Oak Park native Laura Christensen and her husband, Mark, created their aspiration household in the course of the pandemic on a spectacular parcel of wooded land adjacent to the Cantigny Golf Program in Wheaton. The Arts and Crafts-style masterpiece they made hearkens again to Laura’s youthful experiences in Oak Park, the spot in which Frank Lloyd Wright and other exceptional architects experimented.
“We had lived in Wheaton for 30 a long time and wished to create the residence we had been developing in our minds for years — and do it on a significant parcel of property due to the fact I am a landscape architect and wanted place to plant and love,” Laura claims.
The pair and their developing team strike that mark and other people.
“Also, due to the fact I grew up to recognize great architecture as art, I recognize that we are definitely dwelling in a piece of art,” she claims.
Before the house was developed, Laura stumbled upon a “for sale by proprietor” indicator on house bounded on two sides by the Cantigny Golfing Course. Ahead of extensive, the couple was able to bought it and one more large amount future doorway, assembling 4.5 acres of top quality property.
“We ended up with a Wisconsin escape house without the need of acquiring to leave city!” she remembers.
“I liked the cleanse strains, great woodwork, huge home windows and other details inherent in a Craftsman house. I actually think about this style of dwelling to be the quintessential ‘homey, cozy home’ and wanted to construct just one,” Laura states.
After they had the land, they moved forward to assemble a collaborative staff of professionals to make it a truth and, thankfully, had purchased most of the components they needed right before COVID hit, making building supplies more scarce. Mike Sparks of Sparks Architects Inc. of Elmhurst made the home, Brad Drendel of Brad Drendel Builders Inc. of Naperville was the builder and Joan Kaufman of Interior Scheduling and Structure Inc. in Naperville did the inside design and style.

























“The crew created the Christensen dwelling from the floor up, starting up in September 2020 and it took about a year to total,” Kaufman suggests.
The incredible 4,200-square-foot residence characteristics a very first-ground master suite a amazing, cathedral-ceilinged household space with a stone fireplace flanked by window seats and topped by statement-making ceiling rafters a lovely condition-of-the-art kitchen featuring alder cabinets and stunning Versailles-patterned tile do the job a light-weight-stuffed three-time area from which to appreciate Laura’s gardens and considerably extra, like a basement wine area.

The kitchen features a placing blue agate backsplash on the assortment and blue Alaska granite counter tops.
– Courtesy of Chip Haines Photos & Photography
Distinctive touches abound in the household, this kind of as a kitchen countertop with a reside edge prime built from a large, 120-12 months-previous oak the householders were being pressured to slice down from the home a customized wooden dining booth in the kitchen area, produced by Metropolis-Residing Style in Chicago personalized art glass cupboard doors in the kitchen area, made by Kaufman and fabricated by Alpine Stained Glass in Plainfield a
striking blue agate backsplash around the range and blue Alaska granite countertops Arts and Crafts-type mullioned windows during and a porcelain kitchen area ground with tumbled edges, manufactured to look like serious stone.
“Plenty of little mother-and-pop firms in the Chicago space were component of the method and we liked that,” Kaufman suggests.
The overall design system was all about element and mother nature due to the fact Laura, as a landscape designer, is closely fascinated in health and fitness and wellness, Kaufman adds. Only nontoxic and no-VOC products were being selected and all of the cupboards were left in a climate-managed warehouse to “off-gasoline” for a thirty day period right before being installed in the house. Tile was mounted on the ground of the kitchen to far better maintain up to the Christensens dogs. William Morris character models show up on drapes, pillows and even on the stairway runner.
Even the loos are putting with the learn tub featuring a absolutely free-standing soaker tub and a roomy stall shower with a huge sheet of colorful quartzite as its again wall.
“The Christensens enable our group design and style all the things, from the huge image down to trivia like the knobs on just about every cabinet door,” states Kaufman. “We pooled our assets and information to make this dwelling special and the Christensens unquestionably really like it.”
Laura Christensen concurred. “We are experience like the residence turned out even much better than we envisioned. A team of us contributed our unique expertises and created a amazing household,” she claims. “It is so tranquil right here and we really feel like we are dwelling outdoors, even when we are inside of our household.”
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