POWDER ROOMS

“His” and “Her” powder rooms are rather unusual yet, when the new owners of Pembroke Lodge requested them, Katy Evans, founder and principal of Katy Evans Design in Lake Bluff, was immediately on board.

“This was such a unique Showhouse room design opportunity,” says Evans. “One, because of the house itself. Henry Ives Cobb, David Adler, and Frances Elkins had such timeless style, and I always welcome the chance to design with the classics in mind. But also, because designing his and her powder rooms provides a chance for us to showcase what we are best at—transforming a space from top to bottom, from hard finishes to soft goods.”

As Evans’ team pulled together their mood board, Frances Elkins was the primary inspiration. “We looked through historical records in order to emulate her designs in our work,” says Evans. “We knew we wanted to use a mural, for example, and found a home in Lake Forest that Frances worked on which provided the inspiration for the wallpaper we chose.”

That paper, Thibaut’s Wild Wisteria, a mural based on an 18th-century watercolor, emulates the chinoiserie in the dining room of the Helen Shedd Reed House notes senior designer Adrienne Murrill of Katy Evans Design.

Evans chose the ochre colorway and, given the many colors in the wallcovering, the fabric and finish selections were easy to coordinate.

“Our design in the 2023 showhouse centered on the blush ground in the mudroom’s wallpaper, so for this year we gravitated toward greens, golds, and browns,” says Evans.

For example, “We chose a green moiré for the lady’s makeup vanity and a rust-colored cut velvet for the makeup chair and accented both of those with gold-toned trims,” Murrill explains.

Other elements were inspired by a vignette that Murrill and Evans saw at the Carolyn Morse Ely estate during the Lake Bluff History Museum’s 2024 Holiday Home Tour. Emulating that look, they chose vintage gold sconces from Paris and an antique mirror-inspired wallpaper by Sanderson to round out the powder rooms.

The team selected other Thibaut fabrics for an IATESTA Studio fret bench at the entry and used Thibaut bamboo wall-covering in both powder rooms. Ebony vanities by Vanity & Co. anchor each room with a block print fabric adding a feminine touch behind the brass mesh door inserts in one room.

Finally, the team carried the timeless Elkins-inspired vision up to the ceiling with fixtures from Visual Comfort. “Lighting is the jewelry for a space,” says Evans, “and we selected pieces that might have been seen in Frances’ designs a century ago.”

“It has been an honor to bring forth Elkins’ timeless designs to a new set of eyes while raising money for such an important charity for the Chicagoland area,” Evans concludes.

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