RedEye - Redeye January 31, 2011
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REDEYE l
MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 2011
Emily Shirden
LENNY GILMORE/REDEYE PHOTOS
It’s not just a boys’ club
By Georgia Garvey
REDEYE
Varoon Deshmukh’s kitchen, bathroom (above right) and living room (lower right)
ANDREW A. NELLES PHOTOS FOR REDEYE
Varoon Deshmukh
30, Roscoe Village—institutional services manager
Space: Two-bedroom, twobath top unit in three-flat. Just do it: With the housing market primed for someone looking to buy, Deshmukh decided to take the plunge. And once he had the condo, making it nice felt like the grown-up thing to do. “I wanted to get it properly furnished,” he said. Fave feature: Stainless-steel cooktop hood that was already installed when he bought the place. “It has a modern design, which I like.” Design must-have: Outdoor roof space. “It’s a great view,” he says, except for one smokestack that mars a panoramic appreciation of downtown. Splurge: Outdoor furniture for rooftop space. It turned out to be about \$600 apiece for several black and cream basket-weave chairs suitable for open-air relaxing. Describe your style: Uncluttered, simple, clean lines, elegant
The “don’t-wait” approach to decorating isn’t just for the guys, designers say. Bill and Kathryn Cherne of Logan Square-based interior design firm Design Inside report encountering more women who are going allout with their spaces too, eventual relationships be damned. “People aren’t getting married at 23 or 25 anymore. A lot of people are holding off” getting into serious relationships, Bill Cherne said. “They’re financially stable” and willing to reinvest in their homes. Women such as Emily Shirden, 30, of Ukrainian Village, are buying homes and nesting—not worried about whether or not they eventually couple up. “I feel like there are things in life I can’t do right now,” Shirden said, but that “doesn’t mean I can’t be settled.” Shirden relishes her two-bedroom, one-bath walkup with high ceilings and a balcony, which she decorated herself. With a style she describes as a “modern take on shabby chic,” she selected pieces such as a peekaboo living room coffee table from CB2 for \$249 to complement her décor. “I’ve wanted that coffee table for three years,” the public relations/social media consultant said. Shirden also splurged a bit on furniture for her office/ guest room with the “Encore” sofa from Room and Board. It cost about \$899, but to her, it was worth the extra dough. “I could have gone with a \$300 futon and [wound up with] a room that looked like a college dorm room,” she said.
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