Gather Here

By Lisa Arnett
May 2020 View more Home

“I work in Indy quite a bit and one of our favorite bar/restaurants had these retro Naugahyde bar stools that were super comfortable,” says homeowner Steve Benck. He looked at hundreds before he found the right match online from One Way Furniture.

Designer Maria Hildebrand selected these pendant lights for their simple, industrial look. The wrought-iron finish complements the black-paned window that looks into the adjacent
wine cellar.

“Our original plan was not to finish the basement until our one daughter said, ‘Where are we all going to party at?’ ” Steve says. Naperville-based Liam Brex designed this spacious U-shaped bar.

This metal John Deere stag was made for the Bencks by a customer of their business, West Side Tractor Sales, back in the 1960s.

Large-scale porcelain tiles are a neutral, practical flooring choice. “It really opens up the space by not having too many grout joints,” Hildebrand says.

It was our dream to build a house together,” says Beth Benck. After hunting for the perfect Elmhurst lot, she and husband Steve Benck are now settled into their new-build dream home. “Like most grandparents, we just wanted a space for our family to gather.”

The Benck family owns West Side Tractor Sales, which has 11 locations in Illinois and Indiana, including one in Naperville. They hired Rich Barnes of Barnes Architects to design their stone and stucco home and serve as construction manager.

The Bencks’ last home was a historic Barrington farmhouse with eight-foot ceilings. “As much as we loved that house, we were kind of looking to blow things out a bit,” Beth says. The family room features a dramatic 16-foot barrel-vaulted ceiling with salvaged wood beams sourced from J. Hoffman Lumber Company in Sycamore. Custom windows by Pella look out onto a bluestone patio with a pergola, fireplace, fountain, and hot tub. Maria Hildebrand, owner of Designing Interiors in Naperville, created a polished, eclectic look to complement the homeowners’ most treasured pieces.

Naperville-based Liam Brex designed the kitchen cabinetry and layout, which includes a metal range hood and an island with refrigerated drawers and a butcher block end cap. Hildebrand stepped in to select finishes. “We selected a very pretty textured backsplash tile from Virginia Tile [in Wood Dale] … that’s actually a mix of different sizes and four different colors,” Hildebrand says.

Photos by Marina Storm, Picture Perfect House

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