Ceding control is never easy, especially when it comes to something as personal as the design of your own home. But as Make It Better’s Editor-in-Chief Laura Hine recently learned, sometimes it pays to bring in a professional, in this case, Chris Garrett, of Garrett Paschen Interior Design in Evanston. “I feel like this house […]
Airline customer service aside, traveling has become easier and more comfortable than ever thanks to travel gadgets for entertainment, utility and safety. Here are a few of my favorites: Sony Personal 3D Viewer HMZ-T2 “Avatar” just doesn’t have the same impact when viewed on a tiny iPhone screen. Sony’s new Personal 3D viewer, which […]
If there’s one thing that Glencoe resident Missie Bender has learned in her nearly two decades designing interiors, it’s the importance of listening. Listening to her gut instinct, to her clients and even to the house itself, which has a message from the original designer encoded in its geometry and architectural details. “I didn’t tell this […]
Interior designer Laura Soskin helps an Evanston homeowner strike the right balance between modern and rustic. “I’ve always liked ethic, old and beat-up pieces that have been handled and loved for a very long time,” explains the homeowner of a 6000-square-foot home with seven bedrooms in Evanston. To help her to decorate her new home, […]
When a Highland Park couple with two teenagers hired Randy Heller to help them redecorate their home, she was forced to hit the ground running. “The house was chaotic, and they needed somebody who could take charge and manage the project,” Heller says, noting that several pieces of furniture had already been ordered and that […]
When a Highland Park couple found a spacious, one-level home on a picturesque lot near Lake Michigan, they decided to make an offer despite its choppy layout and badly dated décor. “There was so much visual clutter that it was hard to make sense of the house, but it had classic elements and it wasn’t […]
“British Country manqué” —that’s how former print and runway model and owner of Gavin in Evanston, Lauren Cavallo-Runzel, recalled the décor of her home when she and husband Bill first laid eyes on its interior in 2001. She said that it was too conservative—and not her at all. She really wanted it to be modern […]
Clutter and I have a complicated history. My mother craves neatness and order in her serene suburban bungalow while my late grandmother preferred a more freewheeling environment with cabinets full of dolls, piles of books and pieces of art, mirrors and shelves covering every wall. I fall somewhere in between; keeping the main living areas […]
We have a lot to cover, so I’ll spare you the pithy introduction, and cut right to the chase. 1. Clearing away dust and dirt will make even the most dated décor feel at least livable. 2. Follow the three D’s. De-clutter, dump and donate. 3. Repaint the walls at least every five or six […]
As luck would have it, the housing bubble was at its peak in 2008 when Sarah Schmidt and Julie Matthei began house hunting for a home spacious enough for them to raise their three growing children. “We had outgrown our place in Evanston, and our initial thought was that we wanted to remodel another old […]
