As co-founders of interior design firm North & Madison, Robin Flaherty and Jess Milburn have been teaming up to bring their signature brand of colorful interiors to the western suburbs and Chicago area for seven years. Two recent projects – one in River Forest and one in Forest Park – showcase the duo’s skills in transforming a variety of homes.
In River Forest, a working mom of four sought their services to update her historic house. Milburn said that the house had a lot of quaint vintage charm to start with.
“The goal was to keep that vintage integrity of the home but update it,” Milburn said.
What started as the idea of creating a more modern bathroom turned into a bit more.
“The owner joked that she thought she was just going to paint the kitchen cabinets,” Flaherty said.
Instead, they ended up gutting the kitchen and adding a mudroom on the first floor. One thing they didn’t do? Take down walls to create an open concept great room.
“It doesn’t feel like new construction,” Flaherty said. “It’s so rare these days to not open up space to the rest of the house. It really feels authentic to what the house wants to be.”
In the kitchen, they got creative to make a small space live large for the family. They closed off the back door to the porch to create an area for a large, built-in refrigerator. The new mudroom has a door to the back porch.
The original kitchen cabinets had been painted a rose pink, which Flaherty and Milburn say was charming, but the cabinets had to be replaced to make the room more functional.
They added back fun punches of color with new paint. Two arched cabinets flanking the stove are painted a teal that purposefully ties into the stone countertops. Flaherty and Milburn sampled countless green paints to get just the right shade for the new cabinets.
In the center of the kitchen, they added a custom wood table instead of an island.
“It looks like it could’ve been there for 100 years,” Flaherty said.
On the second floor, they connected the main bedroom to another bedroom to create a primary suite with its own bathroom, but again, they kept most of the walls in place.
“We didn’t rearrange all of the walls,” Flaherty added. “We just opened up her room to the bedroom next to it to create a bathroom and two closets.”
Milburn said the turnaround time on the project was a few months, noting, “we got it done really quickly, but no detail was left undone. It’s modern but really paying homage to these old historic homes of River Forest.”
In Forest Park, a long-time condo owner called on North & Madison to help breathe new life into her space. The loft-style condominium had been finished in the early 1990’s but had not been updated since. Milburn said that the space was essentially a loft with exposed bricks and beams, but that it had dated and dark finishes that weren’t letting it shine.
The pair renovated two bathrooms and reworked access to a bedroom and laundry space to create a better flow.
The kitchen was where they made their biggest change.
“This client was really up for having fun,” Milburn said. “She really gave us creative license. We made it fun and airy. It has some contemporary diner vibes.”
The cabinets are painted a rusty red tone, and the tile backsplash sports a checkboard pattern featuring similar, red-toned tiles interspersed with white tiles. The tiles accent the wall behind the stove and are applied to the back of the island.
A teal retro refrigerator adds some fun to the space.
“In old houses, a lot of the time, you need more space for storage, and you can’t play with the appliances like we could here,” Flaherty said.
One of their favorite details is the use of wood above the kitchen cabinets.
“Because the ceilings are so tall,” Flaherty said, “we couldn’t take the cabinets all the way to the ceiling. We added a cedar planking that feels like it was always there. It enhances the loft feeling of the space.”
Milburn and Flaherty said that while both were very different, the River Forest home and the Forest Park condominium designs are pure North & Madison style with plenty of color and personal touches.
They said that kitchen and bath design is never immune to trends – the pair have seen their share of navy and green kitchens – and they see the trend shifting in home colors. Green and navy read like neutrals now, as people are gravitating to warmer colors. Both see burgundy and burnt reds making their way into more living spaces.
They might acknowledge design movements, but Milburn said North & Madison strives to create individual looks for each client.
“We try to give each client their own design. We don’t want their kitchen to look like everyone else’s.”
After almost seven years in the business, North & Madison is expanding in more ways than one. They’ve added five people to their team and are beginning to work far from the western suburbs where they got their start. Current projects are taking them to Florida and Washington D.C.
While they used to focus on kitchens and bathrooms, they are now doing full house design and consulting on the design of newly build homes. They have also expanded their offerings to be able to work with more clients.
North and Madison offers two services: full-service projects, which are primarily whole-house design, and design concepts in which they design the project but hand it off to clients to execute. Perspective clients looking to get a feel for their work can visit https://www.northandmadison.com/ or @northandmadison on Instagram.
