Designing the Bones of the Lake County YMCA Dream House

If you’ve picked up the latest issue of a regional magazine, you might have seen my name tied to the new YMCA Dream House. But if you walk through the front door expecting to see my signature decorating style, you might be surprised to learn what my actual role was.

The Transition: While the public often associates interior design with the final layers of furniture, fabrics, and pillows, my true passion begins with the very bones of a home. For this project, I was brought on directly by the builder to execute the foundational interior architecture. Long before the staging trucks arrived to dress the rooms, I was hard at work mapping out how this home would actually live, flow, and function.

What "Designing the Bones" Really Means: To bring this structure to life, I focused entirely on the permanent, built-in elements that define the home's character:

• Space Planning & Flow: Springboarding off the original architectural blueprints, I re-engineered the spatial layouts to better reflect how modern families actually live, breathe, and entertain in a home today.

• Kitchen & Bath Design: Rather than treating these as standalone rooms, I designed the kitchens and baths as a direct extension of the overall architectural layout—ensuring that custom cabinetry spatially integrated and flowed naturally with the rest of the home.

• Exterior Selections: I collaborated on the structural curb appeal and material palette to ensure a cohesive transition from the outside in.

• Custom Millwork & Detailing: I designed the crisp, permanent trim, molding, and architectural features that give the walls their depth and substance.

• Fixed Surface & Finish Selection: I curated the entire hard finish palette throughout the home—from flooring, tile, and stone to cabinetry finishes and hardware—ensuring every fixed surface complements the overarching architectural style.

The Hand-Off: Once my structural detailing, space planning, and permanent finishes were securely in place, the keys were handed over to a local home staging company to bring in the loose furnishings and decor for the public tours.

It was a joy to partner with the builder, the architect, and our YMCA liaison to engineer the architectural DNA of this home. When you visit the Dream House this summer, look past the furniture and notice the geometry of the spaces, the flow of the rooms, and the craftsmanship of the millwork—because that is where true design begins.