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Foxland Hall · Brentwood · Built 1978

The Keeping Room

The toughest room for these clients was the keeping room off their kitchen. The couple had invested in a beautiful kitchen renovation, and they wanted what everyone wants from an open floor plan: they wanted to be together.

But the layout of the keeping room just didn’t work. They couldn’t figure out the seating, it wasn’t cozy, and they hardly ever spent time there. So, we pitched our favorite floor plan for rooms with a lot of openings (four chairs and a round coffee table), and we got to work sourcing secondhand treasures to make it happen.

The family reports that it’s now the most popular spot in the house. Our clients love glancing up from working in the kitchen to find the kids reading, drawing, and playing in their new space.

A family of five and their dog in the finished keeping room, surrounded by the four-chair seating arrangement, a gallery wall, and exposed beams
The keeping room off the kitchen: four mismatched chairs around a round marble coffee table on a red Persian rug, with exposed beams, a brick fireplace, and color-arranged bookshelves
A gallery wall of silhouettes, travel photos, and the kids’ art above a tufted brown velvet chaise with a mustard mohair throw
A detail of the finished keeping room
The homeowner arranging the built-in bookshelves, styled in color order from the family’s own collection
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