Agustin Fernandez is on to something. “I’ve always believed in the tradition of the Baroque. Opulence and ornament are important components of beauty in anything, whether it’s a tiny piece of jewelry or an entire home,” he says.
When it’s an entire home, the Chicago interior designer employs his own sophisticated take on Baroque to great effect, as proven in this Lake Shore Drive aerie for one Chicago couple. Even though the apartment is in a streamlined contemporary high-rise, Fernandez didn’t alter his approach. “Minimalism doesn’t hold up or reflect enough of a person. It’s boring and gives you nothing to think about or hold onto,” he maintains.
In fact, as Stephen Calloway pointed out in his seminal tome “Baroque Baroque,” (Phaidon Press Ltd., 1994), despite the advent of sleeker decorative styles, the centuries-old tradition of the Baroque is here to stay. “The 1980s saw a full-blooded revival of the Baroque, and in the 1990s, despite the prevailing mood of austerity, it continued to thrive.”
And there is no reason to believe the style will wane, he says. “Baroque is an attitude to life . . . delight in the richness and grandeur of things” and “an alternative that unashamedly indulges in the colorful, the opulent, the theatrical,” notes Calloway. Put another way, it’s a great diversion that entertains and sustains. Life at home becomes more interesting when your surroundings are striking and sumptuous, yet comfortable and functional.
The apartment that Fernandez created for his clients fulfills all these ends. “It was the second place I did for them, and I had to marry their individual approaches. She’s a gorgeous, glamorous fashion authority who is always impeccably put together, and he likes to sit back in a lounge chair with a cigar and relax. They had many of the pieces from the first place I did for them, and all they told me was to make it all work,” he says.
Fernandez started out by gutting the four-bedroom apartment and turning it into a spacious one-bedroom. All the rooms went from puny and prosaic to expansive and grand. While the size was achieved architecturally, the grandeur was realized with the right trappings.
In an immense living room, black stone floors with the dazzle of patent leather are dressed to kill with a seductive skin rug, then crowned with a sofa and other seating sheathed in sensuous silks. On the wall facing the sofa, accordion doors framed in ebonized wood and clad in vellum hide a full-fledged media center, while at a windowless end of the room a substantial bar that calls to mind the “rec” rooms of the Fifties–though its fabricated out of macassar ebony rather than knotty pine–harbors a well-stocked liquor collection. It’s flanked by masculine bar stools, and a pair of rich ruby mohair chairs sit nearby.
Thanks to the all-out glamor, it works for the woman of the house. And with all those lounge chairs, not to mention the well-stocked bar, it works for the man. Though the room exudes grandeur, it’s quite utilitarian. Zones for watching TV, reading or relaxing with a drink are carved out by the way the space is furnished, and the easy chairs and sofa have high comfort quotients.
The dining room exhibits the same sumptuous serviceability. A lustrous stone table and lacquered wood dining chairs covered in a regal striped silk are paired with a big-deal, gilt-encrusted chandelier. But the fixture is grand without being excessive thanks to its masculine demeanor. A painting by Chicago artist Ed Paschke, impressive in size and scope and bold in hue, also makes a grand gesture in the space.
The study and bedroom are clad in equally sumptuous furnishings and textiles, but again, comfort and function take precedence. “This couple really uses everything they have–whether it’s the living room for watching TV, their china and silver every day or their European sheets,” Fernandez notes. And that’s what makes them such good emissaries for the style.
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FERNANDEZ RESOURCES
Living room: Flooring–Solis Stone, Lincolnwood; silk sofa–designed by Agustin Fernandez, fabricated by Brusic-Rose, Chicago, fabric from J. Robert Scott, Chicago; pillows–fabrics through Agustin Fernandez, fabricated by Parenteau Studios, Chicago; coffee tables–designed by Agustin Fernandez, fabricated by Architectural Objects, Chicago; gilt-legged benches–Holly Hunt, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, covered in silk from Old World Weavers, Mart; Cameron Collection salon chair at Holly Hunt, Mart, fabric from J. Robert Scott; drapes–bronze silk from J. Robert Scott; Jim Thompson bronze striped silk from Holly Hunt, metallic silk for sheers from Donghia Textiles, Mart, fabricated by Parenteau Studios; painting–Doug Lydon Fine Art, Chicago; rug–personal collection. Dining room: Table, Ed Paschke painting and marble bowl–personal collection; dining chairs–Nancy Corzine, Mart, covered in silk from Scalamandre, Mart; chandelier–J. Robert Scott. Bedroom: Bed–Donghia Furniture, Mart, covered in fabric from Clarence House Imports, Mart; bedside table–Dessin Fournir at Thomas Job, Mart; silk drapes from Stark Carpet, Mart, fabricated by Parenteau Studios; pillows–by Agustin Fernandez, fabricated in silk from Coraggio Textiles (bottom pillow) and Jim Thompson at Holly Hunt (top pillow), both at Mart; lamp–personal collection. Living room: Lounge chairs–Rose Tarlow at Holly Hunt, covered in mohair from J. Robert Scott; side table with metal gilt frame–Dessin Fournir, Mart; mirrored side table–through Agustin Fernandez; German Expressionist paintings–Richard Norton Gallery, Chicago. Study: Sofas and easy chairs–Edward Ferrell, Mart, fabric from Clarence House Imports, Mart; coffee table–Tui Pranich & Associates, Mart; prints–Milvia Swan Gallery, Chicago; lamp–Rose Tarlow at Holly Hunt, striped shade from Lang/Levin Studios, both Mart; lamp–Donghia Furniture, cream shade from Lang/Levin Studios; millwork–Roncin Custom Design, Huntley.
Lisa Skolnik writers frequently about design for the Magazine.
