Illinois Home Gets Modern Makeover

For designer Delecia Becker, renovating a 1951 home in Skokie, Illinois, was less about reinvention than revival. Her goal was simple: to bring it back to life. It already had so much character and beauty, but it was stuck in the past.

She wanted to find a way to bring it into the present without costing the home its story. Instead of stripping away everything that made the house unique, Delecia focused on what was worth keeping and built the new design around it.

Delecia never wanted the home to feel like an old house that had been ‘fixed up.’ Her firm, Becker Interiors, took on a full-home renovation, reworking spaces that needed to function better for modern life while being very intentional about what she kept, restored, or referenced from the original home.

The result is a house where it isn’t always immediately apparent what’s original and what’s new. This approach begins in the entry, where many of the home’s original charms remained intact, including the Dutch door and a curved ceiling detail.

Delecia added Sandberg’s Olof wallpaper and brass doorknobs with a traditional shape to the entry. She wanted the things she added to feel just as at home there as the things that had been there for years.

In the kitchen, functionality came first, with a complete gut and renovation to make it feel like it had always belonged in the house. The checkerboard floors and the window with diamond grilles are two of Delecia’s favorite details.

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The patterns speak back to each other without obviously matching, and she thinks that’s what makes it work. She never wants a room to feel like every detail was trying to coordinate with the next.

As the renovation progressed, Delecia found that some elements, like the Delft tile around the fireplace, initially seemed out of place but ultimately became integral to the design. The tile, which was original to the house, was nearly removed but ended up being a key element in the study.

The study is one of the home’s most playful rooms, with pattern and color enveloping the space. A pair of bookcases flanking the double doors introduces symmetry and gives the eye somewhere to land.

Delecia notes that not every room needed wallpaper or a big moment, and having quieter spaces allows rooms like the study to be as fun as they are without the whole house feeling like too much.

In the main-floor bathroom, small choices like the octagon-and-dot floor and Benjamin Moore’s Antique Pewter window trim make a big impact. Delecia thinks it was one of the best calls she made in the house, as it completely changed the room.

Sometimes the simplest details end up doing the most. The secondary bathroom might be the clearest expression of Delecia’s old-meets-new philosophy.

The floor tile, which is completely new, is often mistaken for an original feature.

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As Delecia reflects on the renovation, she realizes that finding the perfect balance was key. That meant knowing when to restore something, when to reinterpret it, and when to just leave it alone.

In the end, she thinks that balance is what makes the house feel so special – it has a new life without erasing the life it had before.

The home’s most utilitarian spaces, such as the mudroom, received the same consideration as the rest of the house. Delecia paired herringbone slate floors with a blue patterned backsplash, adding pattern and color without making a hardworking room feel too precious.

She added these details to create a functional space that still feels like part of the home. The downstairs bar features curved millwork on the shelving, which has maximum visual impact.

Delecia notes that straight shelves would have worked perfectly fine, but the curve makes them so much more interesting. These small details are what make a house memorable, and they don’t have to be big or in your face.

Renovating an old home requires a thoughtful approach to extreme home clutter and outdated design elements.