A less-radical tactic would be to attack the wall between kitchen and dining room. She suggests eliminating that wall entirely (perhaps bolstering the feel of a discrete space by using judiciously placed columns), or creating a half-wall in order to increase the openness of the space.

Pay attention to the "beltline." No, not yours — your powder room's. Because they're usually small, powder rooms tend to feel too tall, Susanka says. Bring them visually down to size with a "beltline" — a horizontal division in the wall space that comes from using moulding, wainscoting or tile in the middle.

Commute to work through a "gateway." Make sure your home office has a clear sense of separation from the rest of the house. "Once you've entered, you know you're at work, and you are more likely to stay there for the remainder of the workday than when this kind of designation is absent," she writes.

One way to achieve this separation, if a home office is its own room, is to make the door entirely different from others in the house. In an existing space, such as a converted dining room, add sliding doors, she suggests.

In the actual remodeling category, she offers examples of converted attics and dormers that acquire work space without significant construction.

Everybody needs a POYO. That is, a Place of Your Own — a getaway space for reading or hobbies. "Not So Big Remodeling" explores ways to create alcoves or to carve out personal space. Her own, as pictured in the book, is a private workspace in a corner of her home office, consisting of an overstuffed armchair and ottoman, surrounded by shelves.

"I'm sitting in it now," she says during a telephone interview. "Ideally, a POYO is far away from the main living space — off the bedroom, in an extra bedroom, or in an attic.

"It's a space that's your very own, your personal space," she says. "It's your private realm."

BATTLING THE TOO-BIG HOUSE BULGE

Only in America would people complain that their houses are too big. But Sarah Susanka says that's what she's hearing.

The homes in "Not So Big Remodeling" (The Taunton Press, 330 pages, $32) run the gamut of sizes and styles, but the author reserves special space in it for those that are long on square footage but short on character — that is, the steroidal structures that became an icon, for better or worse, of recent American architecture.

This, she says, is their plea: Make my McMansion feel more like home.

"People have houses that they rattle around in, that are bigger than they now need," said Susanka. "There's no cozy spot. It all feels similarly large."

She calls this condition "too bigness."