As this cheerful Lake Forest house proves, preppy hues like green and pink never go out of style. Interior designer Ruthie Sommers injected a lot of color into this house to provide her client with instant happiness.
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Living Room
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In a young family's house in Lake Forest, Illinois, decorator Ruthie Sommers cozied up the living room with classic furnishings in a preppy palette of pink, green, and chocolate brown. For a contrast with the original white brick walls, a custom sofa was covered in a mocha cotton velvet. The menagerie of pillows was made mostly from leftover fabrics. "Maybe I overdid it on pillows, but it was all in the same zealous spirit of the house," Sommers says. "I wanted to create that squishy, everyone-squeezing- onto-the-sofa feeling." A lover of traditional hand-blocked floral prints, she re-covered the homeowners' slipper chair in Lee Jofa's Eldon. The plaster sconces, once part of a Dorothy Draper interior, are from David Bell Antiques, with pink pleated shades by Munder & Sons.
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Living Room Artwork
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Contemporary photography, including this huge print by Reinhard Görner, adds a refreshing touch of modernity to the living room. The love seat is covered in Pindler & Pindler's Ghent.
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Entry
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On the entry's chocolate-brown walls — Benjamin Moore Aura in Mink — Sommers had Patrick Roullier paint a mural of ivory trees and squirrels based on the flora and fauna of the Illinois countryside. The bench from the Antique & Artisan Center is covered in a Pindler & Pindler ticking stripe.
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Dining Room
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In the dining room, walls in Farrow & Ball's Blue Ground in Full Gloss are a foil for pink Murano glass lamps from Swank Lighting. Vintage Louis XVI–style chairs around a Jansen dining table are covered in Talcy Velvet by Clarence House.
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Family Room
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Both sofas and the curtains in the family room are covered in Chenonceaux, an ikat by Brunschwig & Fils. Another bold ikat covers the ottoman. Custom dining chairs by Chapman Radcliff are upholstered in Pierre Frey's Le Grand Corail. An end table from John Rosselli Antiques is topped with a blue-and-white ginger jar lamp from Hollywood at Home. Sommers designed the large grass cloth–covered coffee table to accommodate everything from stacks of books to cocktails.
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Family Room Seating
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Sommers brightened the client's club chairs in the family room with Kravet's Versailles blue velvet and celery-green strap work.
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Passageway
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Sommers converted a storage room into a handsome passage with a purpose: Under a green chinoiserie mirror she set up a bar on an Italian marble-top console from Thomas Jolly Antiques.
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Powder Room
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Used horizontally on slanted walls, the powder room's green stripe wallpaper by Rose Cumming is "a total Dorothy Draper move," Sommers says. "It could be the Greenbrier."
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Master Bedroom
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In a house full of strong rooms, the master bedroom's pale colors offer a serene respite. Sommers began with the patterned rug from Melrose Carpet and the striped Acanthus wallpaper by Farrow & Ball. The matching headboard and bed skirt are in Madeleine by Carleton V with Samarkand trim by Old World Weavers. The custom nightstand is covered in Fortuny's Papiro and topped with a lamp from Filament Lighting. The vanity is from Habité, and the mirror over it is from Harbinger.
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10
Guest Bedroom
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In a guest bedroom, Sommers covered walls in Cowtan & Tout's Amelie and piped the corners in Samuel & Sons' Cambridge Braid to play up charming architectural angles. The suzani bedcover is from Pat McGann.
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Dressing Table
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A chair seat and dressing table skirted to match the wallpaper envelop the guest bedroom in flowers. Wallpaper and fabric are Cowtan & Tout's Amelie. The pair of lamps is from Rubbish, with shades by Munder & Sons.
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Exterior
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Architect Ralph Milman designed the French Provincial house in 1926, and Sommers's clients added on to it.