How Luxurious Textures Bring Serenity To This Chicago Loft
In the living area, a Romann Custom Upholstery sofa and CB2 bench flank a Croft House coffee table. The floor is layered with rugs from Urban Outfitters and Oscar Isberian Rugs. Lighting comes courtesy of a Gong pendant, an &Tradition table lamp and a Simone & Marcel floor lamp.
Luxurious textures and a mellow palette smooth an industrial loft’s rough edges.
By day, a 29-year-old businesswoman is sharp, tenacious and barrier-breaking, storming through the finance world. But after hours, the self-made entrepreneur’s tenderhearted underbelly emerges. “People say I’m a velvet fist in an iron glove,” she confesses. “The business field can feel like a war zone at times. So, I wanted my home to be where I let that inner soft side out—a refuge that supports contemplation and reflection.”
Her chosen abode—a River North converted warehouse loft—also appeared tough and no-nonsense at first glance. Raw concrete ceilings, exposed ducts and century-old brick walls don’t necessarily exude cushioned comfort. But when designer Becca Jarrad first saw these weathered finishes, she knew a soft, tactile heart lay beating behind its industrial bones. The trick was “finding a way to work with these details, bringing in things that made them look like we deliberately selected them,” the designer explains.
Jarrad partnered closely with general contractor Jake Ross to incorporate materials that would deepen the loft’s textured depths. The client had first imagined a serene, all-white palette, “But I wanted to step down in tone, still keeping everything soft and neutral but with a lot of beige, taupe and honey,” the designer says. These hues blend into the apartment’s timeworn materials while also “lending a Zen, spa-like experience, because they feel more natural.”
The existing floors were refinished, restoring their cognac warmth. To complement the rich hue, Jarrad chose rift-cut white oak built-in closets with doors in a parchment-like finish for the new foyer. “We wanted it to be a very impactful moment when you walk into the space while ultimately hiding all of the things that the home requires,” she notes. Ross’ team then reframed the space into a cocoon-like entrance by adding one wall and rounding the edge of another, “so you experience this soft curve as you’re entering,” the designer describes.
Home Details
Interior Design:
Becca Jarrad, Studio Eidos
Home Builder:
Jake Ross, Jake Ross Remodeling
Hand-applied limewash by The Decorative Finish cloaks the entry’s curved walls. JH Custom Furniture-made stools covered in a Colefax and Fowler check provide a moment of pause. Milk-glass Allied Maker sconces and an Arteriors pendant illuminate the space.
Loyal T Cabinetry crafted the kitchen’s white oak display shelving. Oak stools by Sekt pull up to the peninsula, which is topped with Bianca Perla quartzite from Terrazzo & Marble Supply Companies. The black Bosch range adds contrast.
Strong lines and soft curves converge in the kitchen, which showcases a hand-sculpted plaster hood by Jake Ross Remodeling. The 360 Cabinetry Inc.-fabricated pantry is accented by delicate Mariza Galani sconces.
A Børge Mogensen reproduction chair from Eternity Modern and Romann Custom Upholstery banquette surround a Gustaf Westman table. The Hennepin Made chandelier hangs in front of art by Kate Hefferan.
Light filters through Nordic Knots wool drapery into the bedroom, where a New Era Woodworks bed is set into an arched nook lined in an Omexco wallcovering. A sconce from SmileLampWorks and a Taiwan-Lantern pendant complete the Zen vibe.
More white oak continues inside the kitchen, which features minimalist European-inspired cabinetry, a hand-plastered vent hood and quartzite countertops that curve around an existing column to create an eat-in island. The thick, monumental pillar originally felt “so intrusive, cutting all of the areas off from one another,” the designer notes. “Wrapping the countertop around the pillar made it look like another design element.”
In the main gathering areas, limewash blankets the walls in softness while bringing a “little bit of movement to create visual interest,” Jarrad says. The finish also surrounds the new marble fireplace, where a quartzite hearth adds a warm accent. Upholstery smooths hard furniture edges, from the bench lined with fluffy Mongolian wool to the winged armchairs trimmed with rippled piping. And for the custom deep-set sofa, the designer chose a lush weave that “almost feels like a vintage sweater with a beautifully soft hand,” she says. “It’s so comfortable to lounge on.”
The bedroom sways toward a more cloud-like palette, with creamy walls, billowy wool drapery and a high-pile rug that “awakens your senses every time you get up in the morning,” Jarrad observes. Gentle light also filters through a globe lantern that punctuates the ceiling’s geometry of ducts above. “Instead of covering them up, we used them as interesting attributes to highlight,” she adds. A dark oak headboard and integrated side tables provide some visual contrast. The custom piece nestles inside an arched built-in nook lined with yarn-like wallpaper, creating this “little sleepy niche for the bed to live in,” the designer says.
Throughout the loft, a wabi-sabi approach to silhouettes and textures deepens this sense of ease. Pieces like the bulbous banquette curling around the dining table and the cluster of hand-blown glass pendants above, intentionally dented by the artisan, embrace the beauty of asymmetrical forms and organic finishes. And instead of a uniform rug perfectly cut to measure, the designer preferred layering two rugs with contrasting textures to carve out the living area.
Somewhere between the juxtaposition of hard concrete and creamy wool, the loft became more than a sanctuary for the client. In many ways, the “contrast of industrial and organic gets to the core of me, these dual sides of my personality,” she reflects. “The team did a great job of embracing all those different features and making them feel whole.”