Is there anything better than dining outdoors? There is something so relaxing and freeing about it, especially after a long winter. Here in Chicago, people take alfresco dining seriously. On a sunny day, restaurant patios fill up moments after they open! While it’s fun to dine out, I love to host friends and family and to have an excuse to craft a beautiful tablescape. Now that Spring is officially here, I can’t wait to start enjoying more time outside. Let me bring you down my recent rabbit hole of outdoor tablescape saves. I promise you’ll leave inspired! OUTDOOR TABLESCAPE INSPIRATION ..read more

Centered by Design for House Beautiful Whole Home Gaining popularity in recent years, trellis or lattice work has made its way indoors, adding depth, texture, and beauty to interior spaces. Trellis layered on an interior wall is elegant and sophisticated way to bring the outdoors in. We embraced this trend in the sunroom we designed for the 2023 House Beautiful Whole Home and it has been on our minds ever since. More on that later (don’t miss the end of this post). We are making it even easier to add the trellis look to your own home. What do you think of when you hear the word trellis? Maybe ..read more

As the first impression to many guests and visitors, and as the view that welcomes you home each day, your staircase is a focal point that sets the tone for your home. Many people decide to invest in stair runners to ease concerns about slips and falls or to help muffle sounds. Functionality aside, we love a stair runner for the color, warmth and personality they can bring to your foyer. Striped stair runners and/or adding a striped border are a classic look in historic and new homes alike. Centered by Design recently partnered with longtime local business, Lewis Floor & Home to install a ..read more

We were so honored to be chosen as designers at the 2023 House Beautiful Whole Home in Hinsdale, Illinois. This was the sixth year of the Whole Home project, which is a national show house organized and publicized by House Beautiful and the Hearst Magazine group. This year, along with 13 other design teams, we were tasked with preserving the history of a stunning 13,000-square-foot David Adler designed estate while updating it with fresh, vibrant designs. Centered by Design is known for our love of historical properties, so this was a perfect opportunity to reimagine an intricate sunroom ..read more

Is there anything more lovely than Paris in autumn? The City of Light is hard to beat in this glorious season, and last month, we got the opportunity to travel to France to visit both Paris and Bordeaux. It wasn’t a purely leisure trip (though how can Paris ever feel like work?) — our main intent was to meet with French wallpaper company Isidore Leroy. We were first introduced to the brand through a friend from design school, then partnered with them on the Lake Forest Showhouse. This collaboration sparked the idea for another: What if we developed a wallpaper collection together? Enjoyin ..read more

If you’ve been following Centered by Design for a while, you know how much we enjoy exploring Round Top Antiques Fair. Last year, Claire and Meghan shopped the expansive antiques experience covering miles and miles of land surrounding the remote town of Round Top, Texas, and came home with treasures galore. We talked about our best tips for navigating Round Top here, and Claire was even interviewed by Veranda for a story about how to shop it smartly. This year’s Round Top Antiques Fair is coming up in October, and we’ve created an exciting opportunity for you to shop the market with us! Marry ..read more

We love a good before and after, and this Northshore craftsman kitchen renovation is a project we are so excited to share with you! For this kitchen renovation, we had our work cut out for us. It was a 1920s-era craftsman-style home that had been previously renovated and stripped of a lot of the original detail. Of note, a lot of homeowners renovate to make their homes work better for them, but don’t take the home’s architecture into consideration. In this case, that led to a lot of unused space and too-cramped spaces elsewhere. To bring back some of the charming elements and maximize the squ ..read more

Luxe Interiors + Design magazine featured one of our recent renovation projects in its latest issue! Today we are taking you behind the scenes of this modern organic home. In the world of shelter publications, project reveals typically must be exclusive to the magazine and not published elsewhere (including the designer’s own website or social channels) before the issue is out. So while this has been a long time in the works, we are very excited to finally be able to share it with the world. Opening spread of our 10-page print feature in Luxe Interiors + DesignModern Organic Home Renovation Sc ..read more

Centered by Design is delighted to be one of 33 interior designers participating in the 2023 Lake Forest Showhouse & Gardens! Put on by the Lake Forest Chapter of the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago, the biennial event has become known as one of the most well-regarded showhouses in the country. The most recent showhouse took place in summer 2020.  This year’s event, the highly anticipated 19th for the Society, will transform a red brick, late-1960s-era Georgian-style home designed by architect William Frazier that’s set on 9 acres in Lake Forest. The project encompasses a 16-room m ..read more

We partnered with Build With Ferguson to create a virtual rendering of Amy’s (one of the designers on our team!) kitchen renovation–and the results do not disappoint! It’s always a huge help to be able to see a design idea rendered virtually before fully committing to it. First and foremost, you can make sure you truly love the overall effect of the design but also tweak any of the details you’re not crazy about ahead of time to avoid big surprises in the field. BEFORE This kitchen before was pretty horrendous– dark, outdated, dirty and in serious need of a kitchen renovation overhaul. Nothing ..read more