As we talk Love Local, what’s more local than where you live? At home, we want to create spaces we love, so we asked Jenny Ochotnicky owner of JPO Interiors, a boutique design and build firm in Chamblee, for some ideas.
Jenny says your home is your sacred space where you spend a lot of time and where you want to be the happiest. “I love to help clients solve a problem,” Jenny says. “They really want a space they’re happy with and to make it more usable and functional.”
Whether building a new place to suit your needs or updating an existing space in a house you love, we discussed five elements to think about when creating a space you love.
Color
Color is a great way to update a space without breaking the bank. Jenny says she likes to discover colors her client loves, patterns they love, and why they love them, to create a palette that will make them happy. She talks with the client and takes cues from colors used in other areas of the home. Once dominant colors are identified, she can work around them using varying shades, complementary colors, and textures to create variety and interest. Jenny says adding neutral colors such as white and cream creates a warm and inviting feel to the space. And don’t be afraid to add color where color is unexpected, such as to trim work or the ceiling.
Function and organization
To understand the function and organization of a space, Jenny stresses that it’s important to understand the current use of the space, the purpose of the space, and what you want to get out of the space. For example, some people tend to put their furniture against the wall creating a large open space in the middle of the room. “Sometimes that’s necessary, but sometimes it’s not,” Jenny says. “Pulling the furniture off the walls and creating cozier seating areas can really change the function of the room. If the room is not functioning well, then it’s likely it’s not laid out correctly or the furniture isn’t laid out correctly.”
Organization creates a calm and inviting space. It can be useful to bring in an expert organizer. Jenny says for a loft in Chamblee, Annie McGinn of Simply Sorted by Annie, was called in to help clients sort through things they had accumulated over time. “She helped them go through and purge, donate, and get rid of things they no longer need,” she said.
Hobbies and interests
Creating a space for hobbies and interests is an area that’s often more fun and exciting. “It’s a place where you can be a little bolder and a little more grandiose with design versus maybe a living room or a dining room,” Jenny says. Areas such as craft rooms, art studios, wine cellars, man caves, she sheds, home gyms and the like, are places to have fun and bend the rules a bit. Jenny points out that basements make great spaces for dedicated space for hobbies and interests.
Home office
Now that many of us are working from home, it’s important to have a dedicated workspace. To create a workspace you love, Jenny says to consider the function of your workspace. Do you need a full office, or just a dedicated space? Do you need storage? Are others working from home? Do you need privacy from noise and other distractions? With video calls and virtual meetings, consider your background. She cautions against using your primary bedroom as an office.
Creating a space around an existing item you love
There may be a piece of furniture, artwork, window treatment, or other item wanted for sentimental reasons, or you just love it. Jenny says this can be a good thing. Creating a space you love around an item can be helpful, especially when it comes to budgets. “Anytime there are large pieces or key pieces the client wants to keep, it helps stretch the budget in other ways,” Jenny says. For example, when renovating cabinets and the boxes are in good shape, you can do more by using the funds to reface the cabinets and the hardware. She also suggests using your imagination. A vintage piece of furniture can be painted and updated to be used in a different room with a different function like a vintage secretary desk she repurposed into a bar. “I think the best designs have new and old layered together,” she says. “And that’s perfectly fine.”
To learn more about JPO Interiors, visit jpointeriors.com.
“I love to help clients solve a problem.” Jenny Ochotnicky, owner of JPO Interiors
