I'd float the couch in front of the bay window, if it fits, then maybe put a sideboard table or chairs or something back there.

But more importantly, this home is BEAUTIFUL!

I would actually arrange the seating around the fireplace -- everyone gathers around the hearth, as Betty Draper's decorator would say! Seriously though, I think you could face the couch towards the fireplace and float it in the middle of the room, but far back enough to create a path through that doorway through the rest of the room. That's my suggestion. And then you could balance the rest of the furniture throughout the rest of the room to create symmetry. Also, yes, it's a beautiful home! Congratulations!

Agree with grapevine - I'm not sure you have any other options! You can flank the fireplace with single chairs or maybe do an armoire in the opposite corner of the fireplace to keep electronics hidden. What a gorgeous home! Congrats!

PS -- I think bay windows beg for round cafe tables, but I'm not sure the purpose the room will serve...

Yes to floating the couch. You guys know that set-up where a couch and two chairs are centred around a coffee table? Do that, but remove one of the chairs so you get to include the fireplace in the set up. I'd also put a little table side-table with two smallish armchairs in the bay-window area.

Or you can just leave the room completely empty and floor everyone with that hardwood… ;)

Just remember the fireplace does not have to be the focal point of the room. I would create a few different sitting arrangements.

I think I would put a sectional in, with the L coming out from the wall farthest from the entrance and wrapping back toward the arch into the room ( straight edge on the right, L shape coming out to left in topmost picture). Then I'd put the TV over by the fireplace and I'd put two small chairs with a side table between near the bay window as a little conversation area. Not sure if that would work with the measurements.

I live in DC too. The row houses are all so charming and I love it when people rehab and preserve all the old historic details, but you have to admit that some of the renovations that take all of the really small rooms and turn them into open layout downstairs can be super helpful for the design challenges things like your corner fireplace create.

Good luck. Place looks like it has a lot of potential!

I would also suggest two seating areas if space allows. Fireplace and window.

I agree with this - a sofa might cover up the windows in the bay.
I would even consider no sofa at all - do one seating area in the bay and one near the fireplace but with chairs only.
A chaise or daybed of some sorts might look nice in the bay too....

I'd commission a cozy bay window seat and then structure the "official" living room around the fireplace (floated sofa, chairs, central coffee table, and lots of lovely art). Beautiful space!

I concur with ome. In this era and style of home the fireplace was necessary but it was not necessarily the focal point. This room would have served as the parlor and therefore multiple sitting arrangements would be completely appropriate.
The couch should be placed in between the two windows and a round table or a writing desk should be placed in the bay window.

Hey DC neighbor! Our LR is approx the same size/layout (including fireplace/radiator placement), but sadly without your beautiful bay. Having tried several options in this size space with small-moderate scale furniture, most of the suggestions seem to overestimate the size of the room.

In ours we have sofa and coffee table on the long wall, two comfy chairs and side table in our truncated equivalent of your bay, and an old secretary in the corner adjacent to the fireplace. I'm hunting for a cool old desk chair for the secretary that is comfortable for additional seating. It's nothing revolutionary, but it works for us.

I'd love to see what ends up working for you!

You see a lot of these living rooms in D.C. I've seen two set ups that work. First is the sofa on the window wall with a rug, narrow coffee table and two chairs floating across from the sofaSometimes there is a little chair in the corner across from the fireplace for extra seating. I've also seen people cut the room into sitting areas, one in the bay window and a sofa or sectional facing the fireplace, usually with a sofa table behind it. Either way people do great things on the big wall to the right of the doorway. Supersized art, wall tvs, narrow crendzas etc.

Sorry your home is so beautiful I cannot focus on the question.

I have no idea. I just wanted to say that I'm drooling over your home and the possibilities. Congrats and good luck!

Having lived in a rowhouse in Albany NY,I know they are a bear to work with! Id put the sofa against the wall facing the door,2 chairs and a small table in the bay,and perhaps a small padded fireplace fender in front of the fireplace.Floating furniture in this kind of room never works,it invariably blocks flow,I know,I tried it a million ways!

In these older homes the point of the fireplace is to heat the room, not necessarily to be a decorative focal point - free yourself of the idea that everything must be focused around it and you'll see the options starting to pop up.

Ditto TKMac - sectional with the corner facing the fireplace. We have a corner fireplace in our house and do something similar.

I agree a sectional might be worth looking at. We have a corner fireplace in a much smaller living room, but one that was also hard to deal with as it only had two regular walls, then one wall of windows, then the corner fireplace wall. We never would have thought a sectional would work in that space, but it was the perfect solution for us.

If you put the sofa in fron of the bay window, you're creating a dead zone behind the sofa, wasting space, and destroying the whole point of having a bay window. I say put a couple of cushy reading chairs and a tea table in the bay window, then use the sofa to structure a separate social area by putting it perpendicular to the long wall, just past the window.

there are two focal points, at opposite ends of the room, with a traffic pattern diagonally through the middle, so two smaller seating areas may work. before purchasing the pieces, make newspaper templates and see how much floor area is used in each arrangement, as being out of scale will affect traffic flow & bulky pieces are not appropriate. the woodwork/trim s/b stripped & matched to the other rooms to provide visual flow w/other rooms & to highlight the fp.