Designer specializes in making dreams come true
Maida Korte's resume includes flying to San Antonio and South Carolina to help clients with their far-flung homes and making appearances now and then on HGTV shows.
We picked up these stories when we dropped into Designs by Maida's new Rolling Meadows headquarters and workshop recently to glean some decorating tips.
While she's mourning a bit over leaving her old digs in the city's trendy Bucktown neighborhood, Rolling Meadows offers great routes to the city and also to Woodstock, where she not only owns a century-old home but also a shop on the historic square.
If you're watching for Korte reruns, she was on “Designers' Challenge” and “New Spaces.” And in the two years she spent redoing the home of a couple who moved from Chicago, she really got to know San Antonio. The same pair befriended a designer with some celebrity but would not let him work on their South Carolina home. “Our designer is Designs by Maida” was their mantra.
But Korte, who has owned Designs by Maida for 24 years, is also interested in more modest projects and suggests a shopping trip to Woodstock could improve your home and your mood.
Is your bedroom, for example, getting you down?
She suggests combining ready-made and custom linens for your bed. Start with inspiration from the brands at the Woodstock store: Elegant Peacock Lane; bright colors and patterns of Pinecone Hill; and Home Source, treasured because it's made of bamboo.
The bed skirt is one item that should always be custom made, Korte said.
“Ones from stores hang limp and not straight. They're not lined, and beds come in all different sizes. It's almost impossible to purchase retail.”
The other pieces — from coverlet to shams, duvet cover and throw pillows — can mix and match from off the rack and custom.
After you've decided on your bedding, start painting those walls, Korte says.
Her painting tips: Don't make one wall of the bedroom a different color unless you have a tall cathedral ceiling and need a deep, dramatic shade to make the space more intimate.
On the other hand, if you wish the ceiling were taller, painting it white won't help. She recommends something that looks like sky, say pale gray blue.
“Your bedroom will be so inviting it will herald your arrival every evening,” said the designer. “You'll be happy to read or pick up your laptop.”
Window coverings make up another important department at her Woodstock store, and they might have changed since you last chose yours.
“Ten years ago windows were stark and sterile, no window treatments at all. But people love fabric,” she said. “Fabric makes people happy.”
Yes, natural fabrics are fabulous, but watch out! Linen wrinkles. It just does. A client fell in love with a beautiful linen fabric with blue and green embroidered flowers, so Korte used it for the valance in a cottagey design. Linen sheers are a great idea, too, she said.
The window treatments at her Woodstock shop come in three lines: ready to hang, semi-custom with a choice of fabrics and custom.
Korte says today's hot style is transitional. She defines that as “traditional design sleeked up, hipped up. Think of a tiny William Morris print. Blow it up really big and put it on fabric or tile. Take away the curls and fussiness.
“Clearing up traditional and making it simpler energizes it. It appeals to younger people. Large geometric dots and simple large scale patterns are clean and neat.”
Colors are also decidedly nontraditional. A vibrant Tiffany blue makes a traditional design look like something you've never seen before.
And, you know that most people mix styles.
“You love Federal but you have a chair from Grandma you're keeping no matter what. There's another piece you don't even know why you like it, you just do.”
While Korte wants her clients to see and touch important finishes so that they fall in love, other pieces she knows so well she can specify them without leaving her computer.
In the first category: “See this wonderful herringbone limestone. Run a hand over it. You think, ‘I want this on the floor of my shower.' I show clients the finishes to get them to see the vision'”
But she knows Robern medicine cabinets inside and out: “They are the best. They have electric outlets inside; the interiors are all mirrored; they glow from a night light inside; and they are recessed fully into the wall.”
These days Korte is designing and building projects like lower levels and master baths.
And this is probably the woman you want managing the installation of your lower level because she actually had her own antique home lifted up so the basement could be dug out to make room for entertainment space.
The news that three of her four daughters got married within nine months might also convince you she's a good manager.
People who hire designers realize making the right purchase will save them money in the long run, Korte said.
“I have a wingback that has been reupholstered seven times over three generations. You could never do that with a piece of furniture from IKEA.”
One of Korte's services is drawing renderings of rooms and details for her clients before the work starts. When she's ordering 80 yards of expensive fabric she wants to be sure she's creating what the client wants.
Good design is important, according to the philosophy of Designs by Maida, designsbymaida.com.
“Take your dream and make it a reality. If you live your dreams you love your life. We help people live their dreams. A space like a sitting room and spa style bathroom carved from an extra bedroom will help them love their lives.”