HomeOpen House: Nicholas and Luka’s Hyde Park Loft
08. Oct, 2009 
4 Comments
The freelancer’s life is not for the faint of heart. Sure, I was bored and dissatisfied with my former career selling wide area network (WAN) routing technology to large corporations with mission-critical applications, but at least I had a steady check, and I paid the bills every two weeks like clockwork. Now I pay them maybe.
So I was happy when during a particularly dry month, Chicago Reader and Time Out Chicago contacted me on the very same day about their respective annual home issues. Time Out Chicago was looking for solutions to design problems, and they liked former Open House star Gail Potocki’s closet library, which houses her huge book collection; they also liked interior designer Nicholas Moriarty and his partner Luka Pocivavsek’s Hyde open great room where Moriarty used color and layout to create distinct seating areas.
Continued . . .
Nicholas and Luka’s loft was a hospital before it was converted to lofts in the 80′s, and the architect chose to emphasize the buildings A-frame, which in their unit separates the kitchen from the living area, creating a little nook with a window that the fellows use as an office. Somewhat ironically, Luka’s a medical student, so the space’s tall bookshelves are full of medical books, and Nicholas’ uses his large vertical triptych of the human body, pop-art anatomy models and medical charts to stylishly weave a narrative that links the building’s history with both he and Luka’s quite different professions. Nicholas has created a masculine, sophisticated home with a mix of vintage pieces alongside contemporary pieces with classic lines.
So please consider Nicholas if you need an interior designer and want to avoid malpractice. His clients love him because he’s thorough (he spent weeks designing a doggie day bed for former Open House stars Brian and Sara), because he makes their homes look spectacular and because he’s genuine and nice and funny. And that’s a pretty good combo if you ask me. Click here to visit his website (which is under construction but does show Nicholas’ contact information).
Click here for past Open House tours.
The developer decided to use the large A Frame beams as an architectural feature.
Very nice, Love it! Great job Nic!!!
Great use of a theme for the artwork. Nice clean-lined space. The kitchen photo is a little confusing because it looks like the A-beam is pressed right up against the kitchen cupboards. Of course, upon closer examination you can see this is not the case… But it’s a real optical illusion.
A couple of notes are coming your way from the Pesky Editor about this post. TTFN, CS
Just discovered Strange Closets and this is my favorite home so far. Great style. Cool stuff nicely arranged.
Cool place, I love the A frame beams that seem to pop up unexpectedly.