GRAND VICTORIAN MESHES MODERN TOUCHES

‘Sell the stocks, we’re buying this house’

By Liz Jaros

Home Book Magazine Contributor

On an ordinary Sunday seven years ago, after she and a friend took what was supposed to be a casual spin through an open house at 212 S. Grove Ave. in Oak Park, Laura Banbury got on the phone and delivered a surprise directive to her husband Mark.

“We have to sell all our stock and buy this house,” she told him. “I’m serious.”

Unaware that a move was something they were even contemplating, Mark had been taken aback by this sudden attraction to another house, but still he agreed to join Laura – then pregnant with their second child – for a closer look. It was probably best to play along.

But once inside this extraordinary old Victorian, Mark was charmed too. Long on light and space and brimming with personality, it felt right to both of them. And without even really looking, the Banburys had found their dream house.

Designed in the late 1800s by H. G. Fiddelke – a noted Chicago architect who settled in Oak Park to design the likes of Ernest Hemingway’s boyhood home and the Burton Hales Mansion – the Banburys’ new acquisition was originally a spec house for another commission on the block, they were told. And it had recently been featured on the Wright Plus Housewalk.

With crested, third-story dormers projecting skyward from a sloping, Mansard roof and a tall, vertical stature giving it an almost ominous presence on the block, the home is a shining example of the French-influenced, Second Empire style of Victorian architecture – a style that saw most of its American popularity in upper class urban neighborhoods for its grandiose, yet space-maximizing design.

But Laura says architecture and history – while certainly interesting to them – had little if any impact on their decision to buy.

“We just liked the house,” she says plainly. “We were coming from something similar but smaller [in northeast Oak Park] and this one had a little more room, which we needed.”

Plus, she couldn’t wait to get her hands on the walls. And the ceilings. And the floors.

Swatch Out

“The house was in great shape,” Laura says. “We didn’t have to do anything structural at all.” But the colors and papers were in need of an update. And that’s where the fun came in.

Richly trimmed with three different woods, flooded with diverse color and light from four different art glass designs and loaded with ornate built-ins, the Banburys’ home was and eyeful from the start. The prospect of choosing the right materials and furniture to balance tone and texture here would certainly be daunting to anyone who’s ever choked choosing a beige for the bathroom. But Laura clearly has an eye for this kind of thing.

“I like a lot of bright color,” she says. “I enjoy my yellows.” But Laura also throws blue, red, green and silver into the mix with-out creating visual chaos. Add to that some faux finish wainscoting, a little toile here and there and a lot of pattern from Bradbury and Bradbury’s historic art wallpaper line – and wow, this is a house with style.

Standing at the base of a three story open staircase, Laura says the chandelier in the grand reception hall was refurbished along with several other fixtures on the first floor: And for the most part, new lighting was chosen for its ability to resonate with the home’s heritage.

In the dining room, however, Laura chose an elaborate, Italian-influenced Tole candelabra with hand-painted, porcelain vines and flowers to illuminate a contemporary, circular dining table. Keeping company with a fern-green, glass tiled fireplace and a very Victorian oak and mirror overmantel, the chandelier exemplifies Laura’s gift for transcending the eras to create her own unique style.

“In general, I’ve tried to keep the design authentic, but I like modern furniture and art,” she says. Shop hopping on holiday in Saugatuck, Michigan for contemporary prints and enlisting the help of a friend in the upholstery business to replicate expensive chairs and sofas, she’s introduced charismatic, but clean-lined pieces into a stage that typically would be set with much Victorian frill.

In the library, where a room-spanning art glass bookcase commands most of your attention, a patch of paper above the chandelier exemplifies one of Laura’s design hallmarks: the treated fifth wall.

“Someone once suggested painting a ceiling in one of your rooms,” she recalls. “And I wasn’t so sure…” But now, with the results providing great depth and character; Laura says she can’t stop. The tranquil, textured blue ceiling in the master bedroom is one of her favorites.

Family Focused

With three kids under the age of 10 milling about in a house like this, you’d think the Banburys might be tempted to cordon off portions of it with velvet rope. But that’s not Laura and Mark’s style.

Although a good chunk of their time is divided between the kitchen (most likely the next room to be overhauled) and the third floor playroom, Laura says the kids are allowed to roam wherever they choose. Sticky fingerprints and reckless crayon marks can always be washed off (or papered over).

“This is a great family house and we enjoy being together in it,” she says. “That’s what matters.”