What is in a name anyway? Great Room, the most misused room name today. A BIG Living Room is not a Great Room. It may be a GREAT room, but unless the Kitchen and Dining are part of the same space, it is just a plain old Living Room, maybe large nonetheless.

Colloquial terms are head scratchers too. In Florida, a room that started as a screened porch, then got jalousie windows, then finally awning windows was a Florida Room. It is just a renovated closed-in screen porch. And the screen porch here in Colorado is a Lanai. I think it is a Hawaiian name?!

The room next to the Kitchen, the one with the couch. No, not the Living Room. The less formal one. Some places it is a Family Room. Oh, not here in Colorado, it has a fireplace, so it must be the Hearth Room.

We once got a project from a developer, a lot in Beaver Creek, that had a set of design drawings with it. We threw them away, but in these drawings there was a foyer, then a hall named the Antebellum, then a cross axis hall. What in the hell is an Antebellum? We looked it up. It means “before the Civil War”. I guess it was a very OLD hall?! Why not Grand Hall? No, ‘Hall’ is negative, “that house has a lot of halls.” Wasted space. So we rename halls to friendly names, like Gallery. Yes, that is where we find art or sometimes just windows with plein art. Art is cultural. Culture is good. Gallery is good.

Office, Study, Library. Which is it? Can not be a Library unless it has lots of shelves and books. Lots of books. Is it a Study? What are we studying? It is probably an Office. But just part time.

Breakfast Nook? Is it really a nook? You can get six people and a turkey in there.

Mud Room. If you bring mud in there, Mom will whip your butt! Take your boots off in the Garage.

Awwww.... Powder Room. Not since the 80’s. It is not a half bath either. It has no bath, let alone a half of one. What should we call it? The Crapper? John D. was not fond of that one.

We need a Colorado Room. What do you think? A large dark room, with a nice bar, a pool table and a lot of dead animal heads on the walls, cigar smoke, and tequila. I like it. Feel free to use it. Or make up any other names that come to mind. We do, but we keep it in this century.

Tab Bonidy, NCARB, is President of TAB Associates, Inc. located in Avon, Colorado. Tab can be reached at 970-748-1470 or on the web at www.tabassociates.com.