Some of the best design partnerships gel because of a matchmaker who has a strong hunch that a union will be blissful.
Such was the case when a couple on the North Shore were ready to try again to decorate their 1928 stucco cottage, which they purchased for its potential and neighborhood. They had previously worked with another designer but found the relationship wanting. “I didn’t like her taste and inexperience,” says the wife, who sold her own business to spend more time with her family.
In contrast, the couple’s relationship with the architects who were remodeling their house was successful. Stuart Cohen and Julie Hacker appreciated the home’s simplicity and coziness and wanted to make it function and look better rather than revamp it.
“They were the only firm that came in and didn’t want to change everything, but wanted to improve what was there by reworking spaces and adding a deck,” the wife explained. Adds Cohen, “We wanted to turn it into a nicer version of what it started out to be.”
During their collaboration, he suggested his clients work with Stephanie Wohlner Levin, who had given her own suburban home an appropriate period flavor. Levin understood the couple’s wishes and taste immediately.
“Because the house was so small, I had to be careful to get the scale correct. There were so many furnishings we both loved, but we had to be careful not to overwhelm rooms,” she said. The husband turned over decision-making to his wife, who found the relationship with Levin clicked from the start. “Stephanie was good about working with what we had or making changes to pull a room together,” she said.
Levin’s prime focus was the downstairs, except the family room where the owners used existing furniture. To suit the home’s period feeling without giving it a museum stuffiness, Levin focused on plump seating covered in a mix of textures and patterns, period wood pieces, rattan seating, and a cohesive rustic, earthy palette.
She also introduced some offbeat choices for a visual wallop: an animal-print stair carpet and diamond patterned stenciling atop the kitchen floor. “It’s important when you walk in to see something interesting. There was nothing magnificent about the stairs; the kitchen needed perking up,” Levin says.
How did the owners react? “I found the wife had a daring side if I showed her something unusual and fabulous. She trusted me.”
The only hesitation was the choice of wood blinds. “She had a hard time visualizing them and initially panicked when they were installed. She thought they looked too busy,” Levin says. “I told her to give them a few days.” She did, and they grew on her. “I still don’t love them, but they’re functional and appropriate,” she says.
Money can become a sore point in a relationship. But here, too, the sides reached an agreeable arrangement. Instead of a total budget for the project, the clients decided Levin would tell them how much she needed to complete each room. “A lot of people think if you work with a designer you’ll spend more than you want. That may happen, but not in our case,” the wife said. “Stephanie never talked us into anything, but used our taste to expand our horizons.”
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Resources: Interior designer, Stephanie Wohlner, Stephanie Wohlner Design, Highland Park; architects, Stuart Cohen and Julie Hacker of Cohen/Hacker Architects, Evanston; contractor, Windsor Builders, Northbrook. Bamboo blinds in living room, dining room and sunroom–Conrad, Pranich & Associates, Merchandise Mart. Wall paint, sesame color throughout–Pratt & Lambert. Sunroom: Availability of furnishings through Stephanie Wohlner Design, Highland Park. Living room: Custom ottoman–Stephanie Wohlner Design, upholstered with Edelman leather–Holly Hunt Ltd., Mart; tray and antique pot on ottoman and Tramp art frame above fireplace–through Stephanie Wohlner Design; bronze luster harlequin tiles around fireplace–Ann Sacks, Chicago; antique andirons–through Stephanie Wohlner Design. Dining room: Huron table and chairs–Koch Smith Furniture, Mart; armoire–Baker Furniture, Mart; fabric on chairs–Clarence House, Mart.
