Thanks Chookchook, but in fact the house is terribly designed and there isn't much choice. We have a single living area that is approximately 6 metres x 4.5 metres. The north wall (long side) has a bank of French doors placed centrally, with clear wall space of 1 m on the east and west ends. The east wall (short side) is a full wall of built in bookcases over cabinets, built around a doorway into our entry hall. The south wall is approx 3.1m long, and clear, currently holding artwork. The rest of it is a triple width doorway into the dining room. The west wall is the fireplace with wood heater insert. Mantle is 2.5m long and 1.1m high. There is about 1m clear either side of the mantle that currently holds wall sconce type lighting. The television, a rescued 50 cm old school CRT-style beast, with accompanying ugly digital set box top and DVD played sit in a pine corner wall cabinet in the north west corner. We have a horrid, old, modular lounge suite in the south east corner. It covers all the cabinets below the bookcase between the south wall corner and the doorway into the entry hall. As farmers only just starting to financially recover after 12 years of drought, and our kids finally finishing school and heading off into the real world, I'm just starting to find enough cash to paint rooms. Re-finishing the timber floors is next on my list. But in the mean time, the boys think they deserve a flat screen, and in reality, they do. But how?

It is always challenging when you have three different focal points in the same room - in your case it is the fireplace, the deck/view and the TV. I would redesign the cabinetwork either side of the fireplace to be more integrated with the fireplace, and put the TV at 45 degrees (possibly with a wall bracket) into the corner between the fireplace and the window adjacent to the french doors. You need to have the top of the TV below the sill of the little window adjacent to the fireplace. By using the mantle piece as a continuous element will make this piece of cabinetwork seem neater, and not make the TV such a strong feature. I would re-orientate the couches so there is one with its back to the current TV position, facing towards the view, and one opposite the fireplace with the back facing the dining room. Also consider the access points to the room, and if the french doors would be better placed closer to the desk, so that traffic is not going through the middle of the room, so that you can have a longer couch opposite the fireplace. By re-orientating the room like this means that the focal points - the view, the TV and the fireplace are in the same direction, and not opposite and competing against each other. Your designer has gone to the trouble of "furnishing" the room to check the arrangement and flow, so I am surprised that they didn't pick this up. Best of luck, Dr Retro of Dr Retro House Calls

I think Julies artwork/suggestions are great and you've done well with some changes. I suggest taking a lot of furniture out of the room, and only bring in selected pieces. You have too many now, running around the walls. Learn to 'rest' things or move them on. Hang the TV then discard the TV stand, then use that occasional table to hide cabling. Go to garage sales and look for a nice light fitting. Dont keep furniture because someone you love owned it. They only went down the shop and bought it themselves.

Difficult block to get a good design onto. Privacy being a corner block, driveway entry point, etc. Even solar passive would be pretty average here (costs to achieve to retain privacy, etc) but you would get northern light. Garage location is the issue but this was touched on previously. I would remove the stacker door facing west and replace with window. Probably have both the windows at say 1500 mm high x 2170 mm wide?? I'd be looking into these sizes further but just a starting suggestion. I would remove the door facing north (near garage) and replace with a window at say 1500 mm high x 1570 mm wide. If you can't do that use a glazed door instead of a solid. East facing veranda is good. South lounge is good for TV - would need to close curtains to watch TV if it was to the north. The changes shouldn't cost much ($2k for amending plans, submitting to certifier, etc is at the upper end but minor in comparison to construction costs, you may save money/cost neutral as you're swapping door for window, etc.) Surprised you got away without double glazing the west facing windows.