A freestanding home on a classic Chicago lot, narrow and deep, with the rare gift of light on two sides, this Bucktown residence arrived as a blank slate. A developer build without specific character, it was the kind of project that rewards a designer’s conviction and commitment — which is exactly what it was given.

The home was reimagined in phases, each one responsive to a growing family’s evolving needs — new floors, reconfigured rooms, lighting reconsidered. Spaces were repurposed as the years and children accumulated: a Zoom room, a theatre room. A room that had once been underused became essential, and what was essential was made beautiful. Years in, white oak chevron floors were laid, reinventing the space once again.

The longtime personal residence of Wendy herself, it’s a house loved deeply. The rooms are considered but not precious, personal but agreeable/aspirational, and alive in the way that only a truly inhabited home can be.

The house is less a single project than a portrait of a design philosophy in practice — that a home should grow with the people inside it, that beauty and function don’t live in contrast but in harmony.