The view from the open kitchen, looking toward the living room and its wood stove.
Building new roof trusses and gables made it easy to add a large skylight in the living room.
The architects added a cork wall behind the bed for a layer of warmth within the space.
On choosing the dining table and chairs from Ikea ($1700) Kara had a moment of: “Are orange chairs too much? But I had a dream about it that night, so I was like, no, it's not too much,” says Kara. The rhubarb print is a commission from Soft Side Prints for $800. “That ties back to our time living in Copenhagen,” says Kara. “The Danes will never admit this, but they love rhubarb."
The colorful pendants over the peninsula are $40 each from Ali Express.
Walls are covered in Clark+Kensington paint, ‘On the Green,’ while the floors are finished in Benjamin Moore Floor & Patio paint in Balsam 567, as well as three coats of Minwax polyurethane ($120). The sectional is from Burrow ($2800) and the shag rug found on Rugs USA ($500).
BEFORE: Half walls divided spaces in an awkward way.
The built-in cabinets at the entry include special storage for Ryan and Rory's running shoes. (They're both long-distance runners.)
The pantry also operates as a spot to whip up cocktails.
The countertop is a custom Concrete Collaborative terrazzo, and the colored flecks nod to the wall tiles.
The front of the compact ADU has a small patio that extends the living space outdoors.
Joe Banuelos, who lived off and on at PorchLight’s prior shelter, is training to become part of its peer mentor program.
The open-plan kitchen, dining area, and living space are arranged in a 16-square-foot volume that features a vaulted ceiling, lending a sense of spaciousness.
Bringing a "new modernity
The mudroom, painted in Sherwin-Williams’s Dishy Coral, gets some canonical heft from photos of Mies’s 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments.
In the living room, visual frisson comes from the combination of elements like the original crown molding and curved pink couches by Roberto Matta. And though the Memphis style’s jittery energy abounds, it’s mixed with newer work, like the end tables, made of travertine salvaged from repairs to the Farnsworth House and designed by one of Jonathan’s students, Yasmeen Arkadan.
The hall bathroom is a little more conventional but also more color forward, with a deep blue faucet from Jaclo.
A bust of Julius Caesar lends the library a historical air.
The house’s “cavalier” approach to windows is Dunn’s favorite part of the project—there are bookshelves in front of them in the library. “It’s a fun way of dignifying what has come before but also not being overly deferential to it,” Dunn says. The room is painted in Sherwin-Williams’s Obstinate Orange, and Meg sits on a seating prototype by Norman Teague.
The tight, orange hallway upstairs is packed with art, including Meg’s grandmother’s drawings of the Chicago skyline. A zigzagging light that Meg assembled with components from a commercial office supply company leads the way to the primary bedroom and library.
Architect Jonathan Solomon and city planner Meg Gustafson had experience designing houses, but not together, which made renovating their late-1800s home in Chicago’s Uptown all the more exciting—particularly when you consider their style is anything but traditional.
A large mirrored section of a bookcase in the living area swings out to create a temporary wall; behind it is an 85-inch TV. “I love cinema and food,” admits Guido. “Those are my biggest interests.”
The skylit sunroom holds a pair of vintage red armchairs passed down through the family.
A floor-to-ceiling window in the shower provides the feeling of showering outdoors.
To add interest and more texture and warmth, Kevin and Heather affixed vertical paneling of ipe boards to the wall in the living room.
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