Decades of "Patchwork Updates" Left This Chicago Home Lacking, but Now Its Japandi Style Is Picture-Perfect

Japandi style dining room with timber table, floating pendant light and vase with flowers.

When Caroline Novak and David Pike purchased a Queen Anne-style fixer-upper in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, they didn’t hesitate: they called an old pal.

Dan Rockenbach, a friend of 15 years and founder of Charleston’s Rockenbach Design Studio, was what you might call a no-brainer for the project — no one knew the couple better. “I wasn’t just their designer," he recalls. "I was their friend, and I really got to pour a lot of heart into it.”