After a decade of living in a choppy, Victorian-era frame house in Lake View, a Chicago couple with two kids had plenty of time to think about the “new home.”
“We wanted it to be modern and open, but warm and family-friendly. Our children had to be able to use every room. Guests too, because we entertain all the time, and we’re not the kind of people who tell them to take their shoes off at the door . . . or to make any room off-bounds. So everything had to be accessible and durable,” says the wife.
The same standards applied to their decorative program. Furnishings “had to be approachable but sophisticated, and clean-lined but not cold. Nothing could be too precious for everyone to use. But a sense of whimsy was important too . . . We didn’t want to take ourselves too seriously,” says the husband.
A final “want” on the wife’s list reveals the couple’s mindset most clearly–possessions that “patina well.”
“When things acquire that [layer of] wear and tear, it proves they’re loved and used. It shows that you’ve met your goals,” she says, citing examples such as the burnished, bruise-like splotches on a leather sofa after the kids have had their way with it, and the finely etched hairline scratches that temper the brilliant sheens on polished metal surfaces.
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Given the parameters of the new home–the second floor of a recently completed low-rise in Lincoln Park–their goals seemed a stretch.
First hurdle: It was modern, with an architectural program devised by the building’s developer and architects–Belgravia Group and a team from Pappageorge/Haymes respectively–that referenced the work of mid-century masters Louis Kahn, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier. Second hurdle: It was spacious, with a 5,000-square-foot floor plan that featured open, interlaced spaces; 10-foot-high ceilings; two roomy balconies; and expansive windows. But with a materials palette of raw concrete, pristine drywall and icy glass, warming it up and giving it intimacy would be no small task.
The couple knew what they were up against. “We’ve seen so many homes that are modern, but as cold as an art museum. They’re definitely not kid-centered spaces, or even comfortable,” concedes the wife. So to get what they wanted, they did the unusual by hiring a designer recognized for the furniture he makes rather than his interior design work.
“It was the first time I had been asked to do an entire interior,” notes Morlen Sinoway, who is based in an eponymous West Loop atelier where he sells his own work and home furnishings by other makers. He had done a small project for the couple in their last home, so he was on a short list of designers.
“He was the only one who really got what we wanted, which isn’t your usual brand of Modernism,” says the husband. “He has an intellectual approach to the period, so working with him was like getting an education in art history. And what he wasn’t able to find, he could design and fabricate himself,” notes the wife.
Sinoway began with an almost clean slate and lots of leeway. “Besides their contemporary-art collection, they wanted to keep only a few pieces of furniture from their last place. I had to be mindful of where to site the most significant pieces, like a Roger Brown canvas and a Richard Serra print.”
His first novel idea was a dazzling, durable terrazzo floor in the foyer, with circles of white spiraling out of a black core. The wife wanted limestone, but Sinoway thought “it was too predictable. The space deserved something more dramatic and unique.” Since the design fans out and guides you into other rooms, it is a family hit. ” . . . our yellow brick road,” quips the husband.
In the living room, a back bay was semi-enclosed with two etched-glass partitions to forge a home office, a move that rendered them related yet distinct. Here two of the five pieces from their last place found a home–a leather sofa that had already acquired the patina the couple coveted, and their former dining table, a crystal-clear glass number, was used as a desk. The space has proved effective. “I work there, the kids work there, and we can feel like we’re a part of what’s going on in the living and dining rooms,” explains the wife, an education professor who often writes at home.
In the rest of the room, the couple wanted to use a pair of Egg chairs and a glass coffee table, which were the other pieces they kept from their last home. “The chairs have a playful shape, but it wasn’t enough to carry the room,” says Sinoway. To add a little of that requisite whimsy to the still-expansive space, he played against type.
“Fancy stone would have been the logical choice for the fireplace surround. Instead, I used Chicago sculptor Bryan Kerrigan’s ceramic ‘Pill’ tiles. The pattern is fun, and it echoes the elliptical shape of their chairs,” he explains. Also, staid Modernist sofas were sheathed in vibrant purple mohair instead of something more neutral. And for a bit of buoyancy blended with wit, Sinoway used an ultra-fluffy wool rug the color of a cloud and a floor lamp that has austere but charming silhouette of a lollipop.
Sinoway used similar tactics in almost every space, warming up sleek, smooth surfaces and shapes with hot colors and intriguing textures. A 50-foot-long bank of floor-to-ceiling windows that edges the living and dining areas is dressed with silvery iridescent satin drapes that reflect the hues in the rooms; a tremendous but streamlined pit sofa that wraps around almost the whole family room is upholstered in mandarin orange leather; and a boatlike ovoid tub in the master bath is surrounded by a panoply of fiery tiles.
Only the bedroom is neutral, but gets texture from a fuzzy mohair carpet, soft nubby wool on two easy chairs and a sueded leather carpet used as a wall covering behind the bed. Today, after just a year in the place, the new leather sofa in the family room already shows lots of evidence that the kids have had their way with it . . . and the stainless-steel countertops in the kitchen are starting to acquire a more modulated gleam, the husband acknowledges.
Mission accomplished.
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RESOURCES
Design: Morlen Sinoway, Chicago. Pg. 28-29: Living room: Arne Jacobsen Egg chair and coffee table–Luminaire, Chicago; Saarinen end table–Knoll, knoll.com; Casalis Extase rug, Bryan Kerrigan’s ceramic “Pill” tiles–Morlen Sinoway, Chicago; Florence Knoll sofas–vintage through Morlen Sinoway; purple mohair on sofas–Knoll, Merchandise Mart, Chicago; Castore 35 floor lamp by Artemide–artemidestore.com; artwork–collection of owner.
Pg. 30: Bedroom: Serge Mouille floor lamp, Hans Wegner Papa Bear chair, Morlen Sinoway side table, Morlen Sinoway bed, Morlen Sinoway bed stands, Bestlight wall sconces, Limited Edition sueded and leather strip rug (used as wall covering), Casalis Pello alpaca carpet–all at Morlen Sinoway, Chicago; Rogers & Goffigon Townsend wool on Papa Bear chair–Cowtan & Tout, Mart; drapes–Parenteau Studio, Chicago; Larsen Tranquility wool blend drapery fabric–Cowtan & Tout, Robert Scott, Mart; all artwork–collection of owner.
Pg. 31: Bathroom: Custom-blend glass tiles–Bisazza, Mart; Agape Spoon Tub–Luminaire, Chicago; drapes-Parenteau Studio, Chicago; Lelivere Eventail sheer drapery fabric–Stark, Mart.
Pg. 32: Foyer, hallway: Meret Openheim table for Treccia and Casalis Raja runner in hallway–Morlen Sinoway, Chicago; terrazzo floor–designed by Morlen Sinoway and fabricated by Metropolitan Terrazzo, Elk Grove Village; Ingo Maurer Birdie chandelier–Ingo Maurer LLC, New York.
Pg. 32: Study: Onda sofa and Sir Norman Foster table (as desk)–Luminaire, Chicago; Carl Hansen Wishbone chair, Morlen Sinoway dining table-Morlen Sinoway, Chicago; vintage Knoll dining chairs–through Morlen Sinoway; drapes–Parenteau Studio, Chicago; Labyrinth drapey fabric–Donghia Textiles, Mart.