A video tour of the ranch house, narrated by Chip and Cynthia DeGrace. See more photos in the gallery below.
Even if there had been a glimmer of doubt about making an offer on the low-slung four-bedroom, three-bath house they call home, it was immediately erased when, three years ago, Chip and Cynthia DeGrace walked into the kitchen and saw the decades-old turquoise GE stove.
“We were like, ‘Uh-oh,’” recalls Chip, the creative director at Flor, the modular carpet tile company. “What were the chances that it would be a vintage stove and that it would be turquoise?” Not to mention, adds Cynthia, a freelance stylist, that it was in perfect working order.
Sold!—to the couple who love old stoves and ranch houses. This flagstone beauty, built in the late 1940s, is the third ranch—all in Elmhurst—they’ve shared with their three boys and a boxer (four-legged) named Mabyl. No wall-to-wall burgundy carpeting, bright blue walls, or “aggressive” wallpaper (remnants of the previous owner’s spirited decorating vision) could put them off.
“Despite all that cosmetic stuff, we immediately loved that it had an open floor plan with connecting entry, living room, and dining room,” says Chip. “It was clear an architect had thought about the flow, about the size of the windows, about how the inside opened to the backyard—a lot of the same things we would think about.”
The only major renovation the DeGraces undertook was the removal of a couple of walls that divided the original eat-in kitchen from the dining area. They replaced a pass-through window with a peninsula and stools and framed the entry to the kitchen with an arch mirroring one that separates the house’s front vestibule from the main living space.
Other interior fixes were purely superficial. The DeGraces kept the original metal kitchen cabinets but had them electrostatically spray-painted. Peach laminate countertops were replaced with granite. The homeowners painted all the walls themselves—white, except for the master bedroom, which is dark gray, and the boys’ rooms, which are light blue. “We prefer neutral walls with color and pattern in the furniture and on the floor,” Chip says.
Furnishings are predominantly mid-century modern, with pieces by Eames, Bertoia, and Risom. Fittingly, the floors (which the couple had redone in cork after stripped carpet revealed plain old plywood) are covered in an array of vibrant carpet tiles from Flor’s catalog.
The DeGraces’ outdoor space didn’t get short shrift, either. The house is on a corner lot and has a long, narrow backyard; mature trees meant nice shade but not much grass. So the DeGraces went with the flow, fencing in a courtyard and finishing it with crushed slate underfoot and a slate-clad raised koi trough built along one edge of the house.
Where do the fishies go in the wintertime? “They come inside and live with us,” says Cynthia. Apparently, everyone in this family loves ranches.
Details
See more photos in the gallery below.
1. The DeGraces’ three sons (the youngest is 10; the twins are 12) share two bedrooms that flank a bathroom. Both have matching sets of Heywood-Wakefield beds, and the boys often switch up their sleeping locales. 2. The DeGraces refaced the concrete patio in the courtyard with slate pavers and filled in the rest of the yard with complementary crushed stone. Chip made the table’s centerpiece from a section of gutter. 3. Privacy fences on all sides of the yard give the family an outdoor living space with multiple “rooms”—a fire pit, a lounging area, and a dining area. 4. The koi pond, positioned so that it can be enjoyed from inside and outside the house, is clad in a third variation of slate. “We wanted to create a monochromatic look with a mix of textures,” says Cynthia. The wall sculpture is by C. Jere.
Photography: Nathan Kirkman
Buy Guide
ABOUT OUR SOURCES: We attempt to provide as much information as possible about the products and professionals involved in designing the homes we show in our pages. Items not sourced here are probably not available for sale. Send questions to chicagohome@chicagomag.com. And check out Design Sources, our comprehensive list of hundreds of local home design pros, shops, and showrooms.
Living room: End table in background, Caste Design, Merchandise Mart, 312-464-1450, castedesign.us. White marble side table, Eero Saarinen, Design Within Reach, 10 E. Ohio St., 312-280-4677, dwr.com. Master bedroom: Alpine Case Study bed, Modernica, modernica.net. Swiss Army blanket, European Market, europeanmarket.us. Accent pillow, Blu Dot, bludot.com. Block Lamp, Harri Koskinen, momastore.org. Dining room: Eames molded plywood chairs, Room & Board, 55 E. Ohio St., 312-222-0970, roomandboard.com. Stools, Philippe Starck for Emeco, emeco.net. Boys’ room: Linens, Dwell Studio, dwellstudio.com. Courtyard: Table, Restoration Hardware, 938 W. North Ave., 312-475-9116, restorationhardware.com. Dining chairs, Blu Dot. Chairs, chaise, and bench, Loll, lolldesigns.com. Lantern at fire pit, Restoration Hardware. Sculpture at koi pond by C. Jere, pegboardchicago.com. Rugs throughout: Flor, 1873 N. Clybourn Ave., 773-325-0201, flor.com.