Gracious past dovetails modern presence

Interior design by Soucie Horner

From the interior designer:

Built in the late 1880s, this landmarked, single ­family home in one of downtown Chicago's most revered residential neighbourhoods was divided in the 1970s into a seven-unit apartment building.

A four-year restoration and renovation returned the building to its original purpose as a 697m² home for a busy family with four young children.

Completely gutted and elevated to current codes and standards, it was sensitively restored to honour its history, yet reinvented to satisfy the specific, modern-day lifestyle of its inhabitants.

A separate 511m² coach house received identical treatment, and was integrated into the primary residence.

Celebrating craftsmanship and organically­ influenced contemporary interior design, this fit-out demonstrates our ability to engage in both restoration and interior design projects with ease.

The interiors

Transforming this 1860s Greystone from a seven-unit apartment building into a single-family home was an exhilarating journey in time travel. 

Landmarked to protect its myriad historical features – think artisan-crafted woodwork, hand-forged iron, and leaded stained-glass windows – it presented a bounty of bygone craftsmanship.

It also offered an unprecedented opportunity to completely reimagine space to suit a modern-day family and its four young children. 

Square meterage originally devoted to parlours was transformed into family rooms (one off the kitchen, for the family; another, upstairs, for the kids); a dirt-floored cellar became a wine storage and tasting room. 

In the kitchen, a generously sized marble-topped island gathers guests alongside the cook and provides space for abundant buffets – along with after school snacks, homework, and arts and craft projects; adjacent, a thoughtfully conceived mudroom readies the family for its many comings and goings. 

A separate-entry home office eases the logistics of running a successful business from home; a glass and steel atrium connects the family to its matriarch, who resides, in an enviable example of multi-generational living, in the coach house behind.

The home’s design both defines, and was inspired by, its occupants’ lifestyle. 

World travellers who circle the globe for both business and pleasure, they requested quiet, calming, all-white interiors that would enable children to both use and feel welcomed in every room.

The owners also wanted to showcase a gallery’s worth of art and for the interior to feature a worldly mélange of antique, vintage, and contemporary furnishings (including custom rugs from SHIIR – designed to contribute texture underfoot).

And lastly the owners wanted the interiors to embrace family members with gracious ease.

Designed by: Soucie Horner

Story by: Trendsideas

Photography by: Werner Straube