House Beautiful | Sarah Vaile Design
A Grand Illinois Estate Uses Rich Color to Balance Formal and Functional
Constructed in the early 2000s, this estate in the Chicago suburb of Hinsdale, Illinois, is a beacon of classical Georgian architecture. So when the current inhabitants, a couple with four young children, approached designer Sarah Vaile about updating the interiors, the brief was bold: Take a property of grand proportion—12,000 square feet—and turn it into an unfussy abode in harmony with its traditionalist underpinnings.
“The driving force of our design plan was to bridge the ‘formal’ part of the house with the everyday part so it all felt usable,” Vaile says. “The clients didn’t want anything too precious, but they also wanted fun flourishes.”
To accomplish those objectives, Vaile and her partner, Lindsay Baker, drew on a breadth of textures, textiles, palettes, antiques, and furniture finds from across the price spectrum. Balance—of masculine and feminine, seasonality, formality, and functionality—is a constant calibration in Vaile’s practice. The library, where leopard-print carpet, floral armchairs, and carved millwork mingle beneath an iconic photograph of Cher, Elton John, and Diana Ross and a ceiling covered in deep gray grasscloth, perfectly achieves that equilibrium. An animal-print rug acquired on Etsy injects a cheeky contemporary touch in the formal living room, where Vaile and Baker paired rich chocolate brown walls and jewel-toned drapery with an 1830s Biedermeier secretary and custom tassel-trimmed slipper chair.
