I had a situation somewhat similar to yours (lots of time to plan, a decent budget, and not an ideal room situation). In my case my family room and kitchen are one large room with average height ceilings. The family room section is about 14 x 18 with a wood stove at one end (in between the FR and kitchen), and a corner placement originally being mandated by my wife (little appreciation for HT considerations!).

You can find some pics here.

Here's what I ended up doing equipment-wise:
- Samsung HLN46W 46" & matching stand (it helped that my wife like the appearance)
- M22's front
- VP150 center
- 2 QS8's surround
- Outlaw LFM-1 sub
- Denon 2803

I started with a corner placement but was totally unhappy with it (surrounds were in front of the best seating position for the TV). Perhaps with your 6.1 setup that won't be a problem. So, I ended up switching everything around so that the TV was against one of the long walls and the couch was on the other long wall. I had to actually get it all in place before my wife was cool with it...she just had a hard time visualizing it. The surround placement still isn't perfect (they are mounted on the same wall that the couch is against) but the QS8's do such a great job that I find it works for me (thinking about a set of those QS stands which is why I haven't run the speaker wire in the wall just yet).

Some more thoughts:
- The corner placement just didn't do it for me at all. I couldn't get that surround feel with the surrounds being in front of me.
- The Denon 2803 is a great receiver; plenty of power and well built (would love to have had the 3803 or 3805 but didn't know about the refurbs at the time I picked it up; otherwise they were beyond my budget)
- I mistakenly left shelving for the components out of my budget; had to go back to the CFO (my wife) for more funds.
- The M22's sound great and are plenty loud enough in my space (FR+kitchen is about 34' long) in spite of the fact that I wish could have gone the M60 route. Perhaps I just don't know what I am missing but with a high quality sub (looks like you've got that covered) they blend really, really well. btw, my listening habits are about 70/30 in favor of music.