Oak Park indigenous Laura Christensen and her spouse, Mark, built their dream property through the pandemic on a amazing parcel of wooded land adjacent to the Cantigny Golf Course in Wheaton. The Arts and Crafts-design and style masterpiece they created hearkens back again to Laura’s youthful ordeals in Oak Park, the position exactly where Frank Lloyd Wright and other remarkable architects experimented.
“We had lived in Wheaton for 30 several years and desired to develop the home we had been designing in our minds for yrs — and do it on a huge parcel of assets since I am a landscape architect and required area to plant and appreciate,” Laura says.
The pair and their making workforce hit that mark and other folks.
“Also, considering that I grew up to recognize wonderful architecture as artwork, I have an understanding of that we are really living in a piece of artwork,” she claims.
Ahead of the residence was developed, Laura stumbled upon a “for sale by owner” indication on residence bounded on two sides by the Cantigny Golfing Course. Just before extended, the pair was capable to acquired it and another large amount next door, assembling 4.5 acres of quality house.
“We ended up with a Wisconsin escape residence with out obtaining to leave town!” she recollects.
“I cherished the clear traces, fantastic woodwork, massive home windows and other specifics inherent in a Craftsman property. I definitely consider this sort of household to be the quintessential ‘homey, cozy home’ and wished to make one particular,” Laura states.
When they had the land, they moved forward to assemble a collaborative team of professionals to make it a actuality and, luckily, experienced purchased most of the materials they required prior to COVID strike, creating making supplies a lot more scarce. Mike Sparks of Sparks Architects Inc. of Elmhurst designed the property, Brad Drendel of Brad Drendel Builders Inc. of Naperville was the builder and Joan Kaufman of Inside Setting up and Structure Inc. in Naperville did the interior style.

























“The workforce designed the Christensen dwelling from the floor up, setting up in September 2020 and it took about a year to entire,” Kaufman suggests.
The remarkable 4,200-square-foot property features a to start with-ground learn suite a spectacular, cathedral-ceilinged loved ones home with a stone fire flanked by window seats and topped by assertion-producing ceiling rafters a charming state-of-the-artwork kitchen that includes alder cabinets and beautiful Versailles-patterned tile work a gentle-crammed 3-period space from which to appreciate Laura’s gardens and a lot much more, like a basement wine home.

The kitchen area options a striking blue agate backsplash on the range and blue Alaska granite counter tops.
– Courtesy of Chip Haines Visuals & Photography
Distinctive touches abound in the dwelling, these kinds of as a kitchen area countertop with a are living edge major built from a big, 120-yr-old oak the house owners were being pressured to cut down from the home a tailor made wooden dining booth in the kitchen area, designed by Metropolis-Residing Design and style in Chicago customized art glass cabinet doors in the kitchen, built by Kaufman and fabricated by Alpine Stained Glass in Plainfield a
putting blue agate backsplash around the vary and blue Alaska granite counter tops Arts and Crafts-type mullioned home windows throughout and a porcelain kitchen area flooring with tumbled edges, made to search like actual stone.
“A lot of minor mom-and-pop organizations in the Chicago area had been section of the method and we favored that,” Kaufman suggests.
The complete design system was all about depth and nature for the reason that Laura, as a landscape designer, is greatly interested in well being and wellness, Kaufman provides. Only nontoxic and no-VOC elements were chosen and all of the cupboards ended up left in a climate-controlled warehouse to “off-fuel” for a thirty day period before being put in in the household. Tile was installed on the flooring of the kitchen to greater hold up to the Christensens puppies. William Morris character types seem on drapes, pillows and even on the stairway runner.
Even the bogs are hanging with the learn bath showcasing a totally free-standing soaker tub and a roomy stall shower with a significant sheet of vibrant quartzite as its back wall.
“The Christensens let our workforce layout all the things, from the big picture down to trivialities like the knobs on each and every cupboard door,” suggests Kaufman. “We pooled our sources and information to make this household special and the Christensens certainly like it.”
Laura Christensen concurred. “We are feeling like the home turned out even greater than we envisioned. A group of us contributed our distinctive expertises and produced a superb house,” she claims. “It is so tranquil in this article and we come to feel like we are residing exterior, even when we are within our house.”
