Watch Joanna Gaines Tackle the Trickiest Home Decor Problem a Couple Will Ever Face

Joanna Gaines can deliver a well-designed home, but what if the couple on the receiving end has extremely different tastes? That's the challenge she faces in the latest "Fixer Upper: Behind the Design."

You may recall that in this spin-off show, Joanna (with occasional cameos from Chip) delves into a detailed explanation of her design decisions from past "Fixer Upper" shows. This week, in an episode titled "The Scrivano House," we revisit Courtney and Joey Scrivano, who have been living happily in a modern downtown loft. But once a baby arrives, they need a more family-friendly space with a yard and room to roam. So, Chip finds them a beautiful Tudor-style house, built in the 1920s, with five bedrooms, three baths, and plenty of space.

Then the real challenges arrive. Joanna meets with the couple to discuss design, and discovers that Joey and Courtney each prefer very different styles. Joey likes the clean, modern lines of the bachelor pad loft they've been living in, and Courtney is into a European farmhouse look and feel.

Uh-oh.

This puts Joanna in the sticky position of delivering both styles at once. As she explains, "When you think about traditional and modern, it's like saying 'I want an old/new house.'"

Nonetheless, Joanna cleverly handles the situation by letting the character and personality of the home itself lead the design—then by adding a few distinct touches of the differing features they each like.

"For traditional style, I'm thinking detailed trim, wainscoting, and neutral paint colors will work well," she suggests. "For his modern style, I think we can incorporate some smoother textures and maybe a really clean fireplace."

See how miracle worker Joanna makes these conflicting styles work together, and get some smart tips for how you can do the same in your own home.

Take a look at a nook

If you want an eat-in kitchen but don't have room for a big island with seating space, try a breakfast nook in one corner. Joanna has Chip build in booth seating, then has woodwork specialist Clint Harp build a round table of walnut, to match the decor in the rest of the kitchen. It's the perfect, cozy dining space!

How to do a checkered floor right

Courtney loves a good black-and-white checkered floor, but too much of it can not only make your eyes go crazy but give the place a 1950s diner look, rather than the updated 1920s Tudor vibe they're carrying through the rest of the house. So in the kitchen, Joanna uses black and cream, rather than black and white, to soften the effect.

She also uses painted cabinetry in a light color and warm woods to blend into the distinctive pattern. But when the tile is laid and the cabinetry installed, she admits, "All I see is black and white." So she breaks up the pattern by getting a walnut island table to match the round wood table Harp made for the breakfast nook. Everything balances perfectly.

Never put a bathroom next to a kitchen

The existing bathroom off the back of the kitchen seems awkward, and nobody wants to think about the smells. So, since the plumbing is already in place, Joanna converts that ill-placed bathroom into a well-placed butler's pantry for extra storage and prep space in the smallish kitchen. Genius!

Make arches pop

If you've got great original features in a home, Jo is a big fan of emphasizing rather than eliminating.  "The cased openings on the home matched the arches on the exterior, so I knew I wanted to highlight them by implementing a darker trim with lighter walls," she explains. And yes, it works like a charm.

Less is more with built-ins

Joanna advises filling built-in shelves with fewer, simpler items, rather than cramming them full of books or other heavy accessories. "Too much takes away from the whole story of the room," she says. "Minimalizing it a bit, but also giving it some interest. That's the key."

Wallpaper: A little goes a long way

If you like the idea of wallpaper but aren't sure you will like the reality of it, the guest bath or powder room is a good place to experiment. For the Scrivano home, Joanna selects a black-and-white rose pattern that's a reproduction from the 1880s.

Remove stairs leading to nowhere

A lot of old homes with gabled roofs have attic space that's good for storage only. So why devote important square footage in the house to a stairway that you'll seldom, if ever, use? Joanna has Chip entirely remove the staircase, and install a trap-door, drop-down staircase in the ceiling for attic access. The small amount of strategic square footage it adds makes a big difference. Which just goes to show that with Joanna's designs, little details matter.

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