Speaker Placement

Guys thanks for your responses and some very helpful tips. 
Tim to answer your questions. 
The wall behind the speakers is the 16ft wall. 
The carpeted area is where the speakers are placed. It extends beyound the speakers about 6ft towards the listening area. 
There is one sofa in the room (3 Seater) in the listening area and two rather large chairs with cushions in front of the sofa. The chairs are in between and forward of the speakers (not directly in front.
There is one window 1ft*8ft on the left close to the ceiling. More of a skylight. Does not open, just for light.  The seating position is about 12ft from the speakers. 
I would like to tune the room so that it has a more generous "sweet spot" as compared to one within a few inches of one single position. Audio is more of a communal experience with my children and friends usually joining me. I would like the children to experience what a decent system sounds like compared to the MP3 they usually listen to. 
Thanks

To widen the sweet spot try crossing the axis of your speakers several feet in front of your present listening chair. That should do it, but you are still talking about a fairly focused image that will be appreciated by several people sitting in front of the speakers. If you want something more than that you probably need something like 'omni' speakers which would do a much better job of filling a room (at considerable loss of specificity).

If you start with the premise that most speakers are too far apart (one supposes because somebody assumed that placing them far apart would provide a bigger, wider soundstage) then you’re on the right track. If you start out with the speakers much closer together - say 4 feet apart -then use the speaker placement track on the XLO Test CD which if memory serves is actually the out of phase track, moving the speakers very gradually apart and listening as you go you will undoubtedly discover the placement where the sound all comes together. When I had Fulton floor standing speakers that sweet spot turned out to be five feet apart.

Ok Srafi,
    Thanks for the answers,  here you go,  this will get you a soundstage...
Speakers..... 3ft off each side wall.... 4 ft off the back wall.  This should place them approx. 10ft apart.  Listening Chair.... 9 to 9.5ft centered in front of your speakers...  You will still need a throw rug On the floor in front of your sitting position and you will need something to dampen the wall behind your sitting position.  A curtain or rug hanging on the wall should work wonders. Measure the distance between your midbass phase caps, this should be the same distance as your markers on the back of the chairs. (explained next)  This should leave around 7 ft to the wall behind the speakers.... Sit in your chair,  Put objects on the back of the chair approximately 6 inches on each side of your head is as markers... so, you'll have 2 phones,  2 calculators, 2 butter knifes,  what it is doesn't matter.  These will mark where you point your speakers.  Tow your speakers in to point directly at these 2 points.  The tow will help tremendously on getting rid of interactions with hard side walls. .  If you have any mid or high frequency peaks, start moving your tow outwards, be aware, as you get close to speaker dispursement properties hitting your wall, this will effect frequencies and sound stage. 
Overall, this will put your very close to where you need to be and will pull a soundstage.  It will not compensate completely for all room problems,  but the rug and padded rear wall along with the carpet on the front of the room will help tremendously. 
10 ft away is a good distance.  After listening for awhile,  I would experiment with padding on the ceiling between your speakers and listening chair.  I hope this helps,  Tim