I've been having an internal debate whether to move to a condo downtown or stay put. When I moved here I had no job and wanted to keep costs down. That's no longer an issue but i'm comfortable enough here and it's a quiet area right beside the subway, and i'd rather just save the extra money, so i figure i'll be here for the next 2-3 years. That said, I need to do something about the furniture situation and layout. I've basically been living out of boxes for some things. I need to get my projector mounted, buy some new speaker cable, and get stereo equipment organized because it's a mess. Today I moved some furniture around for the sake of seeing how it would look. First set of pics is how it currently is. Due to seating distance, if I mounted my projector, it would have to be above my head either mounted from ceiling or on a 20" deep shelf. I can't move it forward in front of the fan because then the projected image would be too small for the viewing distance. To avoid having the fan block the image, it would have to be mounted fairly low. I'm not terribly fond of that solution because I don't want it 3-4 feet above my head. And even with the image taking up the majority of the front wall, it doesn't feel big enough because i'm so far back. Other downside is that rear speakers are too close to me and aren't at right angle behind me, so sound is more like it's coming from side than behind. The positive is that there's lots of space to get into the kitchen. The room itself looks fairly unbalanced though and all the space at the front is wasted. I am a fan of open space but here it just looks weird. 
In the second set of pics I've pushed everything forward. There's now a fair amount of space behind the couch. I was thinking I could put an AV rack in the corner and maybe a bar or credenza or low bookshelf between the speakers, with a shelf mounted a little above the height of the speakers for the projector and some books. I don't want to put monolithic bookshelves there because I fear they'll mess with the audio. There would be about 3ft between the credenza/bar/bookshelves and the back of the couch. This would keep the majority of the cables out of site. The speaker cable could for the most part run under the radiator cover and I could use a raceway along the front wall to run out to the front speakers. The biggest downside is that getting through to the kitchen is now a little more difficult, but it's not so bad that you have to turn sideways to get through or anything (forgot to take picture but there's about 2ft. And I can remove the door stopper so that the door can be flush against the wall. 
It's not a perfect space but I'd like to make it more livable for the next 2-3 years without spending too much since there's a strong chance anything I buy will be a complete write-off, because in 2-3 years, i'll either buy a place here because i'm staying, or i'll be getting rid of everything because i'm leaving the country. Either way, there's a strong chance that i completely ditch most of my furniture because my tastes have changed substantially and i'd want to buy stuff that fits the space a lot more than my current furniture does this place. In Montreal I had 400 more square feet than I do here and everything definitely fit better there. I'm leaning fairly strongly towards the second layout. It keeps the projector/ps3 away from my ears and the cabling mess can be removed to the rear of the room and kept out of sight. I'd get more immersion from my screen. I'd get some bookshelves (right now all my books are in what's supposed to be a linen closet) or a bar and the projector would be shelf-mounted instead of ceiling mounted, which I think would look better. Thoughts?
In the second set of pics I've pushed everything forward. There's now a fair amount of space behind the couch. I was thinking I could put an AV rack in the corner and maybe a bar or credenza or low bookshelf between the speakers, with a shelf mounted a little above the height of the speakers for the projector and some books. I don't want to put monolithic bookshelves there because I fear they'll mess with the audio. There would be about 3ft between the credenza/bar/bookshelves and the back of the couch. This would keep the majority of the cables out of site. The speaker cable could for the most part run under the radiator cover and I could use a raceway along the front wall to run out to the front speakers. The biggest downside is that getting through to the kitchen is now a little more difficult, but it's not so bad that you have to turn sideways to get through or anything (forgot to take picture but there's about 2ft. And I can remove the door stopper so that the door can be flush against the wall. It's not a perfect space but I'd like to make it more livable for the next 2-3 years without spending too much since there's a strong chance anything I buy will be a complete write-off, because in 2-3 years, i'll either buy a place here because i'm staying, or i'll be getting rid of everything because i'm leaving the country. Either way, there's a strong chance that i completely ditch most of my furniture because my tastes have changed substantially and i'd want to buy stuff that fits the space a lot more than my current furniture does this place. In Montreal I had 400 more square feet than I do here and everything definitely fit better there. I'm leaning fairly strongly towards the second layout. It keeps the projector/ps3 away from my ears and the cabling mess can be removed to the rear of the room and kept out of sight. I'd get more immersion from my screen. I'd get some bookshelves (right now all my books are in what's supposed to be a linen closet) or a bar and the projector would be shelf-mounted instead of ceiling mounted, which I think would look better. Thoughts?
