The cozy informal living room features a wood fireplace, plush seating, and a calm, neutral palette.
WARMING TREND With cashmere underfoot and shimmering rose-gold walls, a Lincoln Park family’s home redefines cozy elegance By Amalie Drury / Photos by Dustin Halleck You’ve seen them dotting the best streets in Lincoln Park: the gracious new-build city homes with their French-influenced limestone facades and handsome black window frames. The style of home is popular for its timeless appeal, and some of the best examples in the neighborhood are the work of builder John Morgan and his firm, Savane Properties. When skincare entrepreneur Cecil Booth and financier Danny Sharp began building their Savane home on a leafy block just north of St. Michael Catholic Church, they had already lived in various homes around the neighborhood for 25 years. “But this lot was wider than any we’d ever had, and it was still near the lake, shopping, our children’s school. It was a find,” Booth says. They worked with Savane, who consulted well-known Chicago design firm Soucie Horner, Ltd. to customize the home’s exterior and customized every finish inside, from floor and wall surfaces to extensive millwork. Through that process, Booth and Sharp became 76 slmag.net
more acquainted with Soucie Horner. The couple, who had designed three previous homes on their own and had an eye for interesting detail, loved what they saw from the Soucie Horner team, so they hired the firm to extend their work to the home’s full interior, including furniture and decor. “When we’re working with a new client, we ask them for three words to describe how they want the home to feel,” says Martin Horner, the firm’s cofounder and the project lead on the Booth-Sharp home. “Cecil and Danny came to us with the words ‘grounded,’ ‘tailored’ and ‘layered.’ And when you look at the finished product, I really think we captured that,” he says. The goal, as Booth explains it, was for the home to function as both a warm respite for the family and the headquarters of Booth’s company, VENeffect, an anti-aging skincare line. “We didn’t want formality,” Booth says. “It was more about what I would call a relaxed luxe feeling. Cozy fabrics and warm colors, stylish but comfortable seating, splashes of creativity.”
