A family of five bought a 1920s house on a hill in Western Springs for its light and its two original fireplaces. The main floor had been cut into small rooms over the decades, and none of them worked for how the family lives: a lot of people, a lot of reading and dinner most nights at the table.
They wanted rooms that felt like they'd been there for years. Nothing precious, nothing that would show every handprint.
We took out one wall and widened two openings, which turned four dark rooms into a sequence you can see through from the front door. The original brick and plaster stayed. New millwork went where the family needed storage, not where a floor plan expected it.
Furniture came from three places: a few new pieces made to size, antiques found over the design phase and the family's own things, reupholstered. About a third of what's in these rooms was already theirs.
Dining room. The table seats ten with both leaves in, which happens most Sundays.
Two sofas instead of a sectional, so the room still works for eight people and still looks like a living room with two.
A reading chair, a desk that faces the yard and shelves deep enough for oversized books. The door stays open most of the day.
Exposed beams, a stone fireplace and the hardest-wearing fabrics in the house. This is the room the dog is allowed in.
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