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Are you tackling a tricky room layout? Struggling to find the perfect color palette? Wondering how to blend your style with your space? Our in-house interior design expert, Jaclyn Bohn, is here to help!
Through renovating, furnishing, and decorating two of her own houses, Jaclyn has been able to utilize what she’s learned from her experiences to help others not only settle into their homes, but love spending time in them as well.
Submit your design questions here, and let us guide you toward your dream space.
Design Solutions for Bathroom Tile, Connecting Rooms, and More
Our in-house design expert Jaclyn Bohn answers readers’ top design questions to help them transform their spaces.
We have added on to our house, and in part of the new construction, we have a small upstairs bathroom. It is tucked under the eaves, so although there is a full size bathtub, which is part of a tub shower combination, the standing space for the shower is limited at one end by the slope of the roof. My husband has built the entire addition himself and is planning to install whatever product we choose to use on the walls of the shower. He is good at installing tile and I love the look of tile, but really don’t want to have to deal with cleaning grout. Can you recommend a type of product that will look good but be low maintenance? Whatever product we use will also be installed on the sloped part of the wall. Thank you. – Terri, Farmham, VA
Hi Terri, I feel your pain with the grout. My bathroom in our old house had white floor and shower tile, with white grout, and it was a huge pain to keep clean. I would go with large format tiles which will give you a very clean, consistent look and will minimize the amount of grout you need to use and match the grout to the tile color. Steer away from white grout or anything too light. I like to go with a darker grout but even with that, there’s always a chance that the water can discolor it in the places it hits the most but it won’t feel as obvious as when a white grout needs to be cleaned. If you really want to do a smaller format tile, I would go with oversized vertical subway tiles in a darker color.
I’m purchasing a house built 25 years ago. It has an ugly partial wall (a 3/4th wall) between the kitchen, family room, and living room. I need ideas to modernize it. I like some separation between each space since I’m not a big fan of open concept. I do like a more modern, contemporary look – Marcia, Coeur d’Alene, ID
Martia: thank you so much for your question. I can envision this set up exactly as I’ve seen so many houses around me built in the 1990s with the 3/4 dividing wall, and it definitely feels dated. If you’re open to taking the wall down, I suggest framing out the opening between the two rooms where the 3/4 wall sits. You can frame it out with the same trim used on the rest of the doorways throughout the house, or you could do exposed beams which would give it a modern farmhouse feel. This will “divide” the rooms without it being open concept. See this example. You’ll be able to tell where one room stops and one room begins without a partial wall in between.
I have a home with very good “bones” but it is about 20 years old and needs updating. It needs a kitchen update, flooring, changing out baseboards, and some design with new furniture. I cannot afford to do it all at once. Any advice on how to do this in pieces, so it does not look pieced together? Would it be helpful to hire an interior designer or general contractor? – Jessica, Manchester, NH
Hi Jessica! I’ve gone through this exact dilemma with both of my homes now. I like to approach home design and renovation as a long game and long-term investment. Not everything has to be done overnight, and the specifics can change along the way. But you should have an overall vision for how you want things to look at the end of the road. I suggest finding an interior designer or decorator who can help you create an overall cohesive design for how you want your home to look in a few years. You would need to communicate ahead of time with them that you are not looking to do or purchase everything at once. At the same time, you can also meet with a contractor and discuss every project you have on your list and ask their recommendations on the best order to go in. From my own experience, in my first house, we replaced carpet with wood floors in our den and painted the walls, but a year later redid our kitchen and took down the wall between the two rooms, causing us to have to refinish parts of the floor and repaint again. Then, a year after that we added glass doors to another one of the den walls, requiring it to be painted for the 3rd time. Looking back, I wish we had an overall 5-year plan and had taken the time to speak with a professional about the order the projects should go in, so we weren’t paying for repeat work.
I own a condo so it’s an open space to kitchen, dining room and living room. I want to paint the walls, but I really don’t know what color? My couch is gray, dining set is green. Could you please help? – Susan, Schenectady, NY
Hi Susan! Assuming you want to stray from white walls, I would lean into a paint color that goes with the cool grey tones of the couch as well as the earthy, warm tone of your dining set. You could try a Greige or taupe like the following Sherwin Williams colors: Agreeable Gray, Egret White, Versatile Grey. Or try the following Benjamin Moore colors: Edgecomb Gray, Ballet White, Classic Gray, London Fog or Smokey Taupe. If you’re open to white, I would go for a warm white like Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee. Don’t forget to sample your paints on each wall first and look at them throughout the day in different light before making your final decision!
