MAHJONG ROOM

When Liz Sherwood, founder and principal of White Couch Design, first walked through Henry Ives Cobb’s Pembroke Lodge it was like a fever dream: “Marble and mirrors and murals, oh my,” she recalls.

As this was to be her first time designing in a Lake Forest Showhouse, Sherwood initially dismissed the former owner’s jewelry room as an option, because—filled with mirrors and massive display cases built to store more than 8,000 pieces of costume jewelry—it felt too grand. “Veteran designers of Lake Forest Showhouses had advised me to make bids for designing smaller, uncomplicated rooms,” Sherwood recalls. “So, I thought this optical fun house of a room, with all the mirrors and acrylic surfaces, was too much to approach redoing.”

But after a huge demo removed all the glass and mirrors, the room became a blank canvas and Sherwood was delighted to be awarded the chance to re-imagine it.

A mahjong aficionado, Sherwood didn’t have far to look for inspiration. “I play mahjong with a wonderful group of women nearly every week,” she says. “There are usually 12 of us who gather in the foyer of my home. We play with the most beautiful hand-painted tiles—each tile a tiny work of art.”

Thinking of those exquisite tiles, Sherwood designed a “refined but not frilly” space that she and her friends would be delighted to play in, a sanctuary for women, without it being overly feminine. “To me, a game room feels synonymous with dark wood paneling, leather club chairs, and green felt surfaces,” she says. “But my mahjong room, as an elevated gaming space for ladies, needed to feel the opposite of that. So, I designed it with lush fabrics, soft lighting, plentiful seating, and a tucked-away champagne bar,” she explains.

Shaping the design, “the wallpaper was the first thing I fell in love with,” says Sherwood, “a beautiful grasscloth from House of Harris, which is a small wallpaper and fabric company owned by two sisters out of the South.” Called Fancy Flock, the paper, beautifully textured with soft pinks, vibrant greens, and pops of navy, featuring herons, delicate flowers, and bright lily pads, felt like the perfect jumping-off point.

Using the grasscloth as her guide, Sherwood pulled fabrics from her favorite showrooms and began to build a color and texture story. She and her team used AutoCAD to create three different layouts of the space and then completed renderings that translated her vision into real life.

For the ceiling and trim, Sherwood’s first thought was to use a raspberry color pulled straight from the wallpaper. “But ultimately, I decided to tone that down replacing it with a softer shade of pink. The high-gloss, soft pink ceiling envelops the room, and a soft wool rug grounds the space.”

And then late at night, “when I should have been sleeping, I found a gorgeous Cesare Lacca settee from the 1950s,” says Sherwood. That, in turn, inspired her to begin thinking about seating choices. “I knew I wanted a round table as a playful departure from the classic square game table, and that begged to be paired with a bench, and two chairs,” she explains.

The Cesare Lacca scalloped bench is covered in a textured Cowtan & Tout fabric with hints of greens and blue. The vintage chairs designed by René Prou are recovered in Pierre Frey. Sherwood also included a gossip chair covered in a muted pink mohair from Schumacher with contrast piping.

Soft lighting includes a funky floor lamp, dramatic brass sconces, and two vintage Murano table lamps in soft pink.

“The entire experience has been a true privilege,” says Sherwood. “To be able to bring funds and awareness to such a worthy cause, keep company with such an incredibly talented and creative group of assembled designers, work in a storied and historic home, and have free rein to create the room of one’s fantasy has been a recipe for a wonderful experience.”

For more information, visit whitecouchdesign.com, @whitecouchdesign, or email [email protected].