| PROJECT OVERVIEW:
This was a new house, being built by a developer in the suburbs of
Chicago, which my clients purchased soon after ground was broken.
This gave us a chance to influence the finished look of the home,
particulary with regards to interior finishes and surfaces, as it was
being built rather than going back and changing things after
completion. Whether consciously or not, the house had a very strong
feeling of English Arts & Crafts, with two architects, Edwin Lutyens
and CFA Voysey, very much present. This gave us a great source of
inspiration for the overall concept as well as many of the decorative
solutions and details. The wife of the couple was an athletic yoga
student who loved the outdoors, and I wanted to reflect this interest in
the feeling of the interior by keeping things light, clean and open. |
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| This is the exterior of a
beautiful house in a suburb of Chicago that was built by a developer and
purchased during construction by my clients. The picture gives a
good idea of the strong flavor of English Arts & Crafts, and in
particular the work of CFA Voysey, that the house had from the
start. It was a pleasure to work on it and enhance those aspects in
the interior as well as the exterior. |
The living room is a generous
but not huge double-height space, with beautiful woodwork on the
ceiling. The twin sofas are new, and the armchair with its back
towards the camera is an English antique that we reupholstered. The
chest in the background under the window was the first piece bought for
the house, before framing had been completed, but provided the inspiration
for mixing new pieces and antiques from different periods that we carried
through the whole house. |
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| The spaces opened nicely onto
each other. This is a view from the dining room through the living
room and entry hall and just a peek into the library. I chose colors
that would all coordinate and repeat in some way through all these
interlocked rooms. The wallpaper in the dining room is a
particularly favorite color of mine. I call it Georgian pink, but
honestly I use the term to refer to a number of high-value reddish-pink
colors that just seem to work well in Arts & Crafts interiors. |
This is a view of the
breakfast room, which connects to the kitchen and is on the opposite side
of the living room fireplace. I fought hard to eliminate the two
small niches or ovens or whatever they are which the building was in love
with, but obviously I lost. I thought they were too close to the
backs of whoever would be sitting on that side of the table, and if used
as twin fireplaces, like the builder was suggesting, would just make
things uncomfortable. I chose high-backed chairs to protect the
unfortunates just in case, but in the end the gas piping was never
installed to make them functional. The table is an English
antique. The paneling on the walls and the beamed ceiling make this
a wonderful, cozy space. |
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| The large island was painted a
deep, dark green with more than a bit of black in it to contrast with the
lighter wood of the surrounding cabinets. This gave it the feeling
of one of those work tables that were commonly found in kitchens of the
period, but with the functionality of traditional modern cabinetry. |
This is a view of my client's
daughter's room, which I really love. The wallpaper is a very sweet
Liberty print, and the curtains are a Voysey-designed fabric. I
deliberately kept the colors gender-neutral, with touches of pink here are
there rather than it being the dominant color. I think it is a
charming room. |
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