Photography by Werner Straube; styling by Hilary Rose
Some houses arrive with a story already written. Ours did. The Collected Lodge, our former home, was built in 1911 and began its life as a hunting lodge on a wooded lot. Living there, I never wanted to erase that history; I wanted to make it livable, warm, and personal.
In 2023, Milwaukee Magazine held its first Home & Design Awards. More than 120 projects were entered, and an anonymous panel that included a curator from the Milwaukee Art Museum and the interim dean of UWM's School of Architecture judged them all. The Collected Lodge won Gold in two categories.
The living room. Here I layered antiques with contemporary pieces and chose colors and patterns that honor the home's past as a lodge. It's a great deal of color and texture in one room, and the judges noted it could have been jarring; instead, it reads as one warm, cohesive space. Above the mantel hangs a painting by Milwaukee artist Allison B. Cooke, a local touch that grounds a century-old room in the present.
The primary bedroom. I wanted this room to feel like a true retreat, quiet and connected to the woods outside. Layered materials soften every surface, and a subdued wallpaper with a bird motif adds just a little shimmer to an otherwise organic palette. One judge called the mohair headboard “a quiet standout,” and I'll admit it's one of my favorite details in the house.
There's one more reason these awards mean so much to me. The photographs were styled by Hilary Rose, the same stylist who, years earlier, told me on a photo shoot that I could do this work too. Seeing her name beside mine on these pages felt like a full circle.
See all of the 2023 winners at Milwaukee Magazine.