Have you tried laying out your furniture yet?

no, we have not laid out furniture yet.. i just figured id want a couch at least 10 feet from the tv over the fireplace and if the couch is 3 feet deep that puts me right into that 16 or 17 foot area with only 3 feet from island to back of couch...
maybe i can figure the couch closer??

I recently started using Homestyler to lay out all my rooms with furniture. It really helps. It's pretty easy and intuitive... i just couldn't spend the time required to master sketchup. This one is free and easy :)

Here is a link that might be useful: HomeStyler

Your great room layout is almost identical to mine. My room is 17'2" from the edge of the kitchen to the hearth. I think that is enough room, although you could certainly go a couple feet deeper if you like. My island will also be 4 feet from the edge of the kitchen the other way, so I think you could put furniture *almost* to the back of the edge of the kitchen and still have a 3-4 foot walkway easily.

I am figuring the back of my couch at about 13 feet away from the hearth, so the front edge of a 3 foot deep couch would be 10 feet away from the hearth- just like you are planning. The main walkway in between rooms is along the sides IMO, not in between the island and the couch.

I should add, we are putting the tv in the builtins next to the fp, not over the fp.

This post was edited by illinigirl on Wed, Mar 26, 14 at 8:26

You need to add at least 20" between island and fireplace in order to have better flow.

How high will the tv be? And how do you sit to watch tv? 10 ft may be too close for a tv that is above the fireplace.

You need 60'' between seating areas for a major passageway. The room is too wide, and not deep enough. Especially if you plan to do the poor ergonomic neck straining TV above the fireplace.

thanks for all the input.. i think were going to add around 2 ft to the room. we plan on putting around a 60-65" tv over the fireplace..bottom of the tv will be around 4.5-5 ft from floor..
its going to add around 50 sq ft overall which will add some expense obviously, but we don't want to look back and say this room is too small..it's worth the extra money, i think..

Having the tv over the fireplace complicates this. My neck hurts just thinking about it. Adding 2' might not be enough room with that severe angle. Why not put the tv in the built-ins? The proper viewing angle might save you some square footage.

i really don't think the tv over the fireplace will be bad at all.the couches will start 10 ft away from the tv.. our current tv is about 2 feet off the ground so adding another 2.5-3ft higher will not be an issue at all. thanks for all the input everyone.

As far as the TV - you can always angle the tv down if it is over the fireplace. There are websites that will help you calculate what angle you should tilt it at in order for it to be at comfortable to watch from 10 ft away. I agree - it shouldn't be a problem.

Your chiropractor will love you. The proper height for a TV is the center of it at about 48"-54" above the floor at a 10' distance. Any further up and the seating needs to move back 2' for each 6" to avoid neck strain.