Project Interiors’ Chicago Studio Fosters a Healthy Balance Between Work and Play
“We like to have fun, and this is the perfect backdrop,” says Project Interiors founder and lead designer Aimee Wertepny, describing the firm’s studio in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago. After purchasing the 6,200-square-foot building with bow-truss ceilings in 2017, Wertepny commissioned Vero Design + Build to collaborate on a major renovation.
A new 60-foot operable skylight floods the interior with sunshine, highlighting the gold acrylic paint inlaid into the cracked concrete floors and covered with clear epoxy—“in anticipation of stiletto strutting, dance parties, and who knows what else,” Wertepny says.
The only “cubicle” is the smoked glass–enclosed conference room dubbed the command center, outfitted with a conference table topped in porcelain faux marble and charred-oak cabinetry accented by shredded leather backing. “We’re not office people,” Wertepny says, pointing to the disco ball overhead.
Indeed, the freewheeling studio includes rattan swings, private woven huts (in lieu of offices), a dressed-up vintage camper turned swanky lounge, and an upper-level resource library with an artificial grass–covered platform. “Building out the space was truly one of the hardest things I’ve accomplished in my life thus far,” Wertepny says. “Seeing it come to life from a napkin sketch has been indescribable.”
Working there, however, can be summed up in one word: inspirational.
