Chicago’s West Loop was once the city’s meatpacking district, but with the arrival of Soho House in 2014, the quiet neighbourhood became a vibrant foodie destination, with new restaurants, galleries, design hotels and boutiques attracting visitors. Because of its industrial heritage, many of the area’s new-build condominium developments adopted a gritty, raw aesthetic, and this apartment in the Illume building was no exception.
RFL Studio founder Lauren McGrady had worked on another unit in the block, so she knew what to expect: not much. ‘A sea of cheap finishes with ductwork and pipes popping out of every corner,’ she recalls, adding ‘some developers tend to cut corners, using the “loft feel” as an excuse to present a space that looks unfinished.’
She first met her clients, Emma and Ben (and their dog Norman), when they purchased a picture by artist Peter Manion at her concept store in the neighbourhood. That love of art and colour can be felt in every part of the apartment, which has been transformed from a soulless concrete box into a vibrant, eclectic space packed with character.
What's everyone reading?
Londoner Emma initially came to Chicago on a work assignment. After meeting Ben, they decided to put down roots in the city together, initially living in his apartment, just down the street from their current home. ‘The pandemic hit and, like most of us, they went a bit stir-crazy in their cramped apartment, and started looking for a place in the neighbourhood to start this next chapter in their lives together. They married during our design stint, so it was really fun to be around to celebrate with them,’ explains Lauren.
Well travelled, with a love of collecting, the couple were perfect clients for Lauren. ‘Ben is a cocktail hobbyist and loves experimenting with recipes so a bar for him to practise his craft was essential. They both agreed that a TV in the living room was not acceptable, opting to transform one of the three bedrooms into a den, complete with Ben’s cocktail bar fashioned out of the ensuite bathroom,’ she explains.
Lauren began by concealing pipes and ducts and gently reconfiguring the apartment’s layout, breaking down walls to create a new focal point for guests stepping out of the elevator into the foyer: another home bar. Her next priority was overriding the grey palette with a serious injection of colour, inspired by the couple’s Peter Manion painting, with pink being a major player in the palette.
‘For me grey is a non-colour and lacks any sort of emotion, and a home is supposed to make you feel something!’ she declares. Then it was all about incorporating a mix of new, vintage and bespoke pieces – ‘to give the apartment a lived-in feel designed over time, despite being fresh out of the box.’
The pandemic threw up challenges such as a scarcity of materials and furnishings, ‘excruciating lead times and exorbitant shipping quotes that could easily shatter most budgets,’ says Lauren. Unable to source from Italy and France as usual, she turned to 1stDibs and local antique stores, and commissioned talented artisans to make bespoke pieces.
‘I hit a goldmine in Mahla & Co, an antiques store in Pittsburgh,’ she says. ‘I found some amazing pieces, including the mint condition Paul Evans “Cityscapes” dining table shown in this project. I am like a magpie for all things glitter and gold, so I basically went bananas when I saw this thing and it was coming back to Chicago no matter what.’
The main living space is washed in Farrow & Ball’s ‘Great White’ paint, its subtle pink undertone picked up by the Mario Bellini sofa which sits on a 1920s Nichols rug. Other playful elements include a pair of pony skin chairs by Nigel Coates (a modern take on a traditional English armchair), an iridescent ‘Beetle’ stool and a post-modern rose-coloured glass coffee table that was sourced locally from Riverotter. Lauren’s team added a fireplace and used the same purple-veined marble pattern to wrap the hood over the range in the kitchen.
This repetition of elements like wood species, colour, tile and stone is a favourite technique of Lauren’s to ensure a sense of cohesion throughout a home, rather than the ‘theme rooms’ that she hates. You will see the same rose-coloured tile from Clè used on the kitchen splashback and as flooring in the powder room. Similarly, the marble that wraps the hood over the kitchen range appears on the fireplace in the living room.
Lots of wallpaper was used throughout the apartment, according to Lauren because of ‘Emma’s belief being that no good Brit is without a heavy hand of wallcovering in the house.’ Her favourite is Anna Glover’s ‘Garden of Serica’ in the den. ‘The paper is very whimsical and feminine, so we balanced it with more masculine and graphic pieces like the black and white striped postmodern Mario Botta ‘Shogun’ floor lamp and the chunky Giancarlo Valle ‘Smile’ chair.’
In the main bedroom, the bespoke bed was positioned to overlook the park, with its curvy headboard adding a line of demarcation between the closet and bedroom, alongside articulating blue glass panels. Lauren and her friend Marzena made the crochet coverlet during one of their pandemic-permitted activities of outdoor dying.
Lauren says that Emma has an aversion to birds, yet when she saw the antique folding screen depicting giant cranes (which Lauren sourced from her mother’s store Lowrider in Boulder, Colorado), she was happy to have it in the bedroom. ‘Sometimes people have strong convictions about what they do or don’t like and it takes using it in a different way to make them come around.’
The extraordinary bathroom is a sensory explosion with the Tapetti patterned tile from the bar repeated in red, accompanied by rosso francia mosaic tiles. ‘Red is thought to be symbolic of luck, joy, and happiness with an ability to ward off evil, so it felt like a great colour for the room where the couple would start their day together.’
‘Not to pump my own tires, but I am thrilled with the final result and the clients are too!’ says Lauren. ‘The process is much like knitting a sweater – when someone is constantly pulling on the individual threads, the whole thing falls apart. It’s always amazing to have clients who trust the process and let you exercise your craft freely.’
Out of this easy exchange of ideas has come a deep and lasting friendship which she calls the biggest takeaway from the project. ‘I love getting to visit their space as a guest now instead of a hired gun!’ rflstudio.com
Pictures: Ryan McDonald
