Room of the Day: A Chicago Living Room Puts Boyishness Behind

Although the owner of this Chicago condo graduated from college several years ago, his furniture was still matriculating. “It was a typical bachelor pad,” says Brooke Henton, the owner’s friend and an interior designer. “The room had dark curtains and a large leather sectional — in fact, there was a lot of leather everywhere.” The designer, the owner of Atelier Bea Interiors + Design, created a living room that allows him to entertain in a style that’s more gentlemanly than boyish.

Henton was charged with making the room work with the orange wall color the client had chosen, and with working on a relatively tight budget. Her first purchase: a gray sectional that seats several guests without cutting off the flow to the balcony. “Gray goes well with almost anything, and it’s a timeless color,” she says. Orange and gray patterned custom pillows bring the color palette together.

A glass-topped coffee table doesn’t take up much visual space, and the rounded edges allow visitors to comfortably circulate around it. “I thought this piece looked masculine and stylish,” says Henton. The abstract artworks above the sofa are affordable finds from HomeGoods. “The pattern reminded me of a map of subway lines but in black and white,” says Henton.

The room doesn’t have a lot of overhead lighting, so the designer selected two floor lamps from West Elm to make the sofa a good reading place.


Blue and orange are complementary colors, and guaranteed to add a jolt of life to any room when used together. Here the blue comes in the form of an upholstered armchair by the window.

The curtains are from Pottery Barn; Henton had them hemmed to fit the space. They’re neutral colors, but their pattern creates visual interest.


The shelves are from Ikea. “We looked at a lot of options, and we decided to use these but group them in a set of three,” says Henton. “To make them interesting, I layered in a lot of objects with books he had.”

The large baskets on the lower shelves hold blankets and magazines. “In every room there’s always something that you need, but you don’t really want to have seen all the time,” she says.

The client, now a finance professional, at last has a space that makes the grade.

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