The Room Of Many Purposes

I'm continuing with our home tour. We've already shared our girl's room, you can see it here. This time I'll share our living room... which is also our dining room, library, school, and computer area. It's a pretty large space (considering our house is modestly sized) that is completely open, which makes it a challenge to fill and still look like it has a nice cohesive flow.
I still have so much I would like to do to the area (like actually hang something on the walls!). So these can be the "before" or "during" photos and I'll continue to share as we add to the space. And since this space is still unfinished I thought I would briefly share the plans for each little area... though I'm sure those plans will change as I get going, that's how I work!
Here is the view of the room when you walk in the front door (the couch is not as close as this picture may seem, there's a good 10 feet before you actually get to the couch).
I've been hunting for fabric to reupholster the plaid chair below and fabric to use on some throw pillows for the couch.

I do love our dining table. We got it off Craigslist for $300 which is a great deal considering it came with the table (which has a leaf you can add to make it a big square), 6 black chairs, bench, and the buffet on the other side of the room. I love Craigslist! I got the 2 white chairs from Ikea just to break up all the black at the dining area.

All of the walls are pretty bare, mainly due to my indecisive nature, but that's changing soon! 

The wall surrounding the buffet will soon be filled with a collage of picture frames, mirrors, and whatever else I can find to add to it to fill the wall.

My husband and I stumbled across this buffet sitting on a street corner with a "Free" sign on it. It's come a long way. Originally it was forest green and gold speckled paint... I'll put a picture in another post so you can see what I'm talking about. I've been thinking of painting it yellow (you can see a spot below where I tested a color, but I still haven't found just the right shade).

Below is the living room and the library/computer/school area. I would like to sell the white bookcase and fill the other wall completely with bookshelves so all the books my husband has can go on shelves and have room to breath. Plus, we have some serious organizing to do in preparation for homeschooling next year.

The 2 chairs below will be getting a coat of paint in the near future. I'd also like to put a braided jute rug in this area; like this one, but way cheaper!

The is the wall opposite of the wall with the white bookcase. It is equally as blah as the other walls... I have no idea what is going here yet...

The 2 pictures below are both very dear to me. The one in the back is a picture of my daughters, Gracie and Ruby, taken by my friend Kristin. The other is a painting done by another dear friend, Jen Dees, who gave this to us one year for Christmas. It's quite nice having such talented friends!

That pretty much sums up our "in progress" living area. I'm looking forward to getting some stuff on the walls. I'm now going to go hunt for the original picture of the cream buffet. I'll post that soon.