This grand and quirky 1911 Chicago house arrived to us with an original floorplan — diminutive, chopped-up rooms and too-small windows —  in need of reimagining for modern family life.

The studio undertook an ambitious gut renovation, opening up the back of the house entirely, adding a curved, light-filled breakfast room, and combining the kitchen and family room into one generous, light-filled space. Upstairs, small bedrooms were reconfigured into fewer, larger ones with en-suite bathrooms. Hallways were widened, doorways standardized in height, and an unused attic loft was transformed into a cheerful bonus room.

The approach for this home, and many WLI projects, is front rooms with formality and polish, and rear rooms with a more easygoing sensibility and more tactile or rustic touches. It’s what Wendy jokingly refers to as mullet decorating: business in the front, party in the back.