Most Chicagoans who visit Bavaria come back with a collection of beer steins and a snapshot of Mad King Ludwig’s castle. Mary Jeanne Reese brought home a 250-year-old porcelain company.
Reese spent most of the 1990s living in Munich, just around the corner from Schloss Nymphenburg, a Bavarian royal palace whose workshops have been making fine porcelain by hand for centuries.
“I’d walk by there every day, go in and wander around,” says Reese, relating how she forged a relationship with the venerable “manufactory” that resulted in her opening its first ever non-German showroom in Chicago. Evidence of her passion for Germanic ceramics is scattered throughout her recently renovated Lincoln Park apartment. Porcelain songbirds flit among thickets of faux-bois candlesticks, and dinner guests sit down to a table laid with pre-Napoleonic place settings.
Beginning renovation last year with architect David Pickert, Reese was lucky to find Nate Berkus, Oprah’s Lord of Decor, who completely understood her affection for imperial Bavaria. Famous for his rugged good looks and magical TV makeovers, Berkus might not have seemed an obvious choice, but, as Reese points out, he has lived in Europe and is deeply knowledgeable about antiques.
Berkus was also quick to focus on what was really important to Reese–her two daughters, Madeline, 12, and Olivia, 9. “He said his goal was to make a comfortable place for me and the girls, a little haven,” says Reese. Berkus not only met that goal but also formed a friendship with Reese that has lived on well past the project’s end. “We have a fantastic connection,” he says. “I enjoy her trust and support.”
The 3,300-square-foot apartment, located in a French-style 1927 high-rise overlooking the park and the lake, neatly dovetailed with Reese’s needs as a working mother, but it presented a number of structural headaches.
“I brought over a developer friend,” recounts Reese. “He said the place is gorgeous, but you have horrible squeaky floors.” Out came the offending floorboards, replaced by dark-stained oak laid in a herringbone pattern. Then the kitchen and bathrooms were updated, old-fashioned applique wall moldings were removed and the fireplace mantel was replaced.
“That’s where my expertise kicked in,” says Reese. Something of a serial entrepreneur, Reese also runs a company called Au Coin du Feu, which imports antique European fireplace surrounds. A Louis XIV marblestone mantel now graces the living room. “Its rounded corners make it very special,” notes Reese. She also had the firebox lined with reclaimed roof tiles in what Reese calls a “library pattern,” the tiles lining up like books on a shelf.
Once the plaster dust had cleared, Berkus consulted an annotated photo album that Reese had compiled of all the furniture and art she’d collected in her travels.
“We have an honest dialogue,” Berkus says of working with Reese and her album. “I could say that something was a great piece, but didn’t necessarily work with the language of the place.” As a consequence, the German folk art objects never made it out of storage, while an array of 18th Century Venetian glass and a host of Biedermeier furniture (three tables and a secretary) got the spotlight.
As for new acquisitions, Berkus says that he wanted to shift the focus away from the 18th Century so Reese could have “a new experience.” The vintage shagreen cocktail table by Karl Springer, the late American designer who was inspired by art deco and African design, is a striking Berkus addition.
“Nate would say, ‘This is your splurge. This is worth it,'” says Reese. “He knew this table would be a great focal point.” The same goes for a pair of glamorous 1940s French chairs that Berkus snapped up for Reese and her apartment. “She knows what it means to fall in love with an object,” says Berkus.
Though Reese shopped the Web for the 1980 Dan Christensen painting that fills a dining room wall, she happily credits Berkus with most design decisions, especially the apartment’s colors and fabrics.
Says Berkus: “I’m not huge on pattern. I think multiple patterns in a room are distracting.” Instead, he used a palette of mink browns and cool grays accented by splashes of lavender and turquoise to create a kind of playful informality. The resulting rooms are sophisticated for entertaining but never seem overly formal. Reese calls the finished apartment “just elegant enough.”
Today 16th Century maps of Munich line the living room walls, and the library is hung with antique coats-of-arms, but there’s no hint of museum mustiness, no sense of a missing velvet rope.
“Mary Jeanne breathes fresh air into things that have history,” says Berkus. “This apartment is just a backdrop for the strength of her personality.”
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Take it from Nate
Design inspirations may emerge from paintings, nature or ancient temples. Here is style seen through the eyes of Oprah’s favorite decorator.
– Nurtured by nature Nature is a constant source of inspiration for me. The color palette found in nature is all I really ever need. Greens and blues found at the water’s edge are a palette I turn to often.
– Under the influence I went to the Angkor Temples in Cambodia two years ago when they opened after clearing out the land mines. The architecture, the character of the stone and the age of it all in such a lush landscape, it resonated with me.
– It’s artifactual One of my favorite stores is De Vera in New York. It carries a collection of decorative objects from all over the world, from ancient woodcarvings to wooden chains from Java.
– Marche du Flea The Paris flea markets. I was just there and I came away taken with worn finishes that have mellowed over time.
– Greek gifts The National Archeological Museum of Athens is one of my favorite museums in the world.
– Dress for distress Vintage jeans. I buy most of them at What Comes Around Goes Around in New York. I wear vintage Levi’s and vintage cords.
– Arm candy I collect vintage watches and recently bought a Patek Philippe from the year I was born, 1971, from a watch dealer in the South Loop. I fell in love with it instantly.
– Grate expectations Wherever I go, I find inspiration. On a trip to Sri Lanka, I saw a window grate and it became the inspiration for the pattern of my new spring 2007 bedding collection at Linens ‘n’ Things.
– The other James Brown A painter I am completely obsessed with right now is James Brown.
– California cuisine I am not a foodie. In-N-Out Burger is my dream. There’s nothing like it.
– ‘O,’ do you mean anyone in particular? The people I surround myself with always push me to do more, understand more, to always do better. My professional life mirrors my personal life.
– The way we were I have a theory that we all gravitate to the music we listened to as tormented adolescents. R.E.M, 10,000 Maniacs–that’s the kind of music I end up listening to.
– Blingmaster James de Givenchy,Taffin, is a jewelry designer who is doing fantastic and inventive work. www.taffin.com
– Juniors department David Netto has a line of modern children’s furniture that I love.
– A star is born Ahmad Sardar Afkhami. He’s an architect and landscape architect in New York I am currently collaborating with, definitely “one to watch.”
– West Side story Pavilion Antiques is a must for anyone who comes through Chicago.
–Lisa Cregan
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RESOURCES
COVER: Library detail: (See “Connecting the Periods,” page 32): Painting by Hiro Yokose–Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago; John Boone settee–Westwater/ Patterson, Merchandise Mart, Chicago; settee fabric–heart and soul linen-viscose, Great Plains, Holly Hunt, Mart, Chicago; shagreen/graphite wall covering–Clarence House, Mart; zebra rug–personal collection; cocktail table–Au Coin du Feu, Chicago; ceramic cats–Nymphenburg USA, Chicago.
Interior design: Nate Berkus Associates, Chicago. Architecture: David Pickert of Hammond Beeby Rupert Ainge Inc., Chicago.
Pg. 32-33: Living room detail: Vintage Agostini cocktail table–Jourdan Antiques, New York; Hiro Yokose painting over mantel–Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago; Ted Muehling faux-bois candlesticks–Nymphenburg USA, Chicago.
Pg. 34: Dining room detail: Louis XVI-style table–Dessin Founir, Merchandise Mart, Chicago; Sene dining chairs by Artistic Frame–Barbara Pearlman/Design Atelier, Mart, Chicago; dining chair fabric in Villa Mansi cotton silk–Scalamandre, Mart; Perl table service Dominikus Auliczek circa 1770, white glaze urns and Bustelli figurines–Nymphenburg USA, Chicago; 1950 Scandinavia yellow vase and painting titled “Grove” by Dan Christensen–personal collection.
Living room detail: 1820 Biedermeier secretary and framed pastel by Olivia Reese next to secretary–personal collection; porcelain serval cat and Ted Muehling candy box–Nymphenburg USA, Chicago; stainless-steel vanity chair–Madeline Stuart Collection, Los Angeles.
Pg. 35: Living room detail: Large Bill Hinson photograph of girl and 1910 Biedermeier side table–personal collection; vintage 1940s armchairs–John Salibello Antiques, New York; white porcelain elephants–Nymphenburg USA, Chicago.
Pg. 36-37: Antique Italian bronze mirror between windows–Amy Perlin Antiques, New York; Christoph sofa by Mattaliano–Holly Hunt Ltd., Merchandise Mart, Chicago; sofa in Abode fabric by John Hutton Textiles–David Sutherland, Mart; vintage Karl Springer cocktail table–John Salibello Antiques, New York; vintage Louis XVI-style chairs and Enid Day abstract painting, Biedermeier side tables, small 17th Century Dutch portrait on table and Murano glass lamps with cast bronze bases–personal collection; roman shades in bechamel wool by Rogers & Goffigon–Cowtan & Tout, Mart; porcelain birds–Nymphenburg USA, Chicago.
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Lisa Cregan, a frequent contributor to the Magazine, also writes for House Beautiful and Coastal Living
