Contemporary wood wallpaper

We love when clients present us with unique challenges. In this case, it's a young Chicago professional who wants a media room that reflects his love of hunting, nature and the outdoors while fitting with his modern urban home. No overt hunting lodges or folksy cabins here. The look is to be upscale, contemporary and comfortable with subtle winks towards that more rustic aesthetic.

Wood wall coverings are a perfect material for this challenge. Not panels!  This is not your 1970's basement wood panelling! Modern wood-look wall coverings and wallpapers are made of phthalate-free vinyl with the grain of real wood. They're amazingly realistic and versatile, ranging from sleek finishes that work beautifully to emphasize architecture to more rustic styles full of grooves and knots and color variation. The samples above are from Innovations USA Hudson line but we also love....

the Renaissance line from Concertex which comes in a variety of stains and grains...

 

and Maya Romanoff's Ajira collection which comes in grain patterns like the Ajira Chevron above.

Stay tuned as this project develops! It's such a fun concept, the final product is going to be amazing!

Patterned roman shades, bringing your windows to life!

A good dose of pattern is vital to any space. It adds detail and texture and energy to a room, so when choosing fabrics for custom window treatments, we love to pick patterned shades over something solid. Even a subtle tone-on-tone or small scale pattern on a shade or drapery panel just adds an extra bit of life.  (But you can see, we're not afraid of putting big bright pattern on window treatments!) When installation day finally arrived at the home of these Evanston interior design clients were so pleased with the difference these shades made in the space. In the living room, the large scale trellis pattern from Candice Olsen's Kravet line is bold and fresh, while the limited palette of ivory, tan and taupe with a subtle metallic sheen keep it in line with this comfortable yet elegant home.

A row of burgundy silk pom-poms is an fun, unexpected addition that ties it into the rich reddish accents through out the space.

Let's zoom in for a close-up!

Since the dining room is across the hall and the home has an open plan, we used a similar style roman shade and color palette but this time chose a smaller scale pattern, a woven honeycomb in metallic taupe and two rows of wood teardrop beads...a more sophisticated, but no less unique, look for this formal space.

Accenting the ceiling with unique materials: Part 2

Let's peek into the kitchen of our luxury Chicago bachelor pad. And like last time, we're focusing on the ceiling. (Clearly, we love ceilings around here!)

We chose to replace the hood with an updraft (which can do the job just as well and, in this home of a bachelor with little interest in cooking, the 'gourmet kitchen' didn't fit with his lifestyle) surrounded by a soffit and inset lighting that shows off this beautiful antique carved panel.

Just like a chandelier over a dining table, this panel grounds the space...plus the slight drop of the soffit and the warm detail of the panel creates a more intimate feeling space, a special nook rather than just kitchen overflow.

 It's architectural detail, visual art and functionality all in one! Ceilings can be wonderful things!

Accenting the ceiling with unique materials

Poor old ceilings. They're so often neglected in the design of a room.  There's no quicker way to take a space from "Oh, that's pretty" to "Wow!" than to add detail to the ceiling. After all, it is the 5th wall of any room!

Let's take a trip back in time and look at some pics of this Chicago condo (whose powder room was featured on the blog last week) before we got our hands on it.

It's a great space... a big fireplace focal point, tall windows looking out onto the Chicago River, and thirteen foot ceilings.

Everyone loves high ceilings. It's open and airy and grand, no doubt there. But there are challenges when dealing with all that height. The large volume of empty space created by high ceilings can dwarf furnishings and just feel cavernous. Add to that the special challenges of this room...the small footprint which made that  height feel out of balance, and the raised dining room and kitchen to the left, whose view of the river ran right through the vast emptiness above the living room, and we knew we needed to address the ceiling.

We began by building out a rectangular soffit, mirroring the shape of the room and defining the living area from the rest of the open plan first floor.

Already, it's looking better.

Since the goal was a warm, textured room full of art and artifacts and beautiful details, additional detail was needed to bring the ceiling up to snuff. Four beautiful wood panels were installed in the soffit with recessed lighting glowing softly behind and can lights around the perimeter for flexibility.

Now the rich wood draws the eye up and pulls the "5th wall" down, allowing it to become a part of the composed space. As Deb said, "We could've fill this room with treasures and you would never know. They'd be swallowed up."

Now the ceiling itself is a treasure.

Beauty and the Feast: DIFFA's Dining by Design

Thursday evening, we were lucky enough to attend Jenn-Air's Chef's Table event held at the World of Whirlpool flagship office. This wonderful benefit was a celebration of CS Magazine's July restaurant issue and the kick-off fundraiser for DIFFA's (Design Industry Foundation Fighting Aids) Dining by Design series. Great food, great people, and a great cause!

The penthouse level of the Murdoch building, where World of Whirlpool is located and where the event was held, is so chic and was beautifully decorated, not only with flowers but with edible art like this chocolate sculpture resembling coral. (We got the scoop on how it was made...fill a bowl with ice and pour melted chocolate over the top. The chocolate will flow over the ice and harden. Then once the ice melts, this craggy shape is what's left. Very cool.)

As expected, the food was amazing. How could it not be when chefs such as Jacques Torres, Chris Macchia, Mindy Segal, and others are doing the cooking! Deb was particularly enamored of this artichoke and shrimp tortelli by Federico Comacchio of Coco Pazzo.

But even with all that, our favorite part was the herb garden. The Whirlpool/Jenn-Air staff grows a huge variety of herbs on the rooftop deck!

Through fundraising events like Chef's Table, DIFFA has granted over $40 million to hundreds of AIDS service organizations nationwide and DIFFA/Chicago itself has awarded almost $4 million. It was a pleasure attending the Chef's Table and we look forward to more DIFFA events. Thanks to Jenn-Air, CS Magazine, all the planners, chefs, and sponsors!