Interior designer Sarah Vaile remembers eyeing a New York City apartment—one with bold colors and a personality as distinct as its chic owner—in a 2014 issue of House Beautiful, and tucking it away for future design inspiration. Years later, in a serendipitous turn of events, the woman she’d seen in the magazine—a stylish figure now in her 30s—just so happened to move to Chicago, where Vaile is based. And, as fate would have it—in the woman's quest to find someone to help translate her Manhattan residence to her new home in the Windy City—she found Vaile. In New York, the homeowner had relied on punchy and daring décor elements: think everything from an amethyst jeweled mirror hanging in the foyer, to a brown lacquered living room. Vaile and lead designer Lindsay Baker later took that initial design as the muse for this two-bedroom project, located in a historic Gold Coast building.

says Vaile. “Purple became lavender. The deep chocolate lacquer became a de Gournay mural. We took the design from Bungalow 5 to a more mature version of where it had once been.” Vaile also repurposed furniture pieces that made the move from the East Coast to the Midwest. She and her team fell for the jeweled mirror, installing it prominently in the entry against a Pierre Frey Swahili Petit backdrop. She reupholstered the homeowner’s vintage Vladimir Kagan club chairs (sourced from Chairish) in a Romo Chenille Weave, and redid the linen sofa in a Schumacher lavender velvet trimmed with a Houles silk tassel. “Now it looks like a sophisticated working woman lives here,” adds Vaile. “It’s very feminine and refined but with a touch of irreverence, as if the home could be hiding a secret speakeasy.”

With Vaile and her team aiming to distinguish the individual spaces while still ensuring they lived in harmony with one another. To do so, Vaile added mirrored wall panels with a slight patina that help reflect nearby design elements; new ceiling molding that spans the entire apartment; and two matching vintage brass chandeliers in both the living and dining rooms that tie the rooms together but still showcase how they are separate spaces. To balance the vivid color scheme, which Vaile jokingly describes as “Easter egg colors,” the designer relied on natural accessories that counteract the purple and orange tones. She added natural-fiber rugs, an Elephant-shaped raffia side table, a Williams-Sonoma tiger throw pillow, and a bespoke burl wood dining table by Scout Design Studio. She also mixed masculine and feminine design elements, with skirted and tassled seating set against sculptural accents and metallic fixtures.