MY CHICAGO HOUSE.

Floorplan 1.0

Chicago gold coast condo

After living in Manhattan for the last 13 years, we grew accustomed to not having a car, being centrally located and walking to our favorite spots. For us, the latter two items were ultimate must-haves so location was very important in our search and we kept coming back to the Gold Coast for its convenience and proximity to the lake. The Gold Coast has beautiful tree-lined streets and lovely architecture. It is currently beautifully decorated for the holidays and we love to take walks in the neighborhood. For all of these reasons and more, we are excited to move into our new pre-war apartment, built in the late 1890’s. The Gold Coast neighborhood does not require a car, and all of our favorite restaurants from Somerset to Velvet Taco, to Lou Malnati’s, are only a few minutes walk.

We love the space and will “live in every room” as our real estate agent Debbie encouraged us to do.

I’m looking forward to the decorating projects ahead and for sharing them here!

Bathroom tiles

I’m getting ready to update two bathrooms simultaneously. I have turned my back on gray walls but there are still so many tiles and finishes in this gray and white style since it has been so popular for the last 5 years+ and continues to be, but not for me.

I love the brass legs on this sink in the Waterworks showroom. The slab is thin and airy and the shelf is off the floor. I think this piece, as a single sink, would look great in a smaller bathroom.

Wendy’s (Ellis) Green

Farrow & Ball full gloss paint

I discovered high shine “Wendy’s Green” paint from Farrow & Ball while searching for the perfect olive paint. The store actually does not carry a true olive paint but good news!, the custom mixed Wendy’s Green is available, with a 2 gallon minimum. This is the same green that designer Wendy Labrum used at the 2017 Lake Forest, IL Design & Garden Showhouse. I love it!

All room images were pulled from La Dolce Vita.

La Voliere Light and Vertigo Home

I shop for home goods while visiting Laguna

I stumbled across Vertigo Home with J while in Laguna at a wedding. This shop is beautiful and I fell in love with what I believe to be one of the most unique and beautiful lamps. Behold!, the bird cage lamp by La Voliere, a la Vertigo Home, Laguna.

I waited approximately 3 hours to make the decision that this lamp had to be mine and another 2 months to receive it, but alas, it is here. And, it is gorgeous…

Okay, this is not my house, but here it is in the box and I can’t wait to install this beautiful light somewhere!

Thank you Vertigo Home for making the process of sourcing this hand-painted bird lamp all the way from Paris and for delivering it to me safely. You are awesome!

DIY: Woven leather folding chair

a beach chair gets a leather woven makeover

I made this chair with J and it’s now his favorite reading nook in the house. The chair was less than $150 and was made from an old beach chair that I bought on Ebay and some leather strips that I bought online.

Clean chair ready for new leather straps

The directions are limited because the process is simple. You simply replace the original straps with leather, using the original leather straps as a guide for cutting the leather to size and for attaching to the frame (poke hole, simple screw).

It’s easy and it’s chic and it patinas over time! (See photo at top taken months after the chair was assembled).

The one that got away

Perhaps anyone who has house hunted has found the “almost perfect” house before finding “the one”.

We each found our own “perfect” house but unfortunately it was not the same house, so we went with neither and had to move on. However, from time to time i still think of this one…

This house was even better in person and I loved every detail. It was impeccably clean and looked like it came straight from Architectural Digest.

The molding was fresh and new (no cakey old paint) and the cream walls were the perfect backdrop for art. There was an incredible flat marble fireplace that was the perfect touch of modern for the space.

The dining room windows looked out on Lincoln Park and I loved the books and beams.

The back of the house didn’t have the best view, but that was the only slight downside that I saw.

The endless closets were a great plus!

If you like what you see – this beautiful place is still up for grabs!

A rental loft: my first Chicago project

a breezy loft gets a post-modern rental makeover

With their open floor plans and soaring ceilings, lofts are one-of-a kind residences and why this loft stood out among a sea of rentals. Interestingly, I had come across photos of our loft online when I lived in New York, before we moved to Chicago, when browsing the internet. This was before I had ever contemplated living in Chicago, so to end up in this exact building by chance is either an amazing coincidence, or a great example of the powers of the internet on predicting consumer choice!

Coffee table: Molteni, Chaise: Room & Board, Chairs: InMod, Bookcase: Sapien / Amazon, Art: designers own

The furniture chosen for this loft was intended to be low profile and transitional so it could move out of the rental someday and into a more permanent spot. This explains the lack of a full couch, which would have been a big commitment, expensive, and potentially hard to incorporate well in a new space. This couch is perfect because it can just as easily serve as the main seating as it is here, or divide a large room.

Chairs: InMod, Couch: Room & Board, Barstools: Eric Trine, Coffee Table: Molteni

The chairs from InMod have custom cushions that were made by Patio Lane with Ralph Lauren fabric. The original InMod cushions were very low quality but the chairs are solid walnut. The Molteni coffee table was purchased off the floor as a sample for 50% off.

Monkey painting: designer made, Woven chair: designer made, Bookshelf: Sapien Amazon, Chairs: InMod with Patio Lane custom cushions, Table Lamp: Neiman Marcus

What made this apartment fun was I had to start from scratch. This provided a lot of fun challenges to get the best deals and make the most from the least. So many elements in this home were made by hand such as the dining room table, the dining chairs, the woven leather chair, most of the artwork and the bar cabinet.

Charles Mayton artwork

we are slowly building our collection

We are slowly building our art collection and this was our first real piece. We bought this Charles Mayton painting from the David Lewis Gallery in New York. We love this piece and it looks beautiful over our dining room table (that my dad made) and chairs (that we made). See this post for how-to make the chairs from $25 Ikea frames (steal!).
The painting was described to me as a re-imagined still life. The artist pushed the boundaries with his use of the canvas, hanging the “plates” separately. It is fresh and modern and I love it.