Forest Glen Residence
This residence was inspired by vintage details but has an overall contemporary aesthetic. Our team enjoyed finding the moments to mix both aesthetics in a sophisticated way. The overall palette is black and white aside from the kitchen - the true center of the home. A bold use of color was used on the cabinetry to ground this important space within the home.
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A Kitchen Worth Building the House Around
The Forest Glen residence began with a passing remark: the client had been dreaming about a green kitchen. Kuchar ordered thirty green swatches, narrowed the field to three, and settled on Veronese Green by Benjamin Moore, a tone carrying a whisper of blue that pairs cleanly with gold hardware and the warm wood running through the house. The kitchen became the center of the home and the only room permitted a bold color; the rest of the palette holds to black and white. Textured glass cabinet fronts, beveled subway tile, and glass globe pendants nod to kitchen details of the past, while the renovated exterior follows a contemporary line. Inside, the character is quaint and modern vintage, mixed with restraint.
Forest Glen sits on Chicago's Northwest Side, among the oldest residential pockets in the city, with Sauganash and Edgebrook at its edges and forest preserve along its western boundary. The housing stock includes 1890s homes built for railroad executives and mid-century blocks inside the Sauganash Historic District, an inheritance that sets the terms of any renovation. A green kitchen in a black-and-white house only works if someone decides where the boldness stops, and that decision is what renovation interior design projects turn on, particularly in neighborhoods where the original detail is worth keeping. Vintage interior design in Chicago is less a style than a negotiation: which details to restore, which to reinterpret at modern scale, and which rooms to hold quiet so that one can speak.
A Chicago Residential Design Partner You Can Build With
Residential renovation is our craft, and the Kuchar team carries more than 90 years of combined industry experience. We design homes that keep their character while working the way a family actually lives — restrained where it should be, confident where it counts.