Ask Jo!

Ask Jo! is a column written by Jo White, Interior Decorator, DIYer, Personal Chef, Exterior Designer & Garden Planner, and avid birder.  You may send your questions to blairsvillager@gmail.com, or ask them on facebook.  All questions will be answered, and some will be chosen at random to appear on either/or Blairsvillager.com and Facebook.  Although each question will be answered with a professional solution, a lot of light humor will be injected just for fun!


On Saturday, January 19th

A Reader asked:
We've built a large new living space onto our lake house, with open views on two sides, and we still have a house for sale with some furniture left in it.  My husband doesn't want me to spend a lot of money decorating the new space. Right now I have furniture in the original living room, and a few pieces in the new room. I'm not sure which direction to go, what to keep, what to get rid of, and what to buy.  Can you help?

JO WHITE:
This is a common dilemma with homeowners in transition between two homes.  You want a new look, but you'd also like to incorporate some of the furnishings you already have and just aren't sure how to go about it.  You came to the right place!

(I met with the homeowner in the lake house to assess the situation before writing the next part.  I talked with her about their lifestyle, about the pieces of furniture still in the other home, and took visual inventory of the pieces already being used in the lake house.)

Right now, you have your seating spread out between the old living room, a walk-through breakfast room, and the new large great room.  You want to add a large flat-screen TV in the new great room.  Your lifestyle doesn't require two separate living rooms, you love to cook and the only place you have to serve a meal is at the small oval breakfast table, so here's my suggestion:

1) Remove the sofa from the original living room and move it into the new great room in a corner pattern with the sofa already there.  No, they don't match, but that can be a great look once you tie it all together.  Place a rug over the carpet in that area, topped with the beautiful large trunk you already have as your coffee table, to designate your new cozy seating corner.  You've told me you love the look of a large round skirted table, and the corner between the two sofas is the perfect place for it, topped with one of the beautiful lamps you already have.


2) Use one of the two beautiful dressers you still have in the other house, place it diagonally in the corner opposite the two sofas, as a TV stand for the new big screen TV, removing drawers and drilling through the back for cords, to house electonics in an attractive way.  This will provide you with a one-of-a-kind attractive TV stand (eliminating a run-of-the-mill particle board stand), utilize what you already have, and give you some extra storage.

3) Move the breakfast table to the open area in front of the new TV and stunning lake views, to be used for small meals just for the two of you, and as a game table.

Now you have cleared two areas and you have an empty original living room, and an empty walk-through breakfast room area.

4) Build a kitchen island where the breakfast table stood, to expand your kitchen work space (this homeowner loves to cook).

5) Bring your large dining table set from the other house, and place it in what was the original living room of the lake house.  You didn't have a place for it before, but now that you've opened up the original living room, and have greater workspace in your kitchen, you can have a formal dining room where you and your husband can throw candlelight dinner parties.

Your total investment in this new plan?  The cost of building a small kitchen island -- and since your husband is a builder, he'll be happy to know, in this new floor plan, it's the only money I'm suggesting you spend.