All in the family…
Kristina and Stephanie
Having grown up in the Bahamas, vacationing on Nantucket and visiting grandparents in Sweden together,
Kristina and Stephanie had adopted similar eclectic, global aesthetics. But Stephanie knew she needed help combining her treasured items, personal style and home's character, so she called in the one other person who understood how to incorporate their family heirlooms into a modern family life - her sister.
A classic Colonial is a true family affair.
Along the North Shore of Winnetka, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, sits a stately Colonial that's been home to just three families in its 108 years. The third and current owners just so happen to be Kristina's sister, brother-in-law, nieces and nephew, who moved into the house in 2014.
Like Kristina, Stephanie, had inherited many Swedish antiques from their grandparents, along with local treasures Stephanie's husband had acquired while growing up in the area. The house was a classic beauty, but it still needed to become their own. With lots of space and plenty of family heirlooms with which to fill it, the challenge became how to edit and curate the pieces without the stuffiness of a museum.
Cane back chairs painted a high gloss white
The former solarium turned breakfast room
One of the most striking rooms in the house is the former solarium turned breakfast room with floor to ceiling arched windows that overlook the backyard.
This room embodies the approach taken with the whole house. Brass hardware was custom made for the windows to match the original hardware through the house. A modern, saturated ocean blue was used on the walls to ground the bright, natural light. Vintage pieces such as the cane-back regency style chairs were painted and recovered by Stephanie while colorful Swedish Dala horses inherited from their grandparents adorn the built-in shelving.
Chinoiserie style mural wallpaper and a brass bamboo motif chandelier
From there, your eye is led into the formal dining space with a chinoiserie style mural wallpaper and a brass bamboo motif chandelier that matches the style and scale of the breakfast room without competition. Peacock blue silk drapery frame the windows and a vintage sideboard (that was custom lacquered) provides storage for stacks of collected china sets.
Local artwork by Lucy Phillips as well as paintings by Stephanie, bring in modern pops of color alongside their grandparents’ creamy white antique wall clock, carefully shipped back from Sweden. But the dining room table, while not antique, is a special type of treasure - the first piece of furniture the couple ever bought together. Around it are Louis XIV style chairs with simple but highly functional performance fabric meant to weather decades of family meals and holiday get-togethers.
Silk shantung drapery flank antique Swedish clock
In the living room, the plaster molding and fireplace are all original. Putty-hued grass cloth was chosen for the walls to bring some warmth to the sizable space.
In the corner is their grandparents’ coffin-style piano (named so for the shape it makes when closed), which was made in Stockholm in 1866 and played every day by their great-grandmother who was a concert pianist. This piano not only made the trip from Sweden to America, but from one sister’s home to the other as their spaces and needs changed.
coffin-style piano
Along the back wall sits their grandfather’s liquor cabinet made in 1844, which they can remember storing his favorite cordials and Akvavit but in its current home is more likely to be holding small toys or art supplies. Above it, a highly collectible and still functional antique gold Swedish wall clock flanked by white silk drapes.
The den, however, is where you will find the family spending their time together. An addition by the second owners, it was renovated again with a focus on bringing in more light and views of the backyard.
Their dad’s midcentury Wegner chair
Plaster molding was handcrafted to blend in seamlessly with the rest of the home. The artwork represents special places for the whole family: a painting of a large ship taken from a nearby hardware store by Stephanie’s grandfather-in-law, maps of the Bahamas and photography taken on Nantucket. The midcentury Wegner chair is where Stephanie and Kristina’s father spent his evenings during their childhood and holds a revered space in the room now.
Painting and photograph of Nantucket and the Bahamas
Meanwhile performance fabric on the clean-lined sofa, a lucite and brass coffee table and simple sisal rug keep the room firmly grounded in this century and functional for family life.
keeping it in the family…
It is no small task to incorporate tradition and antiques in a modern, family home. But with just the right balance it’s possible to live in the present while continuing to be inspired by the past and the people who have made it worth holding on to.