Before and After: An Award-winning Historic Sensitively Home Renovation

John Potter, AIA, NCARB

John Potter, AIA, NCARB
Partner - Architecture at Award Winning Chicago Architects, Morgante Wilson

Aug 18, 2022 - 5 min read

Before and After: An Award-winning Historic Sensitively Home Renovation

Join me on a before-and-after tour of an award-winning, sensitively updated home (Renovation and repurposing that entails a sensitivity towards what was, while updating spaces for changing lifestyles and giving them a new lease on life) that proves less really can add up to more. A historic Winnetka gem built in 1920 by Edwin Hill Clark had fallen into disrepair. It had also fallen out of style, in that it wasn’t quite conducive to modern-day family life. Morgante Wilson Architects to the rescue! The goals: restore the home’s Art Deco age glory, add lifestyle-enhancing new spaces, and create indoor-outdoor connections. Of course, we did all that and more. Along the way, we infused the house with character, livability, and natural light. But the most important thing we did was restrain ourselves. Let me show you what I mean:

In The Back

Before

Sometime in the 1970s, someone added dark windows and a post-modern addition that didn’t relate to the home’s original Mediterranean Revival details. They also erected a large landscape wall that had the unfortunate effect of separating the house from views of its magnificent two-acre setting.

After

Sometime in the 1970s, someone added dark windows and a post-modern addition that didn’t relate to the home’s original Mediterranean Revival details. They also erected a large landscape wall that had the unfortunate effect of separating the house from views of its magnificent two-acre setting.

Just look at the dynamic difference now! The house opens to its yard literally and figuratively, with easy physical connections to the outdoors and plenty of backyard views from indoor rooms. Beyond that, these shots provide an excellent lesson in the restraint I mentioned earlier. We didn’t paint the house an unusual color, clad it in another material, or change its roof. The additions we made – one on each end of the house – were just big enough to give the first floor a breakfast room, an expanded family room, and a billiards room. Upstairs, the house gained a primary bathroom, an additional bedroom, which doubles as an office. We didn’t go crazy with square footage, and we didn’t add superfluous spaces that would rarely be used.

The Living Room

Before

The living room was a little bit dark and a little bit drab. We lightened it by painting its oak-paneled walls white and adding two windows

After

The result is a room that retains its traditional feel, but with a more contemporary flair.

Before

Check out the entry hall, too. Before, it screamed Grandma, and not in an appealingly grand millennial kind of way!

After

We removed the dated wallpaper and stripped the gorgeous wrought iron stair rail back to its original glory. But we didn’t redesign or replace it. Again, restraint!

Study

Before

We eliminated some of the fussier paneling details to simplify the interior architecture.

After

Now, this room manages to feel traditional, crisp, and current all at the same time. We painted the oak paneling a deep, moody blue to give the room a personality makeover. We replaced windows with French doors for easy access to the outdoors. And we ditched the original fireplace, which was overly detailed to the point of being distracting. In its place we created a stripped-to-the-essence surround of herringbone-patterned marble. The pattern and material are historic, but the vibe is totally today.

The Dining Room

Before

There’s lots for us to talk about in the dining room. It was, as you can see, dark and plain. There was nothing particularly gracious or inviting about it. But that was then. Now, it’s one of the most popular rooms in the house, and for so many good reasons. Remember those broom closets in the service hall? They were replaced by glass doors, creating double-sided wine cabinets that create an interesting (and functional) architectural moment. We restored the room’s original plaster cove molding and added new panel molding that’s more in keeping with the home’s original Art Deco detailing.

After

We also created a lively conversation between old and new in terms of furnishings. The chandelier is contemporary, for sure. Yet it hangs over a vintage Baker dining table and chairs that belonged to our client’s beloved grandparents. The dining set wasn’t really to our clients’ liking but it held enormous sentimental value. So rather than replace it, we set our sights on updating the chairs. In a stroke of genius, our interior design team decided to wrap most of the chair frames in fabric to give them new zest. They left the two head chairs unadorned. The decision to leave well enough alone ends up giving the furnishings as a whole an appealingly eclectic feel. Another bit of restraint? All we did to the original fireplace surround was restore it.

The Hallway

Before

This rear service hall runs between the kitchen and the front entry. It was never celebrated the way it deserved to be (I mean, just look at that groin vault ceiling!) and its windows were never taken advantage of.

After

Until we got ahold of it, that is. Out went the broom closets and in went glass doors, which usher both views and light into the adjacent dining room. They also create a wine closet for the dining room. In another lesson on restraint, we restored and polished the original terrazzo floor, rather than replace it.

Before

The original kitchen had been through many renovations over the years, the last one being about three decades ago. Not only did it look dated from a cosmetic perspective, but it also wasn’t a functional space. Traffic flowed through work areas and the breakfast room, pushed into a corner, created awkward circulation patterns.

After

Today the kitchen is probably the most dramatically altered space in the house. It’s light, bright, open, airy, welcoming – you get the idea. It’s where everyone wants to be. How did we make it that way? We designed a new breakfast room addition and encircled it with walls of windows to connect the addition to backyard views. We reworked the rest of the space with graceful proportions, an open floor plan, character-rich arches, and judiciously placed pops of color and pattern. Out went the dated brown cabinets; in went traditional white replacements, which are jazzed up by gorgeous stone counters and whimsical silver-leafed pendant lights (look inside the shades).

To read more about this Luxe Red Award project, visit our website. And give us a call if you’d like to explore the idea of renovating your own home!


Morgante Wilson Architects provides architectural and interior design services in Chicago, Deerfield, Evanston, Glencoe, Glenview, Highland Park, Kenilworth, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, Northbrook, Northfield, Ravinia, Wilmette, and Winnetka – along with Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Utah, Wisconsin, and the U.S. Virgin Islands

John Potter, AIA, NCARB

John Potter, AIA, NCARB

Partner - Architecture at Award Winning Chicago Architects, Morgante Wilson