There are many advantages to new construction: layouts geared toward modern living, up-to-date mechanicals and, of course, the opportunity to tailor the home to one’s exact style. It’s the latter that drew Marli Jones and Michael Kreuser’s clients, Staci and Brandon Rice, to the opportunity to build on Chicago’s North Shore.
The project marked the couple’s second project with Kreuser and Jones, the managing director/owner and principal designer/owner respectively, of Rebel House Interior Design. While their earlier home had leaned into dark floors and white cabinetry, this project called for something different. Staci, who works in fashion and has an innate love for all things art and design, wanted a house that felt worldly, elegant and collected. “It was a completely different mood from their other one,” Jones recalls. “We felt the house should feel like it had a bit of patina, a bit of age.”
To create this layered vibe, the design team started with the interior architecture. Venetian plaster softens the walls, oak floors ground the space and arches repeat as a visual rhythm throughout. “The idea was to start with architectural details, then allow the furnishings and fixtures to strike a more contemporary balance,” Jones explains.
Achieving their vision came with some changes to the developer’s floor plans, such as opening up what was to be a first-floor guest room and creating a cocktail lounge with walls coated in a deep green. “We started with the wall color,” Jones describes. “We said, ‘This should be dark, this should be moody.’” Artwork from the homeowners’ collection – a Meighan Morrison painting above the marble fireplace and a Dan Schneiger sculpture above the elegant channel-tufted sofa – adds to the elevated sensibility.
Elsewhere, lightness prevails. Paneling in the dining room recalls classical detailing, but in French white oak that avoids heaviness, while contemporary alabaster lighting, another acrylic by Morrison and a Yvette Lenzi mixed-media piece add layered materiality.
In the kitchen, the team employed reeded cabinetry, dramatic stone and beams that visually lower the 12-foot ceilings, instilling a handcrafted vibe. The space opens into a dining area and family room, where plaster meets Nero Marquina marble at the fireplace, echoing a California sensibility that the owners asked for. “Our intention was always layers, texture, detail,” Jones states.
The designer carried the arches used in the main living spaces through to the primary suite. There, a canopy bed that “adds both drama and sweetness” rises toward vaulted ceilings. A touch of the Old World infuses the en suite, thanks to marble-wrapped walls and a limestone floor. “It feels like you’re in a French chateau with these huge chunks of limestone on the floor,” Jones notes. “It takes down the formality of the marble.”
“What I loved about this project was the level of trust between the client and us,” Jones shares. “Staci came with her inspiration; she had her vision and then said, ‘Drive it to the finish line.’”
Photography by Mike Schwartz.
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