Elise Metzger has a degree in interior design, but it is only recently that she began working as a full-time interior designer. Her career took her from designing windows at retailer Anthropologie to set design to the corporate world. A layoff in 2016 made her rethink her work.
“I started a business that combined art, design and dinners all over the country,” she said. “That ended with Covid, but it made me realize I could work for myself.”
After stints at the Merchandise Mart and designing boutique spaces, Metzger found herself giving advice to friends on their interior projects before opening up shop as an interior designer.
“It was strange, because I went to college for it, but I didn’t do it. I started doing it, and I just love it.”
Today, Metzger is the principal of Forward Fruit Design, and works primarily on residential design, although a few commercial projects like restaurants give her some fun diversity in scope.
She said that it is very rewarding to make an immediate impact on peoples’ lives through their environment.
As an Oak Parker, Metzger has met clients through previous work connections as well as through recommendations. A recent Oak Park attic project captured the best of personalizing an historic space to make it work for a young, modern family.
Her clients were expecting their fourth child and came to her to help re-think their attic.
“Their house is pretty big, but they both needed a space that felt like grown-up work space,” Metzger said. “With a fourth child coming, they also decided to move their oldest child to a bedroom upstairs.”
The attic space was unfinished and offered a blank canvas for Metzger’s plans. The couple brought her on board at the same time as their architect, Compass Architecture, and general contractor, Matt Ross Construction, so the three were able to collaborate and work together on structural changes.
They added a window to the stairwell to add more light to the space and then set about creating a work-from-home space as well as a bedroom.
Metzger said the project was fun from the get-go.
“I try to give people a wild option and safe option. It’s easier to scale back than to push people. One thing I loved about them is that they always chose the wild option.”
With trim painted a rich blue and a Missoni zigzag carpet runner, the attic stairs sing with color. A patterned wallpaper in the workspace brightens up the room, and in the bedroom, a wallpaper that Metzger designed wraps the space with sketches of dogs and ribbons. Throughout the attic, colorful fabrics and quirky light fixtures add personality.
Metzger called the space “elevated.”
“They chose quality over quantity. They chose fabrics and finishes that they wouldn’t put in the rest of the house.”
The result is what Metzger calls the “Magic Attic” on her website, forwardfruitdesign.com, and the space reinvented the home.
This project and others in Oak Park have been a great way to feel a part of the community where Metzger is also raising her family.
She is relishing the experience of designing in predominantly historic homes.
“A lot of the homes I’d been working on before had been renovated in the 1990’s or 2000’s. There wasn’t a big question about what was behind the walls.”
It takes a certain level of respect and understanding to work on an historic home, Metzger said, noting that old house quirks make a house homey.
“Sometimes, working in an older home means adding, not removing. There’s a sense of humility involved, like, ‘You’re not the boss of this house.’ I do love older homes, and grew up in an older home. You can’t really beat what’s already there.”