Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/809106
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Michael Del Piero's (INSET BOTTOM LEFT) interiors store features an 18th-century Bavarian antler chandelier and a 13-foot-tall Italian cabinet; another view shows a clear Pedrali chair and a blown- glass lamp; a French ceramic by Andrée and Michel Hirlet; a 19th-century jewelry box; an iron chandelier designed by Del Piero; a 17th-century French armchair. INTERIORS WHIZ MICHAEL DEL PIERO SHARES HER MUST-HAVE HOME DÉCOR PIECES FOR SPRING '17. BY STEPHEN OSTROWSKI DESIGN DOYENNE "I don't like a lot of color," states interior de signer Michael Del Piero—and so it goes for the Chicago native's new West Town headquarters, whose unassuming all-black exterior surrenders to two airy levels of white-walled industrial chic. But the contents of her first-floor shop are splashier, with rare pieces ranging from understated objets d'art to grand antiques. Here, the namesake of Michael Del Piero Good Design dissects her recent favorite finds. Del Piero herself designed a lithe, two-tiered iron chandelier ($5,250), inspired by a similar piece she spotted in a Belgian barn years ago. "I loved it and I never got it out of my head," recalls the 58-year- old Near North resident, "so when I got back, I thought, I want to repro- duce that." Del Piero generally deals in muted earth tones, but a sculptural, 20th-century French ceramic ($2,600) signed by its makers, Andrée and Michel Hirlet, was "so textural and inter- esting" that she brought it home from the renowned Paul Bert Serpette antiques market in Paris. Discovered in disrepair at a market in the south of France, a 17th-century French armchair ($2,800) has since been reuphol- stered with modern Manuel Canovas fabric. "There was barely any fabric left [on it originally]," Del Piero says, quipping, "Basically, I was buying wood." Although a 19th-century leather- and brass-accented jewelry box ($700)—pro- cured from a film prop provider in Germany—has interior storage, Del Piero emphasizes its ornamental appeal. "We're not [literal] here—at all," she laughs. 428 N. Wolcott Ave., 773- 772-3000; michaeldel piero.com . SHARES HER MUST-HAVE HOME DÉCOR PIECES FOR SPRING '17. PHOTOGRAPHY BY DUSTIN HALLECK (STORE); KINA WICKS (PORTRAIT); COURTESY OF 1STDIBS (CHAIR, CERAMIC, JEWELRY BOX); ILLUSTRATION BY ALLIE HASSON (CHANDELIER) POWER PLAYERS SPACE DÉCOR 114 MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM