Decide on furniture layout before tearing down walls

Inspiration can come from unexpected sources. And that's a good reason to buy a few magazines and books that feature high-end interior designs.

Although these settings may be well-beyond the reach of most budgets, they can still offer practical ideas for furniture placement, color schemes and arrangements of art and accessories. By studying examples of the best in design, it's possible to pick up pointers that can be applied even to rooms with flea-market-quality furnishings.

Q: We recently bought a vacation home made up of many small rooms. Our intention is to knock down some of the walls to create more airy and comfortable spaces.

A friend suggested we should convert two small rooms into a master bedroom and then separate that space from an adjoining bath/dressing room with a glass wall. Sounds interesting, but I don't think I'd want to look at even an opaque glass wall from my bed.

Does my friend's suggestion seem reasonable to you?

A: It's hard for me to judge without seeing the actual scene, or at least a drawing of it. But I do agree that sight lines are important. And I'd certainly prefer a pleasant view from my bed, which presumably could be repositioned if need be.

Is looking at the glass wall the only option in the setting you're planning? What about the windows? And how about artwork or a TV set?

These questions are meant to underline the importance of deciding on furniture layout before you start tearing down walls or building new ones. Even more fundamentally, I hope you realize that bigger rooms aren't necessarily synonymous with more comfortable living spaces.

The accompanying photo may spark some ideas for how to produce an interesting furniture layout in a spacious bedroom.

Maybe your renovated vacation home won't feature a thatched palapa ceiling. And perhaps you're not intending to divide the space into two levels. Even so, the partial partition isolating the bed from the bath/dressing room may be something for you to consider.

The partition could be made of drywall or it could house cabinetry on the dressing room side. Such a solution would avoid the problem of having to look at a glass wall. This way, the bed can face away entirely from the bath/dressing area.

The photo, by the way, comes from "Casa Mexicana Style," published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang. It includes some great interior photos by Tim Street-Porter and explanatory text by Annie Kelly.

Rita St. Clair is a syndicated columnist with Tribune Media Services Inc. E-mail general interior design questions to her at rsca@ritastclair.com.