Combining Living Room And Family Room

Combining Living Room And Family Room

We would like to knock down the wall between the formal living room and our family room (back of the house) to combine the two rooms to have one large room. We do know that it is a load bearing wall so we are not sure how much of it can be removed (we understand it may not be a full cut out/flush with the wall on the right side of the house). My dilemma is where to place furniture when this wall is removed. Because of the window and the fireplace in the back room, it may be hard to keep that as the tv viewing portion of the room (even though that would be ideal because it allows for more privacy in the back of the house and we can see the tv from the kitchen, which helps when we are hosting).

My original thought was to maybe build built in corner shelf in the front room as labeled or in the fireplace room as labeled (although not sure about how seating would work here). But that would need to fit a 50" tv and I am not sure that would work. We are really open to any type of furniture, but we do love big sectionals (would love one in that front room) and I want some accent chairs.

We can't put the tv over the fireplace, because our ceilings are low and there is a brick shelf that cannot be moved down (ignore ugly ceilings).

I am having a hard time envisioning these two rooms next to each other each functioning as a living room, but as one. Any suggestions for furniture/tv placement once the wall is down would be appreciated!

Combining Living Room And Family Room

Source: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/866859/living-room-family-room-into-one-room-how-to-arrange-furniture