i absolutely love chicago. it's a big city, but it feels like a town. and when nick and i movedto chicago 10 years ago, we wanted to be aroundall the restaurants, and the bars, and basically, like, the crazy, fun energy of living in a city. we walk everywhere, we take the train, we're city people. i met rachel in college,
we went to universityof wisconsin together. - [rachel] nick had a crush on me and he followed me around for four years. - [nick] didn't end up starteddating 'til senior year. - and we've been together ever since. - almost five years ago now,we had our first child, lilia. it was amazing. - she's just like her mom,she talks all the time, she wants to do everything.
and then we have keaton who is, like, came out 10 pounds andhas burst to be 30 pounds. - yeah, keaton comes from good stock. he's a backbreaker, you know, we have to carry himaround in the car seat. - [rachel] it wasgetting tough to maneuver around the city with two children. - [nick] lugging up two and a half flights of stairs, two kids.
- my giant baby and thosesteps got really, really tough. honestly, it's a workout. i have a broken back and ihave, like, really strong arms. even though we love chicago, we knew that it was timeto move to the suburbs where we could kind of build our life. it's time to give our kids a place that they could truly call home. - [nick] what we wanted todo was create that sort of
long lasting home-feel for our family. we both were raised inhomes our whole childhood. - my parents moved into my house when i was in first gradeand are still there. that's my home, that's mylife, that's where my heart is. - [nick] so we wanted togive that to our children. - [rachel] and oak park is theperfect place to call home. when we saw this house, it just, we knew it, it feltright, it had the layout
that made sense, it'son a beautiful street, there's everything that we always wanted for our family here. the house itself needed work. - it was great bones, great structure, but it needed a new roof,it needed a new kitchen, the cabinets were falling off. - so we bought this house and then we went to town on this house.
we demoed it to the studs. - one of the firstresources we used was houzz. - we signed onto houzzand started an ideabook. and we just started pulling ideas. - we used it for inspiration,also for resources and to find contractors. - i probably looked at4,000 kitchens on houzz. we took, you know,countertops for one look, and a backsplash from another,
and a cabinet color from another and we kind of put ittogether and made it our own. the master bathroom issomething we weren't sure if we were going to be able to pull off. it wasn't an en suite bathroom and i really thought that was important. it was a hard space to figure out, so i decided to try postingit to the houzz dilemmas. should i walk through mycloset to get into my bathroom?
and designers weighed in, regular people just like me weighed in, contractors weighed in, once everybody weighedin on my design dilemma, i found the tub and tub filleron houzz and we purchased it. all of the dimensions are on there, shipped that thing outthere, put that thing in it, it looks awesome. this process was tough,
nick was out here every hourhe could working on this house and i was the cleanup crew. we refinished all the floors in the house, basically rerouted the upstairs. oh yeah, and we tore down aninsane amount of wallpaper. i mean, blood, sweat, andtears have gone into this house and somehow the living room,the most important room to me, has been neglected. our living room, wherewe spend all of our time
is literally in shambles. nothing works in there. on top of that, our living room is currently serving as my office. it's really important tome that our living room isn't just a comfortable place, but that it's a nice space. it's where i grew up, it'sthe part of my parents' house that i remember the most.
nick and i are not designers, we needed an expertthat could help us out. you need someone thatmakes it not just function, but also makes it look great. that's how we found laura. - i love working with youngcouples, young families. they're really excited aboutit, they're really engaged. - the great thing about houzz is we were able to see laura's past,
where she's worked before. - we were able to see allof her projects online, and i'm hoping that shemakes my living room awesome. - i got the photos that youshared with your ideabook. - [nick] okay, good. - nick and rachel wanted to create a living room that wasgonna be really cool, and really cozy and totallypractical for their family. i assume that these are allnick and rachel approved?
- yeah, yeah, we look at them together, before i banished herfrom the process, so. - perfect. - one thing i'm reallyexcited about this project is, i'm kinda taking the reins on it. - this has been thecraziest year of my life. we had a baby, we found a house, bought the house, demoed the house, renovated the house andmoved in to the house.
in under a year. honestly, i think i'm pretty burned out. - [laura] she's super busy,they have two young children. i think they just kinda ran out of steam, when they got to the living room. - the living room is so important to me. we've made so many decisions. i don't wanna make a bad decision, but i'm too tired to make any decisions.
i actually can't do this anymore. you're so sweet. - nick and i decided to take this on as a surprise for rachel. - we picked a designer together, but that's kinda whererachel's involvement ends. which is gonna be hardfor her, i know her. - so this first photo, thingsthat i took away from it that i think maybe you liked were,
some of the symmetry aspects. they had picked a lotof pictures on houzz, that were kind of inspiration for look and feel of the room. so we kind of started there. - nick is really good at design and i feel like him andlaura really hit it off. - as long as it fits in the space and you're on board andi'm totally on board.
- yes. - i'm a little scared ofwhat he might come up with. - this is somethingrachel would never expect, this is gonna be fun. - he tends to like things large, and he likes plants. and he likes to hang things very high. so those are things i told laura, please do not let thosethree things happen.
- so what we're starting with, they definitely wanted to keep their existing swivel chairs, which are great. i think they're a fun color,they're a fun pattern. they have a great tufting. we're also looking to just kinda create a nice work space for rachel. she works from home a lot, she's very busy and we wanna create a spacethat's really, truly hers.
another that they have for the room is to have some cozy sectional seating. so nick an i have been looking at, several different options. i thinks something like this would be perfect for your space. i love the upholstery. - mm-hmm - we've got kind of a medium gray tone,
which is great for kids and then, this is kind of a bonus. you have a sleeper component. - nice. - [laura] so what do you think? - [nick] i like it. - [laura] i'm just gonna addthat to our cart as well. - i need a couch that i loveand i will tell you why. i hate this couch.
it is stained. it is gross. - it's a college and i've beenhanging on to it too long. it's kinda like loosingyour first car, kinda thing. - i know it sounds crazybut, i need a great couch. - the style of the home you know, this is a 100 year old home, and it's very arts and crafts style. so we definitely took that in to account
when selecting pieces. this wall is actually areally great opportunity, for a focal point between the windows. - [nick] okay. - [laura] i found this console table. - [nick] oh yeah, i love that. the fir wood, that's great. - see we've got a mirror, some vases. - [nick] right, right, right.
- [laura] maybe a tray.- nice. - [laura] maybe we putyour firewood under here. so what do you think? - i love it. - [laura] perfect, it's on the way. - one of the things i'mreally excited about this project is the fireplace. it's the first thing you seewhen you walk in the door. it's always been somethingi wanted to upgrade.
- [laura] they kind of hadan old red brick hearth and fireplace before. - looking at houzz, we found, this amazing cast stonefireplace surround. - [laura] do you thinkrachel will like it? - [nick] i do. - great, i'm just gonnaadd it to the cart. - [nick] just like that, - [laura] yeah.- boom, done.
- yes, i think this is gonnakinda modernize the room and really represent their unique tastes. - and, it is install time. obviously the fireplace is kind of a bigger slightly messier component. so we're gonna get that in first. - okay, that's it. - the first thing togo in was the fireplace and let me tell you, it is amazing.
and then just seeingall the other furniture, the bigger pieces, theaccessories coming in. - oh, the ottoman. - oh the other footstool.- perfect - [nick] that's really cool. - the great thing about the houzz app is that you can source almost anything, and that includes window treatments. so we installed a really beautiful,
kinda flat roman in a linen color. one of the most exciting pieces, for rachel to see will be the rug. this rug is so beautiful. i think it's reallygonna liven up the space and it's also allowed usto pull colors from it. i found this series. there's three different prints. we have a lot of nice color in here.
rachel's workspace is incredible. we reused her desk butjust kinda jazzed it up, with a couple of new accessories. for the sectional we chose akind of mid range gray tone. something that will give the family just a little bit of protection against, sticky fingers and youknow, spilled drinks. rachel and nick alsolike to entertain friends so we wanted to make surethey had ample seating.
so we have a little butterfly stool and a couple of ottomans, that will give them a lot of variety. - thanks so much, we couldn'thave done it without you. - my pleasure. - so what do we doing,high five or fist pump? - fist pump. - fist pump.- yeah. - blow it up.
- alright, are you guys getting excited? - i really hope that the family feels like the design is a true reflection of how they're going to live in this space. but i also want it to feel a little bit more special and unique, and not what their neighborsand their friends have. we've just created areally, really cozy space that i think the family's goingto love for years to come.
- i missed you guys. - [michelle] i've miss you. - [nick] alright, close your eyes. keep them closed, we're almost there. alright, welcome to your new living room. - this does not even look like our house, oh wow, - what do you think? - i mean honestly, i don'tfeel like i'm in our house.
- no, i know. it is really amazing isn't it. - [rachel] you killed it with the couch. - [nick] yeah. - i mean it's perfect. - [nick] you like it? - it's like it was meantto be in this space. - [nick] yep. - i feel like nick and laura nailed it.
i mean, i feel like it's comfortable. i feel like it's stylish. i feel like it's the kind of place we can have friends over. our kids can live in there and i'm not going to worry about them touching everything in there. it feels like a true place we can live and that's exactly what i was hoping for.
- [nick] look at, i mean feel this - oh. - [nick] laura picked allthis stuff out for us. - i love that laura was able to use some of my favorite pieces and not just, get rid of everything. i love those chairs, they're comfortable, they're good looking. there was no reason to get rid of them.
and she was able to take them and pull them in to the room and make them look like they belongperfectly with her design. lilia, do you think daddy did a good job? - i think he did, a very great job.- very great job. - [nick] yeah, thank you - the room that we're gonna spend all of our time in is finally finished.
we are comfortable and happy here and it just feel like the place that i dreamt it would be. - we were really to find laura on houzz. i think she really understoodwhat we were going for. i think one of the things iwas most amazed with laura, was her ability to find these accessories, that really pulled the space together. - and the fireplace looks amazing.
it looks like a much nicerhouse that what we have. i mean, that fireplace really really classes up the joint. - [rachel] the living room iswhere the fun stuff happens. it's a place were thefamily's gonna watch tv, where friends are gonnacome over and hang out. where our kids are gonna play. - we picked a house that we saw ourselves living in for a long time.
it wasn't about an investment,it wasn't a quick thing. it was were we wanted to see our children raised and grown up. does it feel good? - for my husband tojust say, you know what, laura and i got this. you sit back, let us do it. it's making me cry becausenow we just get to live here. we get to grow our familyhere and just enjoy it
and it's the best feeling ever.