One Room at a Time

By Lisa Arnett
July 2026 View more Home

A 2000s-era home gets a gradual refresh

Though redecorating an outdated home all at once sounds ideal, in reality most homeowners are limited by budget, bandwidth, or both. It’s OK to start small, according to Bobbi Alderfer of Geneva-based Lifestyle Design. That was her approach with homeowners who hired her to update their Geneva home, which was a new build in 2000 when they first moved in.

“We started working with this client almost three years ago,” Alderfer says. “She was getting ready to host an event…so our main goal was the guest bath and the dining room.” After those rooms were complete, “one thing led to another,” Alderfer says. “We kind of worked our way around the house. As we would finish one area, we’d think about the next.”

The home had beautiful architectural details, such as columns, wainscoting, crown molding, and recessed ceilings. Alderfer leaned into preserving those features, lightened up the color scheme, and incorporated fresh upholstery and accessories. “This house is a little more on the traditional side, but we like to call it ‘modern classic,’ because it doesn’t read super traditional,” Alderfer says. “We brightened it up and added lighting fixtures that are a little more contemporary and that just gives it a fresh vibe.”

1. (above) “This living room had a lot of reds in it, and we toned it down and based our color scheme off of this rug,” says designer Bobbi Alderfer. “We wanted to carry the blues and the greens throughout the house, without having each room be the same.” Existing armchairs were reupholstered in a new fabric, and Alderfer layered in complementary prints for the window treatments, accent pillows, and ottoman.

2. The egret lamp in front of the window was a serendipitous find. “We wanted something very special and rather sculptural in the room rather than just another ginger jar lamp, and this lamp happens to be by Wildwood, a fabulous lamp company,” Alderfer says. “Once we saw it, we were like, ‘Yep, that’s it!’ It’s such a focal point.”

3. and 4. In its 2000s-era incarnation, the dining room had a red and gold motif, with deep ruby paint on the walls. “It was very lovely 25 years ago and just needed a new look,” Alderfer says. “We started with a really beautiful rug from Brunschwig & Fils…which has a showroom in the Merchandise Mart, and that was our springboard for the whole room.” They kept the existing buffet and dining room set and chose to reupholster the chairs with a cut velvet fabric. “We changed the chandelier, the buffet lamps, and the sconces on the wall,” she adds. “And when we hung that mirror, it just opened up the whole room.”

5. For the walls above the wainscoting, Aldefer chose a silk wallpaper. “It does have some texture to it and a little bit of variation in color because of the thread of the silk,” she says. “It’s just a really elegant look as opposed to flat paint.”

6. “This client has grown children who come to visit regularly, and they stay overnight,” Alderfer says. A proper guest room was in order. “This room does have a unique roofline, and I thought we just needed to take advantage of that and have something more interesting that the bed could be up against,” she says. Three frames of wallpaper accentuate the asymmetry of the room, and matching floral fabric was used for accent pillows and window treatments.

7. “We wanted to interject a third color in here, a pop of something bright and happy, so that’s why we did the coral fabric and that cute pompom trim,” Alderfer says. “When you’re doing custom pillows, it’s those details that just make it more special.” The bed itself is an investment piece to anchor the room in its new era as a guest room. “It was custom-made by a company we use in North Carolina, and we were able to pick the fabric and the wood finish,” she says.

8. Soothing shades of off-white continue around the room, including the Roman shades and armchairs with a classic tack trim.

Photos: Ryan Ocasio Photography