Oak Park indigenous Laura Christensen and her spouse, Mark, created their dream residence for the duration of the pandemic on a spectacular parcel of wooded land adjacent to the Cantigny Golfing Course in Wheaton. The Arts and Crafts-type masterpiece they developed hearkens back to Laura’s youthful experiences in Oak Park, the spot where by Frank Lloyd Wright and other exceptional architects experimented.
“We had lived in Wheaton for 30 many years and preferred to build the property we had been planning in our minds for a long time — and do it on a huge parcel of assets because I am a landscape architect and preferred place to plant and love,” Laura says.
The couple and their developing group strike that mark and other people.
“Also, given that I grew up to value fantastic architecture as artwork, I fully grasp that we are genuinely dwelling in a piece of art,” she suggests.
Prior to the residence was constructed, Laura stumbled upon a “for sale by proprietor” indication on property bounded on two sides by the Cantigny Golfing Training course. Just before extended, the few was able to procured it and yet another good deal following door, assembling 4.5 acres of high quality property.
“We ended up with a Wisconsin escape house devoid of owning to go away city!” she recollects.
“I cherished the clear lines, superb woodwork, significant windows and other details inherent in a Craftsman house. I certainly think about this variety of house to be the quintessential ‘homey, cozy home’ and wished to create 1,” Laura states.
The moment they had the land, they moved ahead to assemble a collaborative staff of industry experts to make it a actuality and, the good news is, had requested most of the materials they essential just before COVID hit, building developing supplies extra scarce. Mike Sparks of Sparks Architects Inc. of Elmhurst intended the home, Brad Drendel of Brad Drendel Builders Inc. of Naperville was the builder and Joan Kaufman of Interior Organizing and Style Inc. in Naperville did the interior layout.

























“The team created the Christensen home from the ground up, setting up in September 2020 and it took about a calendar year to total,” Kaufman says.
The amazing 4,200-sq.-foot household functions a initial-floor master suite a spectacular, cathedral-ceilinged spouse and children home with a stone fireplace flanked by window seats and topped by statement-making ceiling rafters a charming point out-of-the-art kitchen featuring alder cupboards and lovely Versailles-patterned tile perform a light-crammed three-time home from which to take pleasure in Laura’s gardens and a great deal a lot more, together with a basement wine room.

The kitchen capabilities a placing blue agate backsplash on the vary and blue Alaska granite counter tops.
– Courtesy of Chip Haines Visuals & Images
One of a kind touches abound in the dwelling, these as a kitchen countertop with a reside edge leading created from a big, 120-yr-previous oak the property owners had been compelled to reduce down from the residence a custom wood dining booth in the kitchen, manufactured by Metropolis-Dwelling Style in Chicago customized artwork glass cupboard doorways in the kitchen, designed by Kaufman and fabricated by Alpine Stained Glass in Plainfield a
striking blue agate backsplash in excess of the vary and blue Alaska granite countertops Arts and Crafts-type mullioned home windows in the course of and a porcelain kitchen area ground with tumbled edges, manufactured to appear like authentic stone.
“A lot of little mom-and-pop companies in the Chicago spot were section of the course of action and we preferred that,” Kaufman suggests.
The full building procedure was all about element and nature for the reason that Laura, as a landscape designer, is seriously interested in health and wellness, Kaufman provides. Only nontoxic and no-VOC supplies have been preferred and all of the cabinets were still left in a local weather-managed warehouse to “off-gas” for a thirty day period before remaining set up in the house. Tile was installed on the ground of the kitchen to better maintain up to the Christensens pet dogs. William Morris character patterns seem on drapes, pillows and even on the stairway runner.
Even the loos are putting with the grasp tub that includes a cost-free-standing soaker tub and a roomy stall shower with a substantial sheet of vibrant quartzite as its back wall.
“The Christensens allow our workforce layout every little thing, from the major image down to minutiae like the knobs on each individual cabinet door,” claims Kaufman. “We pooled our means and awareness to make this dwelling unique and the Christensens absolutely love it.”
Laura Christensen concurred. “We are emotion like the household turned out even superior than we envisioned. A team of us contributed our special expertises and made a excellent household,” she states. “It is so tranquil right here and we really feel like we are living exterior, even when we are inside our home.”