A couple settled into their Gold Coast home in Chicago with serious history: built in 1888, full of the ornate moldings and grand proportions of the era. She has a bold, edgy eye, and came ready to take some risks, with an art collection from their last home in tow. While the  architecture is traditional, neither the house nor her instincts had to give way to the other.

The strategy was a little brave: give every room one bold move, then let the 1888 architecture hold the line. Across the house, modern risks play against period bones — lacquer and velvet, deep saturated color, their extensive art collection set against ornate millwork and grasscloth walls. Above the white marble mantel in the living room hangs Morel Doucet's 'Death of Venus,' a cluster of porcelain limbs and coral forms reworking Botticelli — exactly the kind of bold-against-old that defines the whole home.

The 1888 house didn't lose its character. It gained theirs.

Interior design by Elizabeth Krueger Design. Photography by Angela Hau.