In accordance with Day 7 of The Nester’s 31 Days to a Better Dressed Nest series, I am coming to my peeps for house advice. See that wall with the picture?

front living room

We want to knock it down. Because on the other side of that wall is this.

back living room

Two living rooms back to back.

When we have people over (have I mention my husband is a youth pastor? With a youth group of nearly 300?) this is kind of what it looks like.

crammed in

Crowded. And the front living room is empty with crickets chirping. This living room is where we live. The front living room is where the Barbies live in the forts that are made by our kids. It is a big, non-used formal play room.

We’ve already had several men look at it to determine the load-bearingness of the wall (it bears a lot of load, evidently), but are told it can be done. I’m not concerned about that part.

But I need girl eyes to tell me how to divide this wall. See where the fireplace mantle and hearth ends?

fireplace 2

How should we transition the ending of that for maximum best-ness?

in the doorway

Once the wall is gone, the fireplace will be way over there. Should we put some type of column next to the fireplace so it doesn’t just end? Would it look weird to have the wall jut out a foot until the hearth ends? I think there will still have to be a header across the room, so it will sort of look like a big 20 foot long framed out doorway. That makes no sense, does it? If you have any words, please advise. I’ll be hanging out in the comments.