Life changes can lead to lifestyle changes. The death of a spouse, divorce and remarriage, the birth of a baby or children leaving the nest-all have the power to dramatically alter our lives. And because our homes are reflections of our lives, it would seem natural that their designs should change as we do.
We turn our guest rooms into nurseries-and 20 years later they`re empty again. We find that the look we thirsted for in our 30s doesn`t seem so nifty in our 50s. And we learn that a home that holds a lifetime of memories may someday need to make room for new dreams. Sometimes it takes little more than paint, wallpaper and some new furniture to give us the fresh start we need.
But more often, profound changes in life often call for equally profound changes in home-from trying on a whole new ”look” to altering the form and function of rooms to moving to a new style of living quarters altogether.
It`s not easy starting over, but as the following stories demonstrate, it can have its rewards.
A new perch for empty-nesters
When the last of Lori and Dick Stern`s children moved out of the family home, Lori and Dick decided they should, too.
”We wanted a change,” said Lori, a semi-retired teacher. They wanted a big change. The couple`s new Art Deco townhouse in Olympia Fields, decorated in a black-and-white-and-red-all-over color scheme, is a far cry from their last home, an ultratraditional ranch in Flossmoor, decorated in the golds and greens of yesteryear.
”Our old house looked like everyone else`s. When the kids left, we needed something different to give us a lift,” Lori explained. ”Then Dick and I saw an Art Deco apartment in the city, and we both flipped for it.”
When the Sterns bought their new contemporary-styled townhouse, they
”sold everything” from their old house and had designer Sandy Garrett, of D. Edmunds Interiors of Burr Ridge, ”start from scratch.” They told her they wanted a decidedly Deco look for their new home that was light, airy and practical. And they didn`t want pastels.
Garrett began by painting everything white and running black berber wool carpeting throughout the house. Window treatments were minimized to maximize the light from the home`s skylights and large windows. The designer then introduced a bold mix of black, gray, white and clear-glass furnishings, accented by bright red pieces and accessories, all in ultra-contemporary and neoclassic styles.
Of her new bold and bright home, Lori said, ”I love it! It`s actually exciting to come home to this place each day.”
Garrett said that the Sterns` willingness to part with so much of their past had a lot to do with the project`s success. ”The hardest thing about going from traditional to Deco is that only high-tech things fit into the design,” Garrett said. ”Many traditional collectibles would simply look out of place here.”
Still, the upstairs den holds a few sentimental things from the Sterns`
more traditional past, including a 10-foot-long, 100-pound blue sailfish.
”You can`t disassemble absolutely everything from your past, and that fish is my claim to fame,” said Dick, who caught the giant in Florida a few years ago. ”Sandy didn`t want to use it, but I told her if the fish didn`t go (to the new house), I didn`t go!”
Where life is greener
Lifelong Chicagoan John Himmel ”never in a million years” thought he`d leave the city for the suburbs. But since last summer, he, his wife, Roxane, and their two young daughters have been doing just that.
”Moving was a very tough decision. We loved the city,” said John, director of the Richard Himmel Antique and Decorative Furniture showroom in the Merchandise Mart. ”There were lots of advantages to living and raising kids there, but there were also disadvantages that seemed to get bigger with time.”
Staying home with two active preschoolers, Roxane became particularly aware of the disadvantages in terms of the family`s environment.
”We lived in a beautiful old co-op in Streeterville with high ceilings, huge open spaces-and absolutely no light,” she said. ”It was like living in a canyon. I actually called friends before taking the girls out just to see if it was sunny or cloudy outside.”
Also, as the children got older and more active, outdoor play areas became a growing priority for the family, with the co-op`s outside areas limited to a well manicured postage-stamp of a lawn in front and a parking lot in back.
”One day we admitted we were trying to live the American suburban dream in Streeterville,” John said. ”We were barbecuing in the parking lot, and the girls were playing outside on concrete. But there were cars and broken glass, and the kids couldn`t be left alone for a minute.”
Last summer, the Himmels moved to a spacious suburban home that had the three main ingredients they`d been missing in the city-a warm, cozy feel, lots of windows and a big back yard. Plus it had room for ”the dog we`d never been able to have,” a role now filled by Roy, the lovable Labrador.
In keeping with the move to suburbia, the Himmels` interior design style also changed, from the wide-open contemporary look of their downtown apartment to a more intimate, traditional home design that retains contemporary elements. Interestingly, the couple have added only a few new furnishings to their home in accomplishing the transition, mostly antiques or other period pieces from the Himmel showroom. The home`s traditional-styled interior architecture and Roxane`s skills as a professional interior designer have done the rest.
Freshly painted white walls set off a color scheme of subdued reds, greens and black downstairs, while lighter colors enhance the sun-filled upstairs rooms. Antique chests, Oriental rugs and other vintage furnishings give the home a traditional warmth, while more contemporary pieces, like a black baseball-glove shaped lounge chair in the living room, add interest and vitality to the overall design.
The Himmels say they especially love the privacy and increased space, and their daughters seem equally smitten with their sunny suite of rooms and being able to play in the yard whenever they want. Plus everyone agrees that having a dog is great.
Still, there are times when the family misses being downtown in ”the heart of things,” and they may move back when the girls are grown.
”I see moving here as part of the continuum of life, and overall, it`s been a pleasant change,” John said. ”But,” he added with a laugh, ”I do miss being able to call the superintendent when something goes wrong!”
Reclaiming an identity
When her husband died a few years ago, Carol Berkson of Northbrook found herself faced with many difficult decisions, including whether to stay in her home of 18 years.
”The decision finally came down to staying and redoing my own home, or moving and taking on a whole new beginning,” Berkson said. ”I decided I didn`t have the energy to start a new life in a new place. I wanted the security of familiar surroundings.”
What she didn`t want was a home design that represented her past, not her present and future. Her home was decorated in a traditional scheme of dark woods and darker colors that had worked well when she was raising her now-grown children but seemed inappropriate for her active, independent lifestyle now.
”The darkness was depressing,” Berkson recalled. ”I wanted a lighter, brighter look, and a more open feel to the house . . . a contemporary `90s look.”
Berkson asked interior designer Sandra Berger of Chicago to help her in taking the home through a ”complete metamorphosis.” They broke down walls and opened up ceiling space to give the home a spacious, airy look that was lacking before. Floors were whitewashed and walls painted and wallpapered in light colors for a fresh, upbeat look.
The designer then introduced a pastel color scheme, with black and bold-colored accents. Furnishings are largely contemporary, with a few cherished traditional pieces from the past carefully blended in for an overall look of comfortable, feminine elegance.
Berger also changed the form and function of some rooms to accommodate new priorities in Berkson`s life. For example, the living room, which was rarely used, was opened up and transformed into a classy card-playing room, perfect for her twice-weekly mah-jongg games with her friends.
And her late husband`s study, off the master bedroom, was changed into a luxurious mini-spa, complete with whirlpool and steam shower, and a dressing room to make any woman feel like a star.
”This home is totally me now, the colors, the artwork, everything. I fulfilled my dream with his house,” Berkson explained with pride. ”It has helped me reclaim my identity.”
From rarefied to citified
When Lou Anne Kellman was raising her children in a Houston suburb in the `70s, she enrolled them in a city preschool ”so they would know that everyone in the world wasn`t just like them.”
”I hated living there. Everyone was the same; it was too rarefied,”
Kellman said, adding that the lifestyle contributed to the end of her first marriage and subsequent move to Chicago, where she met Joe Kellman. Their first apartment was a duplex just north of downtown.
”I came to Chicago to start a new life, a more diverse and sophisticated life. . . . As a result, I went for a very Art Deco look in the apartment, all mauves and grey,” Kellman said. ”I loved it until the men carried everything in the door and saw how rigid it was. . . . We had to live with that mistake for a long time.”
Fortunately, Kellman was able to make a change for the better when she and Joe moved to a larger, more centrally located condo off Lake Shore Drive, better suited to the their busy, civic-minded lives. Joe is the founder of the Better Boys Foundation and the Corporate/Community School in Lawndale, two nationally acclaimed inner-city programs that occupy most of the Kellmans`
time and energies today.
”They`re our world. We lead very active lives, and while I wanted this to be a comfortable home that we could entertain in, I also wanted it to fit a busy lifestyle,” said Kellman, whose schedule also includes pre-law studies at Loyola.
Taking no chances with change this time, Kellman had designer Jane Newton of Morton Grove help her create an ”eclectic, neutral look” that would be easy to maintain and reflect the couple`s love of the simple and good things in life.
”I didn`t want us to be trapped by a style again. If you have something so rigid you can`t put things you love in it, then it`s not worth it, to me at least,” Kellman said, pointing around to beloved treasures, ranging from a bowl brought back from Egypt to a painting by her grown son.
In creating the new design, Newton extensively updated and remodeled the existing space, replacing windows, knocking down walls and vaulting ceilings to achieve a cleaner, more open look. Sensitive to the Kellmans` entertaining needs, she expanded the kitchen by taking over an unused maid`s room and formalized the dining area.
She also converted closet space into a bar and guest bathroom. ”My goal was to create easy living in a gracious home in the sky,” Newton said. Newton furnished the home in a complementary mix of contemporary and antique furnishings, colored in light, earthy tones. A few well-chosen pieces of art combined with more personal possessions give the home a distinct warmth and personality.
Asked to describe what he considers most important in a home, Joe Kellman focuses on environment over design, saying, ”The most important things are personal attention, care, comfort and freedeom from fear-all the things I have, and all the things most inner-city children lack.”
