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Following are some pictures from some of our
recent interior projects. We bring over 25 years of specialization
and experience in the Arts & Crafts style to our work in space
planning, renovation, restoration and new construction. We have a
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| These are two views of the
living room of a Frank Lloyd Wright house here in Oak Park that I have
been working on for several years. There was no furniture designed
for the house, so we had some freedom in terms of what pieces we
used. The settle and morris chairs are by Hile
Studio, and the other pieces were custom-designed for the house.
One of the most important instructions that the clients gave me at the
start was that the house would be comfortable and liveable for their
family and friends. There could be nothing too precious or
museum-like that would make people feel uncomfortable. I chose
fabrics that had a richness both in terms of their color as well as their
textures. Velvets, wovens and subtle patterns predominate, which was
a characteristic of the Prairie School interiors. |
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| The picture on the left is a
view into the breakfast room off of the new kitchen. The table and
chairs are custom designs, and subtly play up the Japanese flavor of the
architecture. The recessed ceiling fixture above was designed after
the leaded glass, and casts a beautiful glow in the evenings over the
whole space. The photo on the right is of the veranda, and space in
the back of the house that looks over the garden. Wright originally
intended this room to be an open porch, we believe, so the walls and
woodwork were treated to match the exterior. It is now enclosed with
leaded glass windows, and is a wonderful place to sit and have a quiet
conversation, read a book, or unwind at the end of the day. I chose wicker
furniture, but upholstered it in "indoor" fabrics, which
creates a pleasant tension. The furniture is all custom-designed and
made of cypress, a gorgeous, albeit soft, wood. |
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| Here are
two views of the master bedroom of the Frank Lloyd Wright house.
While the basic foot print of the room did not change, virtually every
surface was touched in some way. The walls are treated in a special
application of sand and tinted paint that perfectly replicates the old
sand-coat plaster found in homes of the period. The pair of chairs,
the lamp table, night stands and bed were all custom-designed, since there
was no furniture by Wright specified for the house. The chandelier
is period, but I am not sure who designed it. It is perfect in the
room nonetheless, and in fact the colors of the walls were chosen to
harmonize with it. The wall behind the bed has built-in cabinetry
behind it, which allowed us to keep the room itself relatively open and
uncluttered. At night, it is a magical, peaceful space. |
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This is
a basement that we recently finished. The concept, an English pub,
was generated by the hammered brass fireplace hood, and combined nicely
with the fact that the husband brews his own beer. The family has
three children, two boys and a girl, and so the space had to function both
as an entertaining space for the adults and as a game and family room for
the kids. Nothing could be too precious or delicate. In order
to create the required head room, the floor had to be dug down a foot or
so, which allowed for the installation of radiant heating under the slate
tiles. An antique corner pub bench was located at an antique store,
and the entire bar was built around it.
On the right is
a view from behind the bar towards the flat screen tv and theater
area. As you can see from the games, drum set, guitar hero
equipment, and bookcase full of DVDs, this room is thoroughly enjoyed by
the family. This is how it should be. Good design results are
ones that create spaces that can be used and enjoyed, not just looked at.
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This
is the exterior of a large and gracious house in a western suburb on a
beautiful corner lot. The owners felt that both the exterior and the
interior could use some attention. On the outside, the home's color
scheme was a little drab, and did not really reflect the character of the
architecture - Arts & Crafts with a faint Italianate feeling.
On the right is the exterior after a fresh color scheme and some additional
landscaping
was added. The porch columns and terrace walls were stripped to reveal
the original glazed bricks, and the garden wall was painted to harmonize
with the soft, warm white color of the bricks. The trim and window
casements were painted the same greenish-gray color, something like the pietra
serena found in Florentine Renaissance architecture, which served
to simplify and unify the elements on the facade. I will be adding
some picture of the interior soon. |
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On the left is the before shot of a
room in a charity showhouse for the Infant Welfare
Society of Oak Park and River Forest. The house is owned by a
developer who basically ran out of ideas for completion, and so turned to
local designers and the IWS to help him finish the project. His
thought was to make it a "sports bar", but I chose English Arts
& Crafts pub instead. As you can see from the glass block
windows, the room is below grade, and the ceilings are 7'10", just
barely up to code.
The photo on the right shows the same room
finished. By installing paneling to a height of just over 5', the ceiling
paradoxically looks higher. Painting the walls and ceiling the same
color helps to further this illusion. I wanted a kind of
"William Morris meets Ralph Lauren" feeling, so the furniture is
tufted and comfortable, with lots of leather, velvet and deep, rich
colors. There are three "levels" of lighting: wall and
ceiling fixtures, floor lamps and table lamps, which can be turned off and
on independently, allowing a great deal of flexibility. The overall
lighting level is low, since it is below ground, but this is appropriate
to the style of the room. The various fixture provide pools of warm,
inviting light. |
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This is a view towards the bar
area. The cabinets, prefab, had already been installed,
unfortunately, but the rest of the decisions and details were still
pending. I did not want the room to simply be an off-putting
"man cave", so I kept the bar to its necessary minimum, without
sacrificing the considerable impact of a real, functioning bar in a
domestic interior. I felt strongly that the space had to function as
a family-friendly environment, so women and children needed to feel
comfortable in it and be provided for as well. This meant seating
for conversation, reading, relaxing, playing games, watching television
and so forth. If the room had been bigger, I might have included a
pool table.
On the left is the same view
completed. We tiled the back wall with a rich, rusty orange field tile
with a small decorative triptych under the television, which serves to
draw your eye towards the far wall and gives a nice punch of color.
The antique leather chesterfield sofa is English, and the patina on the
leather lends a very nice vintage feeling to the room. Most of the
wood furniture is antique, while the upholstered pieces are all new, but
very much in the style. The overall feeling is rich, enveloping,
relaxing, subdued and clubby, but not overly masculine. The head
carpenter brought his 76 year old mother through and she told him this was her favorite room.
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This is a beautiful
conservatory that the previous owners had put on a wonderful late 19th
century house. Since neither of my clients had any ability with
plants, it had become a store room where the children sometimes did
homework and what few plants were there waited to die. The
photo on the right is the same space
now. Since it is off the large kitchen, it is a perfect family room
and homework area. It also serves as an overflow party space.
It has become one of the most used rooms in the house, not the least
because it has a wonderful view of the large backyard. By the way,
all the plants you see are artificial, and are healthy and thriving to
this day.
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| This is the loft-like living
and dining area in a high-end condo building in Oak Park. The space,
created out of a much, much larger room, is long and narrow. The
furniture placement serves to accentuate this fact, rather than disguise
it, and while the building as a whole has some wonderful period
architectural detailing, my clients' space did not. On
the right is the same view
afterwards. I wanted to make their apartment seem special, and like
it was an original, intimate suite of rooms in the larger building.
We added columns and beams, copied from elsewhere in the building, and
re-oriented the furniture so that it would create areas with specific
functions within the space. Turning furniture groups perpendicular
to the main flow of the space paradoxically makes the room seem larger. |
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This is the existing fireplace
and surround when my clients moved in. Not the most horrible, but
certainly nothing special, nor did it reflect the character and
personality of the original building.
The picture on the right shows the same view
after. The concept and detailing were based on an original fireplace
from elsewhere in the building. I felt strongly that my clients'
apartment should not look like a left-over scrap of a once-grander space,
as these conversions can often seem, but rather like it always was this
way. The bright, multi-colored checkerboard pattern on the face
echoes the original source of inspiration, and the painting above, by the wife's mother, was a
stunning complement, found long after the tiles had been installed.
Flanking bookcases help to define both the space and the function of this
area. The husband is a well-known and respected architect, and I was
fairly intimidated at first, but the collaboration was extremely
successful and satisfying for all. |
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This is a view of the living
room in a typical Oak Park home. The clients, a young, well-educated
professional couple and their young son, love to read. The husband
collects 20th century first editions, and the whole family uses this room
on a daily basis. The problem was that the first thing you saw when
you entered the house was the tv, flanked by small bookcases - not the
message anyone wanted to send guests.
We moved the tv under the
stairs on a custom-built cabinet that stores the components and all their
DVDs, and created a proper focal point that tells a story about who they
are and what they value - an impressive bookcase that can how hold all the
first edition collection, and more. The walls were painted a soft,
golden yellow, and the trim, added at some later time, was
simplified. We kept their existing sofa, but had it recovered and
re-styled a little to make it more in keeping with the period and history
of the room and the other pieces we added.
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This is the entry area in the
same house. I'm not sure how it was originally configured, but the
existing problem was that there was no sense of arrival, not to mention a
clear function for this area. The bookcase only served to confuse
the issue.
By adding paneling in oak,
based on the detailing of the staircase, and staining it to match the
existing woodwork, we created an entry space that was both a part of and
apart from the main living space, and looks as if it were original to the
house. The added window bench stores boots and provides a place to
stop, if only for a moment. The custom dresser holds gloves,
scarves, hats and other outerwear. Hooks have since been installed
for coats on the rails of the paneling to the left of the window. A
rug, proportional to the space, helps to delineate the "room."
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| This is another view of the
living room, showing the beautiful Prairie-style staircase that was
probably added a few years after the house, a modified Victorian, was
completed. The stair dominates the space, both visually and
actually, because the rest of the elements are sparse and small in
scale. All you want to do in this room is go upstairs. There is a consistent density
to the room now, and the furniture layout permits multiple
types of activities, from watching tv or movies to reading or
conversation. With the various elements now in balance, the
staircase does not seem to overwhelm the room as it once did. The
walls are not as stark as they were either, but have been painted a rich,
buttery yellow. |
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This is a view of a large
living room in a wonderful house in Oak Park. The family has three
children, all with diverse and multiple interests, and the challenge was
to create a space that could be used by all, not just the children.
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This is a view of the same
room afterwards. A matching loveseat and sofa were used, upholstered
in the same fabric, to anchor the fireplace area, in the middle of the
room, which helped to define the "grown-up" space. The
piano at the far end creates a music room. The house overall had a
slightly English feeling to it, and it was originally a 19th century
farmhouse that had been added to in the early 20th century, so William
Morris fabrics and carpets seemed to be the perfect basis on which to
build a decorative scheme. |
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This is the other end of the
room. A wonderful window bench enclosed the space, with the windows
giving a nice view of the neighborhood in front and a little watergarden
in back. Enjoyment of this nice feature was prohibited by the
clutter and confusion of toys and plants.
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A game table now anchors the
space, and clutter is kept to a minimum. It is still used by the
whole family, but for chess, backgammon and other board games that the
whole family can enjoy together. In addition to furniture placement,
the rugs help to define the three spaces - music room, living room and
game room. |
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A third floor library / family room - before. While
the space, up under the roof, was conceptually appealing and engaging,
there was just nothing going on style-wise.
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The same view - after.
There are five distinct areas: bookcase, work table, computer desk,
comfortable reading / relaxing, and an in-progress gallery display for
showing and storing historical memorabilia. It is a magical space. |
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| The same library, opposite the bookcase -
before. The problems here were to unify the three windows, rethink
the too-large window seat, and create an area that would be enjoyable to
be in. |
The area after, with a comfortable seating
grouping, stereo components and additional bookcase storage.
Paradoxically, by making the window seat smaller, it becomes a more
attractive place to sit. |
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A living room in a large, gracious house in a
park-like setting - before. The colors, furniture, fabrics and
detailing did nothing to reinforce the architectural style of the house.
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The same room after. The architecture
of the house called for an English, William Morris approach, which suited
both the clients' tastes and family history. Those with a keen eye
for detail will recognize the shameless borrowing we did from Standen, a
Phillip Webb / William Morris collaboration in England. |
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The original built-in bookcases in the midst
of restoration.
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The same view after. The space itself
is a cozy inglenook at the end of the much larger living room. The
overmantle is new, based on ones from Standen. The original surround
had some historical significance, so we had to retain it, but figure out a
way to incorporate it into the new vision. By the way, these are the
same armchairs seen in the first picture, just with new fabric and trim. |
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This is the living room in a
wonderful new-construction country house in upstate Illinois. The
family is very interested in Nature and outdoor pursuits, and the art and
decoration is themed around this concept.
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The lower-level family room in
the same house. The requirements were that the furniture be
comfortable and low-maintenance, but still reflect the owners' interest in
Arts & Crafts. We mixed antique and reproduction pieces with
soft, upholstered furniture. |
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| This is the master bedroom in
the country house. The goal was to achieve a light, airy feeling,
like sleeping in the clouds. |
A small writing desk, an
antique by Gustav Stickley, is paired with a mid-century blond-wood
armchair, keeping things from getting too serious. |
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This is a view of an
unsympathetic addition on a charming little bungalow. There was no
way to fix it, so we had to tear it down and rebuild something that we
wanted to appear as if it had been a part of the original house.
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This is the space, all new
construction, that resulted. Paint with sand additive was used on
the walls and ceilings to give it a soft, beautiful visual texture.
The room includes a dining room, above, and a family room overlooking the
garden. |
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While we were refreshing the
rest of the house, some old paneling was pulled down, revealing the
original chimney breast, and the remains of built-in bookcases.
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After careful research, we
were able to determine the exact look of the fireplace, mantle and
bookcases, and replicated them. The living room, formerly
little-used, is now one of the warmest and most popular rooms in the
house. |
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| This is the living room in a
Tudor-revival house. Despite the ample windows, the room was cold
and dark feeling. The previous owners had attempted to deal with
this by painting the walls a pale yellow and everything else, including
the limestone fireplace, stark white. It did not work - in fact, the
results were just the opposite. The room felt colder and just sort
of grey and depressing. |
Counter-intuitively, it
sometimes is better to go darker in order to make a space feel
brighter. We kept the woodwork white, but softened a bit. The
big difference is the wall color - a rich, warm, lush terra cotta, with
plenty of complementary colors. The result, as you can see,
sparkles, and the light that does come in seems brighter by contrast.
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This is a basement space
midway through construction. The clients wanted a family room, bar
and home theater in what was a typical, and messy basement. We
relocated all the pipes to the perimeters, and sandblasted the beams and
posts.
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This is the same view
afterwards. The concept was to create a vaguely-Arthurian feeling,
without drifting over either into kitsch or a too-serious and
self-conscious result. The floor, in 6 distinct medieval patterns
drawn from illuminated manuscript pages,
is cork tile. The leaded glass windows near the bar are from an old
church, and are backlit.
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This is the living room of a
beautiful house on a bluff overlooking the Fox River in Wisconsin.
It was built in the Usonian style by a follower of Frank Lloyd Wright, and
consequently has a great deal of architectural integrity and
interest. The existing furniture did not support the style of the
house.
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Using the impending wedding of
their daughter as a catalyst, the clients commissioned all new furniture
from us. The pieces were designed in a Usonian language, but based
on Prairie period pieces by Frank Lloyd Wright. The results are much
more in keeping with the architecture of the house. The upholstery
colors are clear, high-value jewel tones, much like Wright himself used in
this period. |
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The flash on my camera was not
working the day I shot this, so this is a horrible photograph, but it does
show the wonderful fireplace done in roman brick and the high limestone
hearth. The clients did not utilize this area much, primarily
because the seating was so inadequate for comfortable relaxation.
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This is the same view
afterwards, with the simplified Robie house sofa and chair in the
foreground, and modified Kauffman lounge chairs in the background.
Flat cushions were made for the hearth, which provide additional seating
for parties, as does the upholstered hassock. To the left is a
partial view of the dining table and chairs we designed for the
house. The two main seating areas of the living room now provide
flexibility depending on mood, season or time of day. |
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This is the
senior pastor's office of the 1st Congregational Church of Western
Springs, a late Prairie-style complex by George Grant Elmslie. As
part of a systems-updating campaign, the congregation decided to restore
the sanctuary and the education building to their original condition.
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This is the office after completion. In
order to accommodate sprinklers and new HV/AC ducts, the ceilings in this
building had to be dropped, but it afforded us a chance to do some better
lighting, and improve the proportions of these spaces. The walls
were painted with sand-additive paint, giving them the appearance of the
old sand-coat plaster. An Elmslie-designed stencil, used as well in
the sanctuary, was painted just below the picture rail. The room has
a much quieter, calmer feel to it now, appropriate to its use as a place
of counseling, prayer and guidance. |
Please feel free to
call if you'd like to discuss your own project. We have a full team of
contractors, subcontractors and workrooms, and can handle any size restoration,
renovation or new construction. Click
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