Oakbrook

A couple built this new home in Oak Brook, Illinois, for themselves, their three grown kids, and a golden retriever. They're an active, outdoorsy family, into golf, tennis, and travel, who love nothing more than getting everyone together. The house had to hold all of it: refined, but built for real gathering instead of formality, easy to live in day to day, and wide open to the outdoors they love.

For a new build, the home feels like it has been here far longer, grounded by exposed metal, sculptural stone, and pavers that run straight from inside to out — so the floor never tells you where the house ends and the yard begins. Walls of glass do the rest, pulling so much of the landscape in that you feel out in it even while standing inside. A striking move is a section of the house clad entirely in stone with a single interior window — it reads like an older structure that was always here, with the new home built around it. Inside, comfort beats formality: the living room trades a roomful of furniture for two oversized sectionals, and the dining room hangs John Pomp glass chandeliers over a richly grained Gregorius Pineo table. The NuHaus kitchen even keeps a second back kitchen to hide the mess, so the heart of the house stays clear even when it's full.

Sophisticated, and impossible not to relax in.

Architecture by Michael Abraham Architecture. Interior design by Elizabeth Krueger Design. Built by Dave Knecht Homes. Photography by Mike Schwartz.