House Tour-Carissa and Dustin

Name: Carissa Schoenick and Dustin Schwenk
Location: Champaign, IL
Square Footage: 1200
Years Lived in: 1
Rent or own: rent
Describe your style: Mid Century Modern
Blog/Website: thesciencefactory.net

What's your favorite free/found item?
Art made by family members; we have nice pieces illustrated by Dustin's uncle and Carissa's father.

What's your favorite purchased item?
Our set of four seafoam green Herman Miller arm shell chairs.

What has been your biggest obstacle in decorating/design?
The space itself has been our biggest challenge; as we're just starting out in our careers and renting a small suburban 50's ranch, we don't have the space to do what we would really like as far as arrangement and scale. Both of us would like more windows and a much more open floor plan in future homes.


Is your design style organic or planned?
A mix of both; we start with an idea of things we'd love to have and then stay very vigilant for opportunities to get those items. Sometimes we get lucky and find more or less exactly what we were hoping for, and other times we see something that we hadn't explicitly planned for but has worked out wonderfully. Our long Lane coffee table and our credenza are both examples of this. Craigslist has been indispensable, and we've had luck with eBay and flea markets as well.

What is your favorite spot in the house?
The living room/dining room area is our favorite. It's the hub of the house where we spend most of our time, and is very functional and comfortable.


How has your style changed in the past 5 years?
We've morphed from broke college students using what furniture we could get into an independent couple with our own livelihoods, so we're finally able to choose what furniture we want and create a consistent style to our home. We were both generally less involved with design and style five years ago because we were moving around a lot and didn't have the time to or space to really put effort into our interiors.

What is your favorite resource or store?
Craigslist, definitely! We have scored many amazing finds hunting around that site. We're lucky to live within reasonable drivable distance of several major cities. We once took a road trip to Grand Rapids, MI to get our Eames Sofa Compact.


What is your biggest decorating/design pet peeve?
Mass-produced art like the kind you find at Target. This sort of approach to art strips it of everything that makes it human and interesting. If affordable art is what you need, thrift stores and flea markets or even your own drawings and photographs are so much more meaningful and give a space real personal depth and ownership.

What has been your favorite design trend?
The movement toward open spaces and lighter/cleaner colors and lines in architecture and furniture. The general upswing in appreciation of mid century modern style is great too.


What is the biggest influence on your design/decorating style?
We have many books about mid century design and the case study houses, etc. from that era that serve as great visual inspiration for us, especially as we daydream about future spaces. We look for vintage things whenever we can find them and often get attached to certain objects for their personality; it's great when something has a history or a story and isn't just a new off-the-shelf production. It creates less of an impact environmentally as well. We're very proud that most of our furniture collection is comprised of vintage pieces.

What in your home dictates how you design/decorate?
Right now it's the space and layout of our house; it's pretty boxy and its windows, though nice and big, constrain us to only a few possible layouts in the various rooms. It's an interesting challenge to maximize this house's potential and find the ultimate layout for each space, however. There are some great details to the house like built-in cabinets and display cases that we really enjoy.


What is the simplest thing you have done that has made the biggest impact?
We have wood floors throughout the home, and our large main room is an L shape with living, dining and entryway rooms all in one. Adding some rugs in a few key places made a striking visual impact that really helped divide the room up into discrete spaces without sacrificing the openness visually or physically. It also introduced more variety of texture and general coziness.