QUESTION: Our house is a split-level floor plan where the living room and dining room are running together with no separation. How can we make the dining room look like a totally separate room when there are no walls dividing the two? -- Bernice, Huntington
ANSWER: You need to rely on visual clues to separate the dining room from the living room. An appropriately-sized table placed on an area rug will begin to define the space. A pendant light or chandelier hanging over the table is another way. Paint one wall in the dining room an accent color and place a china cabinet or buffet on this wall. The painted wall will probably be the short one in the dining room that runs in a right angle to one of the living room walls or the end wall in the space. These tips should help define the space and give you the separate feeling dining area that you want.
QUESTION: My house had a back patio that was closed in to make a family room. The brick that used to be on the outside is now one of the long walls in the room, and I really like the exposed-brick look. What used to be a bedroom window (the bedroom is actually still on the opposite side of this window) is still there. What can I do to make this window not look like a leftover, but that it actually belongs in the family room? -- Tammy, Huntington
ANSWER: Here are a couple of options. Number one would be to put a blind, shutter or a shade on the window and dress it with draperies like any other window in your family room. Believe it or not, most people would not even know or question that a bedroom is actually on the other side of it.
Option number two is a little more involved, but not a difficult job to have done. Have the window completely removed which will mean some drywall replacement in the bedroom. On the family room side have the window framed in with wood, and add shelves to the inside. You can use these shelves for books or to display objects. You can also have glass doors made for them to cut down on the dust that accumulates on open shelving.
Karen Hysell is the owner The Finished Room in South Point, Ohio. Her columns will appear each Thursday in The Herald-Dispatch. E-mail her your decorating questions at decoratinggal1@aol.com.
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