Wallpaper bedecked with birds in flight. A child’s piece of art in an ornate gilded frame. Riotous color from floor to ceiling. When designer Lisa Wolfe’s client, a freshly divorced mom, wanted her new Lake Forest home to be a place where her kids could “roll around” and feel “like everyone’s having a good old time,” Wolfe pulled out all the stops.
The fact that the client, Gina, was moving into the space with just “the clothes on her back and some bedding,” gave Wolfe the chance to work with a blank canvas. Common motifs emerged: birds adorned the walls in the family room and the dining room, and star-shaped light fixtures in the kitchen echoed an outsized picture of the night sky created by one of Gina’s kids, now framed and proudly hung behind the sofa. Bold colors appeared in unexpected places: emerald-green drapes in the dining room, vivid blue kitchen cabinets, a high-gloss hot-pink ceiling in the powder room, and vibrant green walls and ceiling in one of the kid’s rooms.
That pink ceiling accentuates ornate gilded wallpaper left over from previous occupants, and Wolfe was excited to show Gina how she could “make this bathroom sing” with the high-gloss paint that was as bright as molten glass. It’s just one example of the way Wolfe incorporated color and pattern in ways that were fresh and surprising.
The kitchen, meanwhile, is only slightly more restrained, with neutral-hued base cabinets, grey-veined countertops and a subtly patterned Artistic Tile backsplash. But then there’s the striking blue upper cabinets, a golden oven hood, and an artful framed mosaic medallion behind the cooktop.
Wolfe says of the bold colors and patterns, “It’s important to me that it makes sense and that there’s a sequence and there’s a balance.” How does she find that balance? “Oh,” she answers with a laugh,“that’s just magic.” The most important part, the new home is indeed a magical setting for the next chapter of this family’s life.
Dig deeper into this Lake Forest home in our partner publication, Design Chicago.
