Making living/dining room better for toddler?

[anyonether]

My baby is now 15 months, walking confidently and feeling like a proper toddler. I'm not sure how to set our living and dining rooms up so they work for him as well as for us as he continues to grow.

He currently has an area in each room (they adjoin) and I'm not sure whether this is better or whether to just focus on one. In the living room we use the bookshelf a lot and the slide comes out often. In the kitchen/dining room we never shut him in the playpen but he enjoys opening and shutting the door so I'm not sure about getting rid of it entirely. It does a fair job of keeping the toys contained. We would like to get a better wooden play kitchen eventually.

The grey sofa in living room could go where the playpen is to create one more focused area for him in the living room with table and chairs and all toys and we could get rid of the playpen?

Would value all thoughts!

I've dismantled the playpen and moved some things around so most of his things are in the bay window of the living room. I'm now wondering about the toy storage that remains in the dining room. Good progress though I think!

Looks good. Do you get the slide out to use? My almost 2 year old would try to use it where it is or move it. So I'm not sure it would work for us to have a slide in the corner. Maybe your toddler won't become like mine

How stable is the shelving unit? Could be pull it on himself as he gets stronger. I've been looking at cube storage solutions so that I can rotate toys and teach my little one to tidy up in to boxes

Until now it's been blocked enough by the sofa that he can't easily get to it but I can see it being a risk now. He loves it though

The gold shelving really isn't ideal - it's a legacy from pre baby life. It is secured to the wall but may have to go. We have some ikea drawer storage and also aim to rotate toys using that. Do you have quite separate toddler/child toy areas or have the stuff throughout?

We have one end of our living room for toys but that is partially due to space. Our needs a bit of work but I would like to make some safe play space outside