Strange Closets

Top photo: The dining room in my Edgewater Glen apartment. Bottom photo: The family room in my friend JB’s Highland Park home, which I’ve photographed twice, the first time a couple of years ago for a Strange Closets Open House and the second time earlier this year for the North Shore magazine Make It Better. ↓ [...]

The January / February 2011 issue of Chicago Home + Garden arrived last week, and I was excited to see an article I contributed about Thom Wesely and Bob Planing’s Prairie-style Foursquare in Evanston. It’s an amazing space, and Nathan Kirkman’s gorgeous photos didn’t disappoint. A mutual friend, Maribeth Brewer, introduced me to Thom and [...]

Last year KitchenLab founder and interior designer Rebekah Zaveloff introduced me to her friend JB, who also happens to own one of Rebekah’s favorite design projects, a stunning nineteenth century, 6500 square foot Queen Anne Victorian in Highland Park that feels homey despite its size and contemporary despite its age, moldings and original woodwork. While [...]

Amy Leafblad’s fiance Seth moved in to her Lake Forest condo just weeks ago, but thanks to the power of good old-fashioned compromise, there is no sign of co-mingling chaos in the two-bedroom, two bath space. Amy strategically ceded the second bedroom to Seth for his “sports stuff” and other things, and he agreed to [...]

Glass mosaic artist Heather Hancock and her husband Cam Balzer bought their house in 2005, but the Evanston single-family was far from Dwell-like when they first saw it. The tiny dated kitchen had ugly 80′s cabinets and was closed off from the living room; walls throughout the house had been painted peach and seafoam green [...]

Everybody thought newlyweds Peter and Robin Baugher were crazy when they bought their quirky little Wilmette home for $250,000 more than 20 years ago. But the house was hardly the point, and in 1990, they tore down the modest dwelling and constructed a brand new house to take full advantage of the excellent lake views. [...]

Regular readers may remember Wilmette resident Susie Dinges from her Strange Closets Open House, which tells a cautionary tale of making friends with design professionals (Susie hired her friend and designer extraordinaire Laura Soskin to help her find a light fixture and would up redecorating her entire home).   I enjoyed catching up with Susie [...]