Name: Linton & Gerri
Location: Evanston, Illinois
My wife and I live in a rental and its a garden apartment as they are affectionately known around Chicagoland. When we first moved in there was this intimidating darkness that hovered over the place. We got to work at once …
… repainting all the rooms, changing light bulbs to the right kind of light, wall papering a closet ( the landlord is very accommodating), changing all the switch covers and plug plates, taking down those hideous blinds, etc., etc., etc.
Now we live in, as a friend called it, the most beautiful garden in Chicago (although technically its Evanston). It helps to have a large art collection (we have about 15 original pieces). The landlord had the most wonderful doors to begin with. Living here in the Chicagoland area we had lots of access to vintage furniture (much of our stuff is sourced locally) and we have one antique piece from the 1860's. I look at all of the Apartment Therapy tours and can safely say that we have a reasonably original place.
Thanks, Linton & Gerri!
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Comments (17)
House tour please. Bedroom pic is just incredible. Yes, best garden apt in Evanston.
I love your art collection.
The art behind the bed, what is it and who painted it and how did you come to have it?
@MrsH That's Alphonse Mucha's Four Seasons. He was a famous Art Nouveau painter.
I don't like those matching patchwork chairs, but the bamboo wallpaper behind the computer is great!
Alfonse Mucka.. famouse for his art deco paintings. If i can recall these four paintings where part of a series called the four seasons... i have seen other ones from the same artist but looked different in both form, colors and figure. Nice choice.. also love the Kartell stools as side tables by the bed .. yummy
My new apartment is a little cave-like. When you say you "changed all the light bulbs to the right kind of light" what does that mean?
Looks like a high-end hotel in all the best ways. Love the computer nook!
I want a bedroom tour.
MansB , those aren't Mucha, but they are defiitely the four seasons, copied from his panels. Mucha's are art nouveau style.
http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/carenginecare/Mucha-tapestries-set.jpg
More sophisticated than most AT homes. I like the art AND the cubist armchairs.
this is exactly what I imagined a grown up big city apartment to look like when I was a kid and demands a full house tour
i'm moving out of a garden apartment in chicago with no light - i'm so jealous you got so much lighting in yours!
Thanks everyone for looking:
The four seasons painted screen was found at Plunkett's furniture at a store closing sale...as for the lights, we switched all the lights to either Phillips or GE Natural spectrum bulbs, paying close attention to the wattage and type of bulb, floods for the hallway, 65 40 or even 25 for closets and fixtures...the paint is Ralph Lauren River Rapids
...the chairs may look patchwork... but they are in reality cubist club chairs found at a local warehouse that we refinished and reupholstered in a velvet pattern that we found in a book at Vogue Fabric on Main St...they've got at least 200 books...
...the light was problematic...we only get light through the north facing front windows so in addition to close attention to the lighting we changed all of the blinds to mesh rollers (with the exception of one room) they still let in diffused light when lowered, and chose a wall color that bounces the light around, the living room where most of the light comes in is a flat paint, whereas the interior rooms are high gloss (second bedroom is flat too)
...the paintings in the living room are by either my wife or myself...if we get a tour you'll get a look at the other goodies that we've collected through the years living here...the bench we got in Queens NY from an antique dealer...its a Qing dynasty daybed circa 1860, the pillows are from Room and Board, the vase was found in Andersonville (Chicago neighborhood)
Wonderful job! And I for one am IN LOVE with the cubist chairs together with the aluminum tables.
I think the way it was photographed really is not doing the symmetry of the arrangement of the chairs under the artwork any justice.
At first it looked haphazard until I saw the second photo and swooned.
NEED.TO.SEE.MORE.
To see more please visit:
www.flickr.com/photos/urbandecorator/
Great space. Where did you get the black mirror above the dynasty daybed?? It's gorgeous!!!!