Project Spotlight: Whitefish Bay, WI

About five years ago, I had the pleasure of renovating and decorating a large home in San Francisco for old friends. At the time, it was my first major renovation, and it remains one of my largest projects to date. (It was the last project that I photographed with my husband, and I have been meaning to professionally photograph it ever since we revamped this website!) I call that project my Master Class in Interior Design, and I am forever grateful that the clients trusted me to take it on.

Last fall, they bought a second home in Milwaukee, where Sara grew up, and we embarked on a whirlwind decorating scheme with the intention of moving them in as quickly as possible. The strict lockdown in San Francisco and the fact that everyone was working and schooling at home offered up the opportunity to try life in another part of the country.

The house is a new build with clean, modern lines, and we set about adding warmth through textures and organic materials, sculptural light fixtures, and original art (much of it from midwestern artists.) The timeline created constraints: everything had to be in stock! To start things off, the client and I hit up the RH outlet in Milwaukee where we secured anchor pieces, including a black linen low-slung sectional, a sleek pedestal dining table, and a leather bed for the son’s room. We used some special vintage pieces as well as vintage reproductions and ordered flatweave rugs from vendors in Turkey via Etsy.

This summer, we will tackle another layer, including window treatments, wallpaper in the daughter’s room (if I get my way), and a refresher to the powder room and kitchen.

The best part of all of this? We became each other’s quarantine pod, even brining our families together here in this home for New Year’s, and my kids are planning a return trip this summer.