Hope Store’s Harvester Loft

BY MARY MICHAELS | PHOTOS BY JULIE PRAIRIE PHOTOGRAPHY

It can be a challenge to leave a home where you have spent well over a decade of your life. Whether it’s the sentimental memories of having watched your kids grow up there or the simple enjoyment of having a yard of your own, the tugging at the heartstrings is real when you decide to make a big change and downsize.

The idea of living downtown had been in the back of Hope Store’s mind for quite a while, however, and it felt like the time was right once both kids were out of high school.

“I work downtown, and I just love the feel of downtown,” says Store, who moved into a loft at the Harvester Building in March of 2021. “I was ready to downsize and simplify life a bit.”

While it is a change from a full-fledged house on a corner lot, the 1700 square foot loft has two spacious bedrooms, two bathrooms, and ample living space in the open kitchen, dining room and living room space. The big selling point for Store, though, was the incredible character of the loft.

“I love the old wood floors, the exposed brick, the duct work that you can see; all of it,” she says. “It fits me because my design taste is eclectic. I like traditional, I like contemporary, I like industrial, and this gives me a little bit of everything.”

Oftentimes, a doorway into a loft will open into the main living space. Here, however, you walk through an entry hallway, giving Store the opportunity to dress it up with a coat tree and abstract art on the wall. The primary bedroom is just off the hallway, bright and airy with a large, uncovered window.

“Being on an upper floor, I felt like I could leave all the windows uncovered. There’s just an office building next door, and they aren’t there at night,” she laughs. “It did take a little

getting used to, but I love being able to just let all the natural light come in.”

Store says she was pleasantly surprised at the size of the bedrooms, which both have walk-in closets and their own attached bathrooms.

With years of experience in the architecture and design industry, currently working as a project manager and designer at Lenae Design, Store says that when she first saw the loft, she already had visions of ways to make the space her own. Working with the building owner, she got the go-ahead to invest in some updates, such as painting the walls white and updating the light fixtures.

“I really love lighting design,” she says. “My aunt is a lighting designer with Mahlander’s, so she came over to help with some of the decisions.”

For the bedroom light fixtures, however, she simply turned to Facebook marketplace. Someone she knew was selling two chandeliers that had been in an old family farmhouse.

“They were unique, and I loved the idea of putting them back into a historical building.”

For a pop of color in her bedroom, Store created an accent wall behind the bed with a muted floral print wallpaper. She also turned

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to wallpaper for an accent wall in the dining room, but this time chose a funky black, geometric-designed peel-and-stick style paper. She set a wood buffet table against the wall topped with two gold lamps.

“There’s my touch of contemporary,” she says.

The kitchen layout is what Store would call more “traditional,” with matching upper and lower wood cabinets. However, she removed two of the cabinets to open the space and added a pair of floating shelves and a hinged gold lamp extending from the wall. Her trick here?

“I didn’t want to pay an electrician to wire it, so I just got one of those battery-powered, adhesive light pucks with a remote and inserted it instead of a light bulb,” she says. “It’s over the sink, so I didn’t need a great deal of light, but it’s a fun accessory light.”

She added character to the kitchen wall by installing green subway tile…literally installed it…herself.

“I like to do projects,” she says. “I did have help with plumbing and electrical, but otherwise, I did a lot of it myself, like the tile, painting and changing out the hardware on the cabinet.”

One of the things Hope appreciates in

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design is a pop of the unexpected. Here, it might be the green dining room chairs, the industrial “starbust” light fixture over the dining room table or the bronzed Eric the Hare wall mount on her kitchen wall.

“He’s a character from a book,” Store explains, referring to the book Eric & Eloise, which is the story of an unlikely friendship between a hare and a fox. “I saw Eric the Hare at a store and I was like, yup, I need to include him somewhere. The Harvester restaurant downstairs also has some of these characters.” Store added black and white abstract carpeting in the living room which, once upon a time in the building’s history, had been a vault. The jagged brick arch is a reminder of where the vault’s door had once been. To update the corner fireplace, she used the same type of subway tile as the kitchen, only in black. A large leather sofa and side chair provide ample seating, and the unique coffee table also is a storage feature, with two ottomans tucked neatly underneath.

“When you’re downsizing, you think about both form and function,” Store says. “You want it to look nice, but you also have to think about maximizing storage options.”

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The bookshelf near the sofa holds family photos and mementos, like the red toy tractor that came from her dad’s 30-plus years working at a farm implement dealer to pay homage to the Harvester’s origin as a farm machinery warehouse. She added small photo albums and storage boxes to hold keepsake photos, and the shelves also hold a portion of her book collection. Store has set a goal to read 50 books this year (and she has already completed 30).

Even their dog Miles has his own little storage area, with a cute wire basket filled with his toys.

Store says she is grateful to have found this loft and that the building owner was open to her “updates.”

While she admits that she misses having a garage once winter comes around, all the positives of the loft and its location outweigh not having that one convenience.

“I am excited about being downtown and everything that is happening all around the Harvester building with the new Sioux Steel and Cherapa 2 developments, new activities, the bike trail and the Levitt Shell. This is definitely my home now, and I plan to be here for a long time!”

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