Stephanie Waddell, Greg O’Neal, and their dog, Scout, in their living room, where the latest addition is Jocelyn Warner’s Kew wallpaper (available at Urban Source).

The owners: Stephanie Waddell is the textile designer behind the local company Agnes & Hoss (agnesandhoss.com); her luscious patterned silk pillows are sold at Jayson Home & Garden. She also makes purses and has a line of lighting through Stonegate Designs (see stonegatedesigns.com for dealers). Her husband, Greg O’Neal, who works in marketing, is also a major player in the decorating. The digs: The first floor of a vintage two-flat in Albany Park. The look: Eclectic vintage with lots of well-placed tchotchkes."We are very object-intensive here," says Waddell, surveying her living room."I just have to have a lot of interesting things to look at." On the mantel: A coterie of ceramic birds 1. collected from antique shops and flea markets, all spray-painted white by Waddell."I ripped that idea out of a magazine a long time ago," she says.

Photography: Matthew Gilson

A wood-and-glass-encased shell collection 3. (it was a small table, sans legs, that her mother found at an antique shop) hangs in her living room alongside a reproduction vintage educational poster depicting different species of jellyfish. Fashion as decoration: Instead of tucking her brightly colored vintage costume jewelry away in a drawer, Waddell displays it on her bedroom wall, 4. layering necklaces on funky distressed knobs and hooks purchased at Anthropologie. She also has sunglasses, bracelets, and some of her own Agnes & Hoss purses arranged artfully on her dressers, which she bought at the painted vintage furniture shop White Attic."I could have bought dressers at West Elm for the same price, but I like that the owner takes old things and makes them new. We try to fill our house that way," she says, adding,"of course, there’s a place for new stuff, too."

Photography: Matthew Gilson

Other surface dwellers: Glass grapes from an old Marshall Field’s display casually strewn over a candelabrum inherited from grandma; a decoupaged glass tray by one of Waddell’s favorite designers, John Derian; and a massive book entitled Cabinet of Natural Curiosities 2., featuring specimen illustrations by 18th-century Dutch pharmacist Albertus Seba."Nature inspires all of my designs," says Waddell.  The couple purchased their Hollywood Regency–style brown-with-eucalyptus-trim velour sofa 5. at Jonathan Adler when the boutique first opened in Chicago. Agnes & Hoss pillows make their appearance in virtually every room. The furniture evolution: When the couple bought the two-flat three years ago, they had recently graduated from"post-college Ikea stuff" to more mid-century modern. But with the new space, they decided to mix things up. A teak chair 6. in the living room that Waddell had reupholstered in a modern striped fabric  gets along famously with a rustic wood coffee table that started life as a factory cart, purchased at an antique shop in Michigan (where Waddell grew up).

Photograph: Matthew Gilson

In the kitchen, six framed Chinese propaganda posters 7. (gleaned from a Taschen calendar) hang over a spare glass table from CB2 that’s surrounded by four decidedly not spare vintage chairs from eBay. For the dining room, Waddell reupholstered mid-century chairs 8. in flowery Osborne & Little fabric and hung matching wallpaper 9. below the chair rails. Above the chair rail on one wall is a grouping of framed family photos 10. that Waddell’s mom calls"the wall of old people." Work meets home: A designer of fabrics, Waddell is also an avid collector of other designers’ handiwork. One of her favorite pieces is an old wooden office divider 11. that she re-covered in a Maharam fabric designed by Hella Jongerius; it looks like a huge painting resting on the floor. Perched atop this divider are four charmingly slouchy sock monkeys , 12. one of which Waddell bought at the Renegade Craft Fair (held annually, in September, in Wicker Park)."I’m always on the lookout for more of them," she says."But they have to be really unique."

Photography: Matthew Gilson