Architectural Continuity: New Blending with Old

Located in the heart of Winnetka, this stately early 1900s mansion is a classic example of Chicago’s North Shore architecture. The home features grand shingle-style proportions accented by intricate brick detailing. Our mission was to preserve the home’s historic “bones” while seamlessly integrating modern amenities—including a large “clubhouse” addition and many interior updates. We designed the updates to accommodate the lifestyle of a modern family while assuring that the aesthetic is consistent and appropriate to the age and vintage of the house.

The hallmark of this renovation is the undetectable transition between the original structure and the new spaces, and an extensive connection to the outdoors.

• The Clubhouse: Pivoting from installing a golf simulator in the existing lower level, we worked with the homeowner to design a first-floor “clubhouse” addition to replace an outdated indoor swimming pool. The new all-seasons entertaining zone features a golf simulator area with doors that open to a porch, a vaulted ceiling with dramatic wood beam accents, a lounge with comfortable wrap-around seating, multiple TVs, a bar with a kegerator, and a scenic bifold door system, which opens the entire north wall to an outdoor fireplace seating area, a beautiful pool and a pickleball court.
• Seamless Addition: We also added a much-needed three-car garage and reconfigured the mudroom. To maintain overall scale with the house, we kept the additions to one story. Original architectural details like curved shingle brackets and the pergola surrounding the pickleball court were matched exactly, expertly tying in the new architecture to what was already here.
• Breakfast and Family Room: The family room now has a set of French doors with views of the pool and a second set of doors that lead to stairs that finally allow access to the outdoors.
• Crafted Staircase: When reconfiguring the home for the new garage and clubhouse, the back stair was also demolished. A new back stair was constructed connecting the first floor hallway circulation to lead out to the clubhouse, mudroom and new outside areas. Our team custom-fabricated newel posts, handrail profiles, and balusters for the back stair so that it perfectly matches the original details of the stunning front staircase, while, of course, meeting modern safety codes.

Refined Interiors & Spaces that Support Upscale Entertaining

The interior spaces were reimagined to balance high-end finishes with practical family functionality. The entertaining centers of the home – the kitchen, butler’s pantry, breakfast and family room – were upgraded to better match the design character of the original home replacing the deviations of previous additions.

• Gourmet Hub: The main kitchen features a French La Cornue range in a custom color chosen by the homeowners and a Zellige mosaic backsplash. We engineered a work-around to a steel column in the kitchen wall that supports an upstairs fireplace in order to create a symmetrical layout for the professional-grade refrigeration units around new, beautiful leaded glass windows above the sink. We further echoed this detail repeating leaded glass in the upper cabinets in the breakfast room and the upper cabinets above the refrigerator and freezer.
• Dual Kitchen Concept: Inspired by the homeowner’s time in Asia, we designed a “back kitchen” or scullery, hidden behind pocket doors. This space includes a secondary range, dishwasher, and refrigerator, allowing for messy prep work to remain out of sight during entertaining.
• The Butler’s Pantry: The space is finished with a mood-setting, labor-intensive high-gloss paint that allows for warm reflections from the stunning finishes. We replaced a non-original, 1980s garden bay window with leaded glass that better matches the home’s vintage and the accents in the kitchen. We were able to reclaim an extra foot of space for a large wet bar featuring scalloped stone countertops, a beautiful wall-mounted faucet and brass sink as well as a marble shelf with integrated lighting. Removal of upper cabinets on one side now provides the negative space to make the butler’s pantry even more welcoming.

Luxury Suites & Functional Upgrades

• Primary & Guest Suites: We created a new guest suite – changing a bedroom into an ensuite bathroom, closet and welcoming end-of-hallway window nook. We were able to repurpose an original clawfoot tub from the primary bathroom into the guest bath – allowing us to then upgrade her bath and dressing room with a modern air-bubble tub. The guest bath features custom vanities with marble countertops that have scalloped details that call back to the same design in other areas of the home.
• Fireplace Restoration: Every one of the home’s ten fireplaces was fully refurbished with new slab surrounds, gas log inserts, and liners to ensure they are all fully functional – for the first time in years. It is wonderful to have these staples of a vintage home warming rooms easily and beautifully.
• Enhanced Laundry: The original under-counter washer and dryer units were small and not suitable for an eight-bedroom home. The new laundry room borrows space from the guest bedroom-bathroom reconfiguration to accommodate stacked dual washers and dryers and a new drying rack and storage shelf custom designed by our in-house carpenter. In any project, we don’t want to get rid of things that are still functional and useful, so we kept the original laundry cabinetry, which is in great shape and has beautiful details. The original Carrara countertops here keep things unified with the new Carrara countertops selected for the guest bath.

The house is full of history, as is the neighborhood in which it sits. From the Winnetka Historical Society we know that “the house was one of four built by families working in concert. In 1887, Francis B. Peabody, his son-in-law James Houghteling, Frederick Greeley and Edward R. Ryerson bought the sixteen-acre block bounded by Prospect and Sheridan, Humboldt and Park. While the four houses they built remain today, two are substantially altered and two, this house and the house at the corner of Humboldt and Sheridan, retain their original look. One remarkable feature of the four houses is that a unifying landscape for all the properties was designed by the celebrated O. C. Simonds and was featured in a 1912 issue of Country Life in America magazine. The result was three tennis courts below the bluff on Sheridan Road, interconnected flower gardens and shared vistas that, in effect, multiplied the views available to any one of the houses.”

It was our privilege to work on such an important project for a truly wonderful family and stewards of this historic home.

Be sure to catch the video series about this wonderful renovation!

 

Photography: Jane Beiles (Styling by Jennifer Decleene)

Interior Designers: Simply Done – Lisa Johnson, Laura Probst

Art Advisory: Mason Lane – Kathy Ganley

 

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