The Wilmette Colonial

On Chicago's North Shore, in the village of Wilmette, this 1920s Colonial had the bones its owners loved and a layout that no longer fit their days. Lindsey Goddard Interiors was asked to do two things at once: protect the original architecture and make the house work for a busy modern family. The answer was a full renovation and expansion, planned room by room.

Goddard starts with how a family actually lives, then reads each room's existing details before adding anything new. Here that meant keeping original mouldings and proportions, and layering in custom pieces, quiet shifts of texture and carefully matched tones. A new mudroom pairs lower and upper cabinetry in contrasting colours, built for boots, bags and the daily rush. The children's shared bathroom is softened with arches, coordinated florals and tailored trims, while the powder room and primary bath lean classic and polished.

Hardware was part of the design from the start, not a final detail. Armac Martin pieces run through the house in finishes chosen for each room: dark bronze Lincoln T-bar handles in the mudroom, Oblique ring pulls in dark bronze in the children's bedroom, Grove hardware in unlacquered polished brass in the powder room, Sutton in the same living brass in the primary bath, and polished chrome sash knobs in the children's bathroom. Each finish suits its room, and together they read as one house.