Strange Closets

When I interviewed KitchenLab co-founder Rebekah Zaveloff last fall, I was struck by the fact that unlike many specialists in a given field, the witty intellectual spoke passionately about a variety of topics including art, politics and food, not only its preparation but what it means in the larger context.  And she wasn’t off-message (that’s [...]

While Alan Robandt has made significant progress in his rehab of the 12,000 Italian Renaissance Revival building, he still has an entire floor serving as basically an attic.  The unheated space is cold, raw and echo-y so you know I loved it.  

Welcome to the long awaited third installment in the Strange Closets Buchanan, Michigan triology (it’s epic . . . and no ewoks, I promise).  After hearing the murmurs and reading an article in Chicago Home + Garden, I finally visited at the invitation of rural pioneer and longtime Chicago antique dealer Alan Robandt.  In a [...]

A few months ago I featured Bruce’s Michigan Modern, a fantastic mid-century home originally built for the CEO of Bendix.  The owner, artist and furniture craftsman Bruce R. Hawkins sent over a photo of a couple new Roodblauwe Stoel chairs he made using an amazing red wood (no stain was used).  Bruce calls the the [...]

Ann, a busy Northwestern University drama teacher, probably never imagined that she’d one day commute across two state lines to get to work, but when she found a gorgeous wooded Grand Beach lot during a weekend trip, she decided that spending a little more time in the car might not be so bad.

The life of an artist can be a solitary one, and fate made no exemption for Bruce, a St. Joseph painter and craftsman whose decision to pursue his art over all else has resulted in more than a few broken hearts.  But the artist’s life didn’t prevent Bruce for owning the house of his dreams [...]