A Home with Heritage

When the Tabets were expecting their first twins in 2005, they knew they wanted to decorate the babies’ rooms but couldn’t find exactly what they were looking for. So when Maya saw a celebrity mom special on TV with various mothers talking about the multicultural aspects of their homes, inspiration struck. Maya also wanted her entire home to reflect their Middle Eastern heritage.

Armed with passion for this idea, Maya, 35, and Nick, 38, enlisted the help of architectural magazines, flea markets and the Internet, searching for items to make that vision a reality. Along the way they connected with new friends who had also blended different cultural furniture and decorating touches into their homes to create unique living environments. “The best part of the process was all the people we met and we still remain friendly with.”

Faced with the task of also expanding their home, the Tabets have both respected the old and flamboyantly embraced the new. Built in the late nineteenth century and having housed a number of important figures in the Chicagoland area, the house, they felt, must be respected for what it represented, while still serving as a showcase for their own style of living and their soon-to-be burgeoning Middle Eastern design elements.

With that in mind, they were set to undertake an ambitious expansion program. This first phase provides 2,100 square feet of new space, effectively doubling the home’s size. When this phase is complete, the landscaping will be completely changed as well, creating a two-acre “casual” sculpture park to complement the home’s interior.

Their house is located on the east edge of its site along a busy four-lane divided road. They responded to this condition by placing the entrance on a quiet side street to the north.

The newfound privacy is found inside the home as well. The extension houses a grand entrance to what the Tabets call “the spa,” a luxurious master bath tucked beneath a skylight that is shaded by a massive oak tree. An entertainment suite shares the top floor with the spare bedroom loft. Expanded library and educational spaces, together with a refurbished play area, have been created in the basement of the existing home.

Beyond Borders: These special furniture accents do more than just decorate walls— they also reflect a rainbow of cultures

In addition to the obvious complexity of integrating the new building with the old, the décor is, in Maya’s words, magic and sexy with vivid earth tones and room for additions. Plus the interior touches are special and unique. The thick, canted inner walls are finished with white Venetian plaster that provides a polished mottled surface animated by reflections. Additional sparkle in the open areas is created by theater marquee lights at the tops of walls and by dramatic lighting fixtures, using chunks of glass left over from the glass manufacturing process, suspended on stainless-steel threads.

When friends and relatives saw the multicultural house taking shape, they all wanted the same thing for their own children. It was then, says Maya, that they knew they were on to something. “There was a period of time not too long ago when being Middle Eastern was something you hid,” she recalls. “And then I thought, Why keep falling into this trap? I wanted to reconnect to my culture and pass this onto my children.”