Every decor can be warmed with well-chosen antiques
Of course Dee Schlagel thinks every home, no matter how contemporary, should warm up with an antique or two.
After all, the designer lives in a fabulous country house with pine floor boards that are 18 inches wide as well as a walk-in fireplace in the family room that's really an extension of the country kitchen.
Antiques chosen for a contemporary home should stand on their own like a work of art or a sculpture, she said.
Her examples include the sculpture she had made from a beam when a 200-year-old family barn in Naperville was demolished, as well as white ironstone cake plates on pedestals and a large, intriguing red industrial coffee grinder. In a semi-contemporary home she put an old round bowl on a contemporary base.
“It can warm up a space and make it more interesting,” said Schlagel. “You don't want your home to look like a display in a furniture store. You want personality and you want it to reflect what your home is all about. It then becomes the point of interest in the room, a connection to the past.”
Schlagel and her family — including two horses — moved to the acreage west of Burlington and St. Charles about 20 years ago from Pennsylvania.
And even though the house is 40 years old, the huge maple beam at the top of the family room fireplace still weeps whenever a fire burns.
“When we first moved here, when we had people over, I would make something on the stove and quickly move it to the fireplace to make it look like I cooked it there,” she said.
She finds antiques at shops, or antiques shows like the Fox Valley Antiques show next weekend in St. Charles, but is always on the lookout for them; they sometimes turn up in unexpected places.
For Schlagel, the stories are almost as much fun as the antiques. Years ago she found a ram's head from the set of a television drama and ended up buying it. She drove it home buckled into a seat belt — a treat for tollbooth operators. Now it hangs in her family room.
Decor in the house is warm with touches of horses, cowboys and Indians. One showstopper is a hand-painted poster advertising a Chicago rodeo with a 25-cent admission. She found that in Colorado.
The furniture in front of the fire is antique wicker from an old family cabin. She covered the cushions with a classic red and black buffalo check from Woolrich, an outdoor clothing and home goods company.Most of the rooms on the first floor have fireplaces, including a fieldstone one in the living room with the cathedral ceiling and natural linen drapes trimmed with a touch of red.
One of the treasures in this room is a hide-covered rocking horse Schlagel found while working on a photo shoot in Pennsylvania. After bringing it home she learned it was made in Chicago by a German immigrant named Nikolous Klein, who had learned the craft from his father. Klein died in the 1970s.
The designer loves good furniture, including the living room sofa she's had so long it was once cut into a sectional then put back together. And does anyone ever have time to use the antique chaise longue in the corner? Yes, her grandchildren do, and so does Santa at Christmas time.
Up on the loft overlooking the living room is an unusual antique that Schlagel does not have room to display properly. It's a bathtub built into a showy oak cabinet so it can be attractive and out of the way until it opens like a Murphy bed when it's time for Saturday night baths.
Schlagel's collection of lamps is illustrated by the one in the powder room made with cap gun six-shooters like kids played with in the 1950s. The shade for this, like other lamps, is new, but features vintage pictures.
For a long time, Schlagel searched for a lamp with a base made of pebbles by Boy Scouts more than half a century ago. The one she recently found in a Barrington shop uses a flickering bulb to represent the flames in the fireplace.
#8220;Lot of things here are family or treasures found in searching for other people's treasures,#8221; she said.
And how does Schlagel arrange her home so it is more #8220;cozy#8221; than just a jumble of stuff?
#8220;Stand back and look at the arrangement through a camera's eye,#8221; she said. #8220;It doesn't fib. If there is too much stuff, every now and then go through and strip things out and bring them back later.#8221;
Another trick is to get everything out of a room and bring them back one piece at a time.
She points out a whirligig dog #8212; kind of like a primitive weather vane #8212; in the bay window between the kitchen and the family.
#8220;I didn't know what to do with him,#8221; she said. #8220;Then I found this rosemary plant. Now it's balanced. Before that he said #8216;What am I doing here?'#8221;
#8226;Dee Schlagel can be found at designdiscoveryltd.com, and she has been chosen to participate in the Design Connection program at the Arlington Design Center in Arlington Heights, arlingtondesigncenter.com, which specializes in providing products to designers.
54th Annual Fox Valley Antiques Show
Designer Dee Schlagel, whose company Design Discovery has clients from Barrington and St. Charles to Chicag to shows like the Fox Valley Antiques Show.
<b>When</b>: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, March 12 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, March 13
<b>Where</b>: Kane County Fairgrounds, Randall Road between Main Street (Route 64) and Roosevelt Road (Route 38), St. Charles
<b>Admission</b>: 8 dollars, 2 dollars discount available at csada.com
<b>Who</b>: Fifty-five dealers from 14 states, sponsored by the Chicago Suburban Antiques Dealers.
(Etc.</b>: Schlagel's website is Designdiscoveryltd.com