`Style is inborn,” says Hale DeMar, whose home and restaurant happen to prove the point. Both are filled with alluring and imaginative touches: dramatic draperies, fabulous faux paint finishes, finely crafted built-in cabinetry and eclectic furnishings.
The work of a trained interior designer, most would guess. Not so.
“You don’t always need professional training to design a fabulous interior,” says the owner of the 24-year-old Oak Tree restaurant. “The ability to forget the old and expected and try a completely fresh approach can go just as far if someone has a great eye.”
Which is why he chose to bypass the veterans he had interviewed for the interior design work on The Oak Tree three years ago and hire his then-28-year-old graphic designer, Scott Hanselmann, to do the job when the Chicago institution moved from Rush and Oak Streets to the 900 North Michigan Avenue mall.
DeMar, who had used Hanselmann for graphic design work for four years, turned to the artist to do the interior designing because the architect that had been hired “just didn’t get it.”
“I realized Scott definitely did when he gave me a funky old chandelier from a flea market as a gift,” says DeMar. “I had been struggling to convey the spirit of what I wanted to the architect, and Scott gave me this fabulous fixture because he knew it represented exactly what I was looking for and would fit in.”
The end result: an eclectic and deft blend of influences that run the gamut from rustic to urbane. So impressed was DeMar that he then brought the novice decorator home to do his River West loft.
“It was nothing but raw space,” says DeMar of the 2,500-square-foot apartment, “and I had a drastically different budget than what I spent on the restaurant. But Scott managed to work wonders because he has such a fresh approach.”
Hanselmann first mounted stock moldings atop a weathered wooden dividing element he had built and installed in the loft-later an armoire also was built into this piece. This inventively reconfigured the loft into a series of private and public spaces to suit DeMar’s family, which includes his wife, Karen, and 8-month-old son, Jack, and carved out areas for sleeping, eating and entertaining.
Next, he artfully filled the generous expanses with dramatic yet functional furnishings, all custom-made by an unusual coterie of local artists and craftsmen.
Exquisite decorative paint finishes and murals on the walls were executed by artist Steph Gabel, while photostylist Dana Renninger stitched upholstery and drapery fabrics into show-stopping pillows and drapes. Tony D’Orio, a commercial photographer, worked out the lighting plan, using stark industrial-strength tracks for the basics. Graceful, custom-made metal fixtures and sconces by Mary Brogger and intricately layered multimedia lamps by Linnea Gits supplemented D’Orio’s work.
Woodworker Bill Groot made an armoire that was incorporated into the center element of the apartment to look as if it had been built in. Its front faces the living/entertaining area, while its intricately patterned back overlooks DeMar’s desk in a study.
Groot also collaborated with Roger Carlsen, a blacksmith, on a bed and kitchen stools that wed metal and wood. Carlsen also crafted elegant wrought-iron curtain hooks and rods to anchor industrial-grade textiles Renninger had made into drapes. Thanks to this subtle metal support system, the fabrics appear to float ethereally over the apartment’s expansive windows, taking on an air of opulence and drama.
But the kitchen proved to be the piece de resistance, thanks to John Schedler’s carpentry. “Smallbone cabinets would have cost about $40,000,” says DeMar, “and we imitated the same look for less than 20 percent of that.”
A funky $100 cabinet from a flea market also was refurbished into a sturdy pantry by Schedler, and reasonably priced ceramic tiles painted with landscapes by artist Andrea Gallagher gave a luxurious look to the walls.
Like restaurant, like home
Today, DeMar’s apartment reflects the same kind of eclectic blend as The Oak Tree-warmth and a sophisticated ambience prevail over any one style.
A burnished entry area that is furnished with fine Mission pieces opens on to a large, richly appointed living area. In the living area, Hanselmann artfully blends a contemporary sectional sofa and easy chairs with cabinetry that has an obvious country bent. Some of the walls in the room remain in their original, rough brick state, while others are plastered, wainscotted and painted in other decorative finishes.
The kitchen also seems to be a curious blend of country and city styling, with its rough wood cabinets mixed with highly styled tiles, fixtures and stools.
“Since I wasn’t a traditional interior designer, I didn’t go to all the usual places to get things done,” Hanselmann says. “The intrigue of the job was orchestrating the work of artists and artisans I respected.”
“Good interior design doesn’t always come from expected channels,” says Hanselmann, who operates by a “use what your have” philosophy.
A man of details
The unexpected and resourceful approach wasn’t always the most comforting for Karen DeMar.
“Since Scott’s ideas were always so novel,” she says, “I had a hard time visualizing how they would actually look. But I was always thrilled with the end results.”
Hanselmann also is pragmatic, paying what DeMar characterizes as “exceptional attention” to two matters that count quite a bit: “He’s cost-conscious and takes notice of every detail.”
For instance, the flea market kitchen pantry was personally routed by Hanselmann from woodworker to painter, notes DeMar, while the stools commissioned for the kitchen counter were taken by Hanselmann to the blacksmith and woodworker to foster the collaboration.
Coming home
Being created by the same pool of local talent, the fabulous touches in the DeMars’ apartment echoed the unique charm in their restaurant.
There, Hanselmann had transformed the white floors, walls, counters and cabinets of the space, which had been the Carnegie Deli, into a series of lush and intimate vignettes filled with warm woods, rich textiles, mixed-media mosaics, curving counters and painted, textured walls.
Linda Coleman, owner of Portfolio Inc., a marketing firm that represents a dozen top Chicago interior designers, says The Oak Tree is “filled with extraordinary ideas that could easily be adapted from commercial to residential settings. This is a designer who skillfully blends the best aspects of many styles.”
Indeed, The Oak Tree is rife with charming tables and chairs-new and old ones, all mismatched-funky antique furniture pieces, lush oil paintings, ornate tile work and a seasonally changing array of flowers.
DeMar still marvels at how the various components of the restaurant and his residence work and credits Hanselmann’s insights about his family’s likes and lifestyle with these results.
But Hanselmann believes fulfilling these needs is the most basic part of the job. “As a designer, you draw conclusions,” he says, “then you work from there.
“My goal has always been to push limits, which is what these jobs allowed me to do.”
