You should have minimum 5 ft but 6 ft is ideal. I've played pool where tables are 4 ft from the wall and it is too close. The standard pool cue length is 57" and the draw length is about 6" so 5 to 6 ft would be ideal.

I see a window there... good! Is it facing north or which direction is it? Are the doors & trim throughout the house all dark brown? Light doors & trim would help alot. Lighter happy paint colors, such as butter yellow or limon walls would bring a sunny warm fresh feel to the room. Try some punchy colored feature walls as shown in Manon's above photo (thanks Manon). Get new furniture & some fun colored art & accessories, everything's looking very dated. Better lighting & a tall floor lamp that spreads light across the ceiling or corner. Lighter drapes (with grommets) down to the floor would help OR Roman shades or 2" faux wood blinds covering just the window would modernize the space and give you more wall space. New flooring in updated colors such as white-washed gray driftwood. Designate areas or stations in the room for different activities, such as floor games in one corner with colorful interlocking foam floor mats, comfie seating (bean-bag chairs) for movies in another area, table & chairs for table activities (coloring/puzzles/games/crafts), etc. Are your children boys or girls? That'll make a difference in what you choose and how you put it all together.

Mona you have seen exactly the dilemmas I'm facing with this room so I really appreciate your comments. I was focusing on no1, but really 2 and 3 are on my mind too. In terms of getting some continuity between the rooms I was planning on recovering the dining chairs in a fabric to tone with cushions/throws on the white couch, ottomans in a matching tone, and pulling this colour scheme through into cushions in the formal lounge. I love the spring colours at the moment (greens, blues etc) which you can see i'm playing with at the moment but you might be able to see the painting in the formal room which is orange, red and yellow with a blue/purple base. So I'm very keen on colour and so tired of the brown carpet and neutral walls. I was also going to restain the dining table and chairs to a dark mahogany colour, and change the bar stools to something more modern. re: rug closer to sofa, I've done this and it looks off-balance with nothing else in the space. It seems to work better in the middle of the carpet area at the moment. Perhaps thats because I haven't ordered the ottomans yet. I don't want to add a coffee table to this room as prefer Ottoman to put feet up on. I've attached a pic of a rug, do you think something like this would work better? re the wall: yes this is the major for me at the moment. It is a TV room so tv and speakers stay and I wont be adding any custom cabinetry. The idea was to increase the space in this room by removing all of the cabinets and they are now in the adjoining room. The speaker covers have not been painted as I needed to work out what wall covering to apply, and colour etc. so once they are painted the wall colour they will blend in better. The idea of shelving has merit, I'll have to have a think more about that... Any other thoughts you have are appreciated.

Despite previous opinions I have to say this - DON'T GET DOWN LIGHTS!!!! We had them in our previous home. They were constantly blowing no matter what kind of bulb used. The casings kept breaking. This meant we couldn't just change the bulb ourselves. It drove me mental. They spotlight certain parts of a room instead of lighting the whole room so when one of our main "culprits" kept blowing in the kitchen, I had no lighting above that bench until we could get an electrician in. More than one electrician told us they are a serious fire hazard. I will never have them again!