MT. PLEASANT — A historic 1917 home in Mt. Pleasant recently received a special interior designer renovation when Jerilynn Horn opted to utilize her skills to make her space into her family’s “Forever Home.”
As the owner of Jerilynn Horn Kitchen and Bath Design Company, Horn spends most days helping clients bring their kitchen and bath design dreams to life, this time, however, she got to do that for her own home.
“I’ve remodeled several kitchens in our other homes, but this is like our first like forever kitchen remodel, I’d say, you know, where I did everything I wanted to do in it, not really thinking I’m going to sell it in five years,” Horn explained.
Designing for herself proved to be a challenge as Horn distinctly didn’t want to “duplicate a design that [she], or anyone, had created in the past.”
“After effortlessly designing many unique kitchens for many other clients, I found that throughout this entire project it was much more difficult to select materials for personal use as I am aware of the immense amount of options that are available,” Horn also said.
“The major goal of this kitchen and dining remodel was to open up multiple rooms to one another while still capturing the individuality of each space,” Horn explained. “This was a common concept of homes of this era and we wanted to maintain this idea.”
“Physically opening up the spaces to each other would create more room for dining and entertaining while creating an abundance of seating for family and friends,” she said. “The use of borders with the luxury vinyl plank flooring would prove to be essential in defining the individual spaces.”
According to Horn another important goal was to preserve and protect anything that was original to the 1917 home.
“The most important piece we kept was the built-in with the beautiful leaded glass that divided the kitchen and dining room,” Horn said. “We refurbished the entire frame then enhanced it with black paint. Finally, we added new interior glass shelves and LED interior lighting. This historical piece now serves as a focal point, as it stands along the back dining room wall.”
While her recent home renovation included work in their kitchen, dining room, laundry room, and living room, Horn says her favorite part is her kitchen.
The kitchen renovation included a lot of functionally beautiful decisions such as concealed and hidden appliances.
“The microwave is hidden underneath of a counter top,” Horn said. “It’s a microwave drawer that rolls out to you. That’s probably one of my favorite features.”
“It’s pretty cool, like the controls flip out at you,” she said. “So you don’t have to lean over, you could literally be standing over it, looking down, and then you hit the open button, and it rolls out just like a cabinet drawer.”
Additionally, Horn’s kitchen features plenty of storage and double ovens and a built-in griddle.
“It’s great because we can do grilled cheese and pancakes and all of that on it,” she said of the griddle.
Horn’s favorite pieces of this renovation, however, are the ones that celebrate family like the hood over her range in the kitchen.
“My husband and I actually finished it together,” Horn said.
Horn’s husband Tyler actually helped with a lot of the renovation.
According to Horn both she and her husband attended the Illinois Institute of Art. She received a bachelors in Fine Arts for interior design and Tyler studied animation.
“Believe it or not, he’s got some pretty good eyes for interior design,” she said. “So he knows like 3D very well … He has even done 3-D models of rooms in our house, too.”
Like many other aspects of the design, this Venetian plaster hood incorporates family with a cherry wood mantel made from a piece of wood Horn’s dad got from a local forest.
Another way Horn incorporated the importance of family into her design is seen in the living room located just off the kitchen/laundry area.
“This received new furniture, carpet, and paint and then this nice family history photo collage wall,” Horn explained. “We did this wall for our kids and other family to see historic family photos.”
“We have a 1917 historic home and we are trying to make it eclectic and vintage overall and add lots of personal touches,” she said.
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