behind the chair is our floor to ceiling windows and patio doors. So then why is it so dark in our house??? UGH.
Ignore our messy bar.....I was cleaning the kitchen too. :)
And those bookcases....Gosh...they are such an eyesore. But I have no idea where to put all of our books. You can see they are just totally overflowing we have so many (see boxes on floor). And yes there are two lamps in the back left corner since I am not sure where to put the furniture, so I don't want to get rid of it yet. And behind the chair and ottoman on the left is that patio and window, which you can see is our sole source of natural light, and its a bit blocked.
We are open to putting wood vinyl on the floors or new rugs, new colors on the furnishings, rearranging the furniture, new curtains....basically small things we can do in a weekend.
I do NOT want to:
Please help bees!!!