Passe Pass-Through Morphs into Display Shelves

Q: I need to close up the pass-through between my kitchen and the living/dining room. I want to put a large sectional sofa against that wall and move the dining table to the other side of the room. The pass-through will look weird with the table gone. How can I close it up so it doesn't show? — Jeanne

A: It should be easy enough to put drywall over the opening on both sides. But you could be missing an opportunity.

There are several inches of space you could put to storage or display, instead of simply hiding it back in the wall. Clever designer/photo stylist Donna Talley faced an opportunity like yours when she was renovating her own kitchen. She turned it into a display niche by having her contractor Sheetrock over the hole on the kitchen side (to accommodate a new stove). Then he framed the other side in decorative hardwood mouldings and added adjustable shelves, so she can show off her collection of ceramics and glassware.

We borrowed the idea — and photo — from a book that contains such "Money-Wise Makeovers," as author Jean Nayar calls them in her book by the same name (new from Filipacchi Publishers).

Q: I love the "funky look," as my friends call it. I've always called it "shabby chic," but now somebody tells me there's a company by that name. I think I've found my decorating nirvana!

A: California designer/entrepreneur Rachel Ashwell gets credit for taking "shabby chic" from ordinary lowercase adjectives to "Shabby Chic." In the process, she has launched a network of stores that are filled with furnishings best described by other lowercase adjectives, such as "faded," "worn," "crushed" and "nostalgic."

The "shabby chic" movement may actually have started nearly 20 years ago with marketing master Mitchell Gold. It was Gold — who now partners with Bob Williams in a hugely successful furniture design and manufacturing company — who first popularized the loose, easy, slipcover look that just begged to be called "shabby chic."

Others called it the "cottage" look and added old, soft floral fabrics and timeworn and crushed velvets and lace — things with what Ashwell refers to as "Grandmother's house sense of beauty and belonging."

By any name, the shabby chic look certainly raised its coy little head at the High Point Market last month. At EJ Victor — the company that also makes Ralph Lauren's famously trim, tight, smart collections — the front showroom was deep in curves, tassels and pattern matches so mismatched that you just had to relax and have fun.

With Frida Kahlo as the inspiration (for the Kammlah-Thayer Collection for Carol Hicks Bolton), the look was also silky and sexy and expensive (just under $14,000 for the curved, tufted, 110-inch-long "Lucia" sofa with its six dazzlingly different pillows).

Even staid, high-end Baker Furniture gave in to the colorful new vibe. Designer Laura Kirar's collection also nodded down Mexico way with colorful painted pieces inspired, we were told, by her own hacienda south of the border.

Perhaps, the merriment shone brightest at Bella Decor, where Miami designers Nicolas Trujillo and Teresa Costa channeled Dr. Seuss in table and floor lamps conjured from steel, pearls, crystals, sequins, hand-blown glass and silk see-through shades, sometimes two at a time. Click on www.belladecor.com and be surprised.

Rose Bennett Gilbert is the co-author of "Manhattan Style" and six other books on interior design.