Location: Geneva, Illinois
This classical family room is an addition to a large brick home, designed as a room with its own strong identity: a grand, light-filled space wrapped in rich cherry woodwork, where the family could gather every day and still feel they were somewhere special.
The addition opens to the house through a broad arch framed by columns, so it’s connected to the main living spaces while keeping its own distinct character. Inside, the architecture does the decorating.
- Cherry woodwork throughout: columns on paneled pedestals, fluted pilasters, and a full entablature with dentil cornice running around the entire room.
- A soaring vaulted ceiling with decorative cherry trusses, my own riff on the traditional English hammerbeam truss, which give the room drama and height while keeping a warm, crafted feel.
- Half-round fanlight windows high in the gable ends, with tall divided-light windows and French doors below that flood the room with daylight.
- A stone floor laid in an octagon-and-dot pattern, a traditional European design that suits the classical architecture.
- Built-in display cabinets framed in fluted cherry trim.
- A classical loggia outside: round columns, a pediment with an arched center and a standing-seam metal roof, opening onto a bluestone terrace overlooking the garden.
Garden and pond design by others.
