SITTING ROOM

Hidden away from the hustle and bustle of Pembroke Lodge’s first-floor gathering rooms is a charming sitting room on its second floor. “We pictured it as a personal hideaway,” says Carly Moeller, founder and principal designer at Chicago’s Unpatterned interior design studio.

“It’s a bit of an unexpected room,” says Moeller. “One in which we were given design leeway. We had the freedom to give it whatever function we chose. And so, we shaped it into a library lounge.”

Because the designers at Unpatterned are all big readers, “creating a library lounge was a dream room for us to design,” Moeller explains. “We kept coming back to the concept of a secret garden or hidden oasis as our inspiration, based on the tucked-away location of the room.” A photo of a cozy reading nook window seat with a floral draped window treatment sparked some of the team’s initial ideas, which were included in the design submittal.

Once awarded the opportunity to design the room, Moeller and associate designer Caitlin Medina began brainstorming. “We knew we wanted to transform the sitting room into a library lounge, so it had to have bookshelves. Starting sketches of those was a big part of the process. Then we moved into textiles. We had botanical prints in mind and wanted to wrap the room in wallpaper. So, we went to some of our favorite showrooms, pulled several wallpapers and fabrics, laid everything out in our studio, and then edited.”

The team selected Maresca Textiles and Kristy Stafford fabrics that worked well with the chosen William Morris wallpaper. “That helped set the tone for our overall scheme and things flowed from there,” says Moeller.

Because the room had minimal detail, the Unpatterned team added some funky details in the millwork, a window seat beneath the west-facing window, and shelving to the nook. “Once we found a few of our key pieces,” says Moeller, “it was easy to layer in the rest.”

Their selected botanical wallpaper was in hues of blues and greens. “But we wanted our millwork to pop next to that,” says Moeller. “So, I thought it made sense to push outside of our comfort zones with the paint colors. The burnt sienna and warm, orange tones of Benjamin Moore’s Georgian Brick were just what we needed to bring punch to the space.”

This being Unpatterned’s first Lake Forest Showhouse, Moeller is excited to share her design studio’s work with an extended audience and to help raise funds for the Infant Welfare Society. “The opportunity to have a wide variety of people experience a room we have designed in person is on such another level than just seeing photos,” she sums. “It’s a rare privilege.”

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