Have you ever wished you could take what’s ordinary and make it extraordinary? Nick Cave and Jeffery Roberts have the uncanny ability to do just that.
As artists, they do it in their work. And their artistic bent also came into play in their recently renovated South Loop loft.
“The building was built by Kelly-Springfield Tire, with a showroom on the first floor and factory on the second and third floors,” explains Roberts, an interior architect/designer an fashion designer.
“Without even seeing the interior, we knew it was for us,” says Cave, who teaches at the School of the Art Institute and is a performance/installation artist.
“There was an order and balance to the exterior, and a beautifully detailed terra-cotta facade,” he adds. The 50-by-160-foot lot was also appealing.
With their friend and business partner Sandra Colegrove, the men gutted the building and created a mixed-use property. Seven commercial spaces and one live/work unit occupy the first and second floors. Their 3,500-square-foot home/studio featuring 16-foot ceilings and towering windows is on the third floor.
Visitors enter through a gallery, drawn by a flood of natural light that intensifies as they move inside. To allow light to bathe the entire space, Roberts devised a T-shaped layout based on a central axis with rooms to either side.
Free-standing walls divide areas for functional purposes, creating a living/dining room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen. Yet, because these walls measure only 9 1/2 feet tall and 10 of the 12 doors are glass pane, spaces seem to flow, preserving a sense of openness.
“This is a place that honors creativity,” says Cave. “It provides us an opportunity to be surrounded by art and it validates us as artists.” Most of their collection is Cave’s art, but they also showcase works by other artists and some outsider art.
“Furniture becomes a backdrop,” explains Roberts. “It has to be architecturally interesting and significant in design, but we don’t purchase furniture to become a focal piece of the room. We purchase furniture to become areas in which you can sit down to enjoy the art or the space.” Consequently, he says, furniture is subtle, neutral, clean and understated.
The living room offers three conversation areas, with simple, white twill couches and two brown leather Barcelona chairs for seating. Dominating the far wall is 14 feet of a 60-foot-across series of wood armatures covered in found metal by Cave titled “Mobile Construction-Trees.” “It creates an umbrella for the space and closes in the environment,” says Cave of the reversible constructions, which are 1 foot by 2 inches by 8, 10 and 12 feet.
Behind a nearby couch hangs an assemblage by Cave composed of an old wooden door found in an alley accented with a misshapen hanger, a spool of barbed wire and a rusty piece of metal. It’s almost as simple as scouring a flea market or an alley, in search of like things in twos or more, then grouping them together. The key is an eye, and few of us have what Cave and Roberts bring to the table.
A teak coffee table by George Nelson found at a local antiques mall holds an artfully arranged chain of bottle caps and an ebony bowl that was a gift from a friend.
In the center of the room, another coffee table is created by the unlikely grouping of three old shipping pallets. A beaded vest from Ghana paired with two African bells stand on a table nearby.
Surrounded by all of the things that are most dear to them, the men say their home brings them peace. “It’s a wonderful place to come at the end of the day,” says Cave.
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RESOURCES
ART RULES Pg. 21: Grouping of boxes-personal collection. Hallway detail: Green utility cabinet-Jane’s Antiques, De Kalb; hand rattler-by Nick Cave; ceramic bowl by Julie Teresterman and untitled painting by Sabastiafo-personal collection. Pp. 22-23: Bedroom: Russian side chair and objects on table-personal collection; hand-painted striped coverlet, hand-printed velvet reading blanket and four untitled prints on wall-by Nick Cave; Amish windmill quilt rolled at pillows-Doug Stock Artifacts, Chicago; wooden ram’s head sculpture-Indochina Company Inc., Chicago; medieval iron candelabra-Susanin’s Auction House, Chicago; old stable door-Jane’s Antiques, De Kalb. Pg. 23: Living room: Artwork against far wall titled “Mobil Construction-Trees”-by Nick Cave; sofas-Crate & Barrel; birthing stool-personal collection. Pp. 24-25: Living-room detail: Beaded vestment from Ghana and African money bells-African Art Fair, Hyde Park, Chicago; restored French cameo back chair with hand-painted velvet-by Nick Cave and Jeffery Roberts; wood constructed painting titled “LONGONG”-by Nick Cave; antique washboard table-Jane’s Antiques, De Kalb; leather medicine case and Barcelona chairs-personal collection. Pg. 25: Bathroom: Tub-Waterworks, Chicago; fixtures-Water Ware, Chicago; glass containers and bowl-A New Leaf, Chicago; untitled clay sculpture on back of tub by Rachael Cross and untitled wall sculpture on brick wall by David Nelson-personal collection; wall sculpture on white wall between shower and tub titled “SCALPED FORMALITIES”-by Nick Cave.
Table of contents Pg. 4: Dining area: Tables-by Nick Cave, fabricated by Sturdy Metals, Chicago; leather ’50s chairs-personal collection; hand-painted table runner-by Nick Cave; tall sculpture on floor-titled “TOTUM” by Nick Cave; two round objects on floor, buggy weights-Kane County Flea Market; print on wall titled “MASS”-by Nick Cave; floral arrangement-Jeffery Roberts Designs, Chicago.
