Journal

1518 Interiors Studio Space

News | May, 2022

The Northworks Interiors team has more than doubled in designers since the start of this Covid pandemic and we could not be more excited about our growth. What started as a single designer within the architecture firm over five years ago has now flourished into a full department.

The synergistic Northworks business model has allowed us to thrive being very integrated with our architect co-workers, both on project teams across the country and as desk-mates in the Chicago office. We think a holistic approach makes our interior concepts stronger and pride ourselves on being extremely tech-savvy due to the nature of working with architects every single day. While we will continue to be primarily collaborative, it was time to create a defined space for our interiors team that allows for further expansion.

In the last year, we transformed our space next door into Dusk: a swanky bar and art gallery in our Industrial Corridor neighborhood of Chicago. As Northworks and Dusk continue to evolve, we are adding an interiors workshop to the mix. By day, we will have a full-functioning studio space that fosters a creative atmosphere to design in. As we return to the office more frequently, the team will have a larger area to review project samples and meet with clients in-person. It will allow us to have an interiors “think tank” environment and constantly experiment with furniture arrangements. By night, the space converts back to a chic bar and art gallery that is open to the public.

The space itself was inspired by deep colored walls as a moody backdrop for our gallery artist’s own pieces. We are also pairing different leather textures with rich walnut in the furniture, as well as mixed metals reflected through lighting and hardware. The team selected a large patterned area rug to develop warmth and hand-picked vintage accessories from local resale shops in Chicago to make it our own.

We will be creating an opening between the Northworks architecture studio and interiors workspace so it’s still easy for coworkers to share ideas during the workday. We are also refining our materials library and have big plans for creative storage solutions that showcase our beautiful finishes. The team can’t wait for this next chapter.