It sounds like the beginning of a rom-com: A polished Londoner meets an American with laid-back California style, and the two must find a way to exist in harmony. While the couple’s love story has well and truly bloomed (they’ve since welcomed two children), their aesthetic tastes still don’t always align. So, when they decided to move to the suburbs to accommodate their growing family, the brief they gave designer Alissa Johnson for the renovation of their new Glencoe home was an interesting one: marry classic British sophistication with a relaxed, minimalist California vibe.
Fortunately, the Lannon-stone façade and gable roof of the house—built in 1929 by local architecture firm Anderson & Ticknor—already evoked a storybook cottage vibe. “It was the perfect opportunity to take inspiration from the stone exterior as far as English elements,” Johnson says. “It had really good bones, from the stair railing to the trim details to the doors.” The designer made the most of those bones, replicating or expanding certain moldings and trims throughout the house and adding built-ins that felt true to the home’s original style. To bring in the Californian aspects, the designer opted for neutral tones throughout while finding ways to keep things interesting within the restrained palette. “We did a lot of white oak floors,” she explains, “then added details and incorporated brasses and more textures, like vintage patterned wool rugs, to bring in some of that character.”