I'd really like to see a measured diagram of this room. I'm not sure that partial wall would work, good as the idea is, since you'd come in to a narrow space at right angles, not straight through as in Peter's room. What you really need is a focal point in the living area, which means playing with floor plans. Download the one from this website & go for it. Good luck..  

I would keep it open and simple. Place a large (I mean really large Plant/Tree just where the carpet starts near the window. That will visually  seperate the two areas.

Also you may want to play with furniture placement and instead of the short wall of the staircase make the window the focal point. So that means moving the couch to face the window.  Hope that helped a little. Have fun and a fab day.

Hey, that's my room! Thanks, HGTV, for featuring my question. Your website is great-informative and fun! Just to add to my question, in case anyone's reading it...if I were to put hardwood flooring in with area rugs to define the living room and dining room areas, would it look to chopped up and make it appear smaller? If anyone has any thoughts on this, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks and have a great day.

Here is what I would consider doing...

I love the hardwood idea, especially if it is dark hardwood, it would probably blend in more with the slate flooring and would help make that foyer flooring seem to intrude less into the living room.

I would buy two arm chairs and place them side by side with a small table between them under the window. Then opposite to the chairs I would put the sofa to separate the dining and living areas. If you have space you could even put a sofa table behind it for extra display, or storage. A nice rug in the living room area would look great.

I'm always for hardwood in the home, and no, i don't think it'll look chopped up if you choose the right colour - which will be a feat, no doubt, and I agree that darker would probably be better.  Having said that, I would not install any hardwood - regardless of the clolour - without painting out the stairs.  That honey (oak, I assume?) wood is quite prominent in the room and if it stays, it will look too busy.   So I would rip the carpet off the stairs, paint them white, and then perhaps invest in a nice runner that works with your dining room  chairs/furniture.  Something that's perhaps mushroom gray with a dark border - something contemporary.  Good luck!

Hi

Great question, very helpful photos.  I'm sure this will be helpful to many with similar open concept floor plans.  I like option 3 best.  Flow is very important.  I think any built in feature near the door may create a claustrophobic or cramped feeling and will impede the flow of traffic (imagine a family of visitors arriving at once).  I agree with the 2 loveseats suggestion, if the current sofa is too bulky to fit against the window wall.  While the current arrangement doesn't crowd the sofa, the pics make it feel a bit like a waiting room.  If loveseats are an option, I'd definitely look at condo sized pieces, which offer smaller proportions.  You could set a glass topped coffee table between to create a more spacious feeling. Perhaps an attractively framed mirror could go on the feature wall to bounce light around and visually widen the space, too.

If you replace the carpet with flooring, I would pick up one of the dominant tones in the slate, if possible.  It looks like there are some brownish tones in there.  Good luck!

The sofa that is there is temporary. It's an old sofa bed and I happened to find a slipcover in the right colour in Homesense, so we put it in the living room for now. Thanks for all of your wonderful suggestions.

Love your slate flooring! I have a question for you? Where did you get that little half bench that's sitting in your foyer? It's so cute. I also really like your choice of colors throughout. Can I suggest maybe putting a plant or umbrella stand (under the light switch) between the foyer & the living room. That might break up the rooms just enough, but not overcrowd the area.

Thanks, Monica, for the comments/compliments. When we moved in, having chosen our flooring, etc. through our builder, they had only put the slate directly in front of the door and when people came in, they stepped off the slate to close the door, and directly onto the carpet-not great in the winter months! We extended it by 3' into the living room, which works very well, but is an issue now that we are trying to decorate the living room. The little bench, as with most of my decorations, came from Homesense. I try and stop in there as many times as I can as they have different merchandise arriving daily, (now I sound like a commercial). I love your idea of putting something simple and not structural in the space as a divider.

A darker hardwood flooring that pulls some of the darker slate colours out would even out the look, I think.  I think someone else mentioned a tall plant in the front corner of the living room close to the foyer and I was thinking of a chair angled towards the living room on this side of the plant.  Another suggestion is perhaps a slim sofa table that isn't too overpowering that can act as a half wall between the two spaces.  An interesting vase with or without flowers to top it off?  

Pretty nice