Suzanne El-Moursi and her husband, Bassel Ericsoussi, had one rule when they hired Sarah Kuchar-Parkinson to refashion their penthouse condo in the West Loop: No white walls. Not one. Anywhere.
The couple, who hail from Egypt and Syria, wanted their three kids to grow up somewhere that conveyed the vibrancy of Cairo and Damascus, not another gray-and-beige box. “We wanted a feast for the eyes,” says El-Moursi.
When Kuchar-Parkinson, founder of the Chicago design studio Kuchar, got the couple’s brief for their two-floor unit, it sounded like it could be a dream job — or a disaster. If she decided to go full-on with color, pattern, and texture, she risked turning the entire place into a circus. Play it safe and she’d be back to the boring that the couple were trying to avoid. “How do we go maximalist but still have some restraint,” Kuchar-Parkinson says, “and still be tasteful, chic, and on trend?”
Her answer: Edit ruthlessly, then commit to what survives the cuts. The “neutral” she chose was dusty mauve on the walls and even the ceilings.
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Now the front entrance opens into a kitchen with a custom dining table set beneath a sculptural brass fixture strung with pin lights. Behind the table, a raked plaster installation catches the light to look like Saharan sand dunes in Egypt. A sinuous mirror has the same aesthetic. Open shelving styled with collected objects reveals stories of the couple’s global adventures.
Millwork arches bind that grand space to the living room and the bar area, where the curves keep coming like waves on a shore. There, a green marble wall transitions into a counter with a triple bullnose edge. A leather-wrapped, illuminated banister runs the length of the stairwell, alongside a textured cityscape wallpaper. A custom rug subtly fades from green at the top of the stairs to yellow as it pools at the bottom, near some of the bar seating.
Upstairs, on the ninth floor of the building, the kids’ bedrooms are tucked away, while a family room screams to be enjoyed. A playful fish print from Bradley covers the wall. By day, the multifunctional room serves as movie-watching headquarters for the kids, with a climb-up reading nook and cushions that double as pillows. By night, it’s for grownups; a classic Roche Bobois sofa anchors the room, while pieces like a blue velvet Tacchini chair, sourced in Milan, push the look farther off the beaten path. The room opens onto a roof deck that has skyline views.
The setup makes for the kind of nights the couple had in mind when they bought the place. They do, after all, host gatherings at least monthly, ranging from couples’ dinners to 50-person blowouts. “There’s never a last call here,” El-Moursi says.
Back downstairs, a hallway of fringed grass cloth backs a custom console with scalloped tambour-style drawers and hair-on-hide ottomans for stashing shoes and keys. It leads to the primary bedroom, where everything quiets down. The fringed sconces and metal mesh chandelier were chosen for their soft, atmospheric illumination, and the subtle golden shimmer of the wallpaper catches the sunlight, creating a warm glow.
“I am a maximalist, and my husband is a minimalist,” El-Moursi points out. This room is the couple’s compromise: olive green and purple, with the skyline out the window and a custom cream rug trimmed in regal purple. “This space is truly calmer than the family room,” Kuchar-Parkinson says, “but it still brings in some beautiful maximalist moments.”
The project took 18 months, with everything purposely telegraphing the couple’s love of entertaining and Middle Eastern roots. That includes the span of colors: The earthy desert neutrals and the jewel tones of lapis blue, emerald green, and amethyst mirror those of the cities of their heritage. “There is only one life,” El-Moursi says. “One moment to shape. One story to write. This condo is what happens when you live with intention.”
Heidi Mitchell is a freelance writer for Chicago magazine.