Furniture Arrangements

When we moved into our home, the formal living room became the sort of dumping ground for all the misfit items we owned or didn't know what to do with.  For that reason, it looked slap dash and kind of jumbled.  Easily my least favorite room in the house.  Last night we decided we would try and re-arrange the furniture some to see what we could do with it.  As it is, we don't have a lot of furniture, but it felt small and discombobulated.  So how can we make it look bigger and flow into the dining room rather than being completely cut off?

This is the best picture I have of the "before" photo.  There's a large desk to the immediate left in this photo and it's being take from the dining room.  We had put the new pink chairs in the camp chair locations, but it still felt cramped.

And here are the "after" photos:

Generally, I like it.  I think it will take some more tweaking and centering of things, but I think it's a vast improvement over what it was.  I know a coat of paint and new curtains will help immensely, but as we are only two people and loads to do, it will happen when it happens.