Warming Trend

With cashmere underfoot and shimmering rose-gold walls, a Lincoln Park family's home redefines cozy elegance.

Written by Amalie Drury / Photography 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.

A built-in bench in the entry foyer with stylish storage cabinets acts as an upscale mud room.

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.

The wet bar, located off of the dining room, has detailed silver finishes. The artwork, “Flyboy” by Chicago Artist Hebru Brantley, contrasts nicely with the neutral color palette in the formal dining room, giving it the right splash of color.

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 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 co-founder 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.”

An antique SHIIR rug lays at the top of the main staircase underneath a modern chandelier, mixing oldworld and contemporary aesthetics.

Horner and his team approached the home’s interior with certain everyday moments and special occasions in the backs of their minds. In a first-floor den, two velvet-upholstered chaises are angled side by side so the couple can enjoy an evening glass of wine or an afternoon of reading. A penthouse entertaining space was designed to host annual Air and Water Show viewing parties. The breakfast nook off the kitchen was designed to capture the coziness of the family’s favorite booth at a local restaurant. “It’s a comfortable house, and a grownup house,” Horner says. “Their kids are older, high school and college-age. We were able to design the space with a sense of sophistication.”

Instead of creating a seldom used formal living room, Soucie Horner designed a study with chaise lounges and a fireplace meant for relaxation.

The dining room in particular takes cozy ambience to the next level, with its walls painted in a metallic rose-gold color that glows in the soft light of an elegant chandelier made of hand-blown glass discs. On one wall, a “Flyboy” painting by Chicago artist Hebru Brantley brings an element of childlike whimsy into the space. “We spotted the painting in Hebru’s Pilsen studio around the time he first moved back to Chicago,” Booth says. “We instantly connected to it because it reminded us of our son. And just recently, we added a full-size “Flygirl” sculpture to that room to represent our daughter.”

On the third floor, Booth and Sharp enjoy a master suite that is rarely seen by anyone but themselves. The space features a custom shagreen wall covering in a dark gray that gives the bedroom the feel of a glamorous sleeping cave, and a palette of rich purples and golds is unabashedly luxe. In Booth’s attached dressing room is a longhaired, gold cashmere rug by SHIIR Rugs, a handcrafted custom line cofounded by Shea Soucie and Martin Horner along with the owners of Oscar Isberian Rugs. “When you feel it underfoot, it’s the ultimate in plush and luxurious,” Horner says.

With the bathtub in the center of the room, the master bathroom is a true, spa-like retreat. An in-home office was necessary for the client, who is the CEO of an innovative anti-aging skincare company.

“Architecturally, one of the most successful elements of the house is the indoor-outdoor connection built into the first floor,” Horner says. The family room, which flows from the kitchen toward the back of the house, has large doors that open directly out onto an expansive terrace with an outdoor dining area. Booth says the family makes constant use of the space in the warmer months, hosting indoor-outdoor get-togethers all season long.

The sitting room leads to an outdoor patio overlooking Lincoln Park.

The dark walls of this bathroom complement the neutral palette of the home, while also infusing warmth and a moodier tone.

The outdoor seating area off of the master suite overlooks Lincoln Park.

The home shows off design details at every turn, but the real centerpiece is undoubtedly the main staircase, a gracefully winding oval that curves upward in a wash of natural light from a skylight at the top. The stairs are covered in a custom cascading wool and silk runner in ethereal abstract pastels from SHIIR Rugs—the first stair runner ever created by the company. “That was new and fun for us,” Horner says. As with most aspects of the project, he says, the clients “gave us direction, but really let us provide them with the vision. They let us do our job. That’s always a pleasure.”