Three Rooms Up
photography by Tony berardi &
sally good / photofields
Transformations let one Lincoln Park family live larger
When Mary Claire and Kenneth Moll moved into their beautiful Lincoln Park home in 2002, their son Kenny, now 7, was just a baby. Since then, Charlie, 5, and Keely, 4, have joined the family.
It goes without saying, then, that the couple had their hands full. As a result, their home’s three outdoor spaces—a back deck area facing the alley, and front and rear decks on the third floor—received little attention. But as the kids got a bit older, “we wanted to be able to use our outside space for them,” says Mary Claire.
In the summer of 2006, the transformation began. The Molls wanted more than beautiful greenery, they wanted functional, enjoyable outdoor spaces—essentially, they wanted to add three more rooms to their home. “I didn’t want it to be too fussy,” says Mary Claire. “More natural and easy, but with the feel of a lot of green growing things and some pops of color.” She explained her vision to landscape designer Aldo Burcheri of Christy Webber Landscapes in Chicago, “which he did a great job of integrating,” she says.
Each outdoor space was a blank canvas, consisting of “standard developer decking,” Burcheri recalls. His direction from the homeowners was also clear: “Mary Claire did not want to garden,” he says. “She didn’t want to have to go out there and mess around.”
The back deck, which is accessible and visible from the kitchen and family room, was first on the list. A pergola—a rafter system, “like the framing of a house without the roof,” says Burcheri—replaced the sea of outdoor furniture once found in the space, and a series of blinds around the perimeter now shield it from the nearby alley. “They were tired of seeing electrical wires and the building behind them,” Burcheri says. “They wanted it to look lush, and they wanted that space to be family friendly.”
The pergola provides some shade and “lowers the ceiling, so it’s not just sky,” says Burcheri. “It really defines the space and makes it more like an interior room.” The Molls have taken to using the area as an alfresco dining room. For family dinners, Fourth of July celebrations, and entertaining, the back deck is now a peaceful outside space for enjoying meals. “Everything is blocked out, and you forget you’re sitting in an alley,” Mary Claire says. “A couple of times [last summer], we were at the beach all day, then we came home and cooked out or ordered pizza, and it felt like we were on vacation.”
photography by Tony berardi
&
sally good / photofields
Plants are key to the soothing atmosphere, and color guided their selection. Most are perennials that will return on cue each spring. Silvery Elymus arenarius ‘Blue Dune’ grass complements a dwarf willow tree, purple-leaf plum tree, and purple smoke bush. Sumac adds vibrant chartreuse in season and turns orange and yellow for fall. A pop-up misting irrigation system keeps the plants hydrated, and little other maintenance is required, which keeps Mary Claire happy. “It’s been zero work,” she says. “And it couldn’t be any other way.”
Burcheri and the Molls turned the upper rear deck into a green rooftop—a mini-backyard for the children. “They’re the coolest kids on the block now,” says Burcheri. “What better way to bring in a traditional backyard than grass?” This area, situated above the owners’ bedroom, required some careful engineering work: lightweight soil layered with volcanic rock and lightweight gravel to encourage drainage without adding too much weight. The sod is irrigated twice a day, and the Molls can “trim it with a weed whip,” says Burcheri. “No lawnmower.”
The grassy space also features a curved sandbox. When the kids outgrow sandcastles, the sandbox will be transformed into a water feature. An assortment of grasses around the area’s brick-wall edging creates a beachy feel—panicum, a native switch grass, and more ‘Blue Dune’ grass. “No flowers that would be too tempting for the children to pick,” says Mary Claire.
Also perfect is the space’s proximity to the Molls’ third-floor office, a sunny room flanked by a bedroom and the children’s outdoor area, as well as the home’s front deck. “I can be on the computer and making phone calls in my office, and I can just roll my chair back and see straight out there,” says Mary Claire.
She can also adjourn to the outdoor space at the front of the house, a sleek, contemporary living area that is remarkably invisible from the street. Burcheri used water-resistant, faux-wicker furniture, four precisely placed planter boxes, and a low evergreen hedge to give this second-floor space a room-like structure and to direct the view from the deck east toward the Chicago skyline. Cottage garden–style containers with assorted perennials, plus more grasses and several boxwoods, lend a natural feeling to the space. A mounted 5-foot mirror and bubbling water feature “bring the inside out,” says Burcheri.
“I take Italian lessons, so whenever the weather is conducive, I sit out there with espresso and biscotti and have my Italian lesson outside,” says Mary Claire. “Sometimes the kids go out there for lunch with some books on those loungy couches. So far, we’ve used it more with kids than adults, but I’m still planning for a cocktail party.”
And that’s not all the Molls are planning. Now that their outdoor spaces are so lovely and functional, they’ve turned their attention to revamping the interior of their home. The transformation of the exterior spaces “inspired me to get everything else up to that level,” says Mary Claire. “It’s exactly where I want it to be.” MH
