Pam Maher repurposed the space, formerly a sitting area, as a breakfast and game room. She raised the hearth and took the bricks up to the ceiling.

Frank Jules likes to joke that he is on version 3.0 of his house in Glencoe. He and his late wife, Barbara, spent 28 years in the 1922 original and then tore it down to build new-construction for their growing family. After Barbara died, Frank planned to move into the city and sell the home. “My four adult children intervened and told me, ‘We love our family home and want a place to continue our family traditions during the holidays and after golf on the weekends,’” he says. So he hired interior designer Pam Maher of Pam Maher Design (maherdesignservices.com) to create the latest modern iteration. Maher removed select walls for better flow, then brought in clean-lined furnishings and a lighter palette. “There were lots of antiques and formal spaces,” Maher said. “Frank said, ‘I want to have it be a party house.’” The kitchen is now open to the living room with an updated limestone fireplace. A formal sitting room was repurposed into a breakfast nook and game niche, and Maher redesigned the library and media room on the lower level. The designer kept accessories simple and mined boxes of photo albums for images of the beloved family matriarch to frame.