The Chicago-based interior designer Summer Thornton has built her name as a virtuosic mixer of color and pattern. But at times she must reserve her most daring concepts for herself. Im taking the ideas my clients wont do, she says, reflecting on the recent renovation of her own Chicago office, an 1877 Victorian house in Lincoln Park. After renting the top floor for several years, she decided to buy and restore the entire buildingtaking over the ground-floor bridal shop, digging a fortified foundation, and making updates in two phases amid client commissions. It was my last priority, she concedes, calling the two-year process a cobbler-with-no-shoes situation.The conference room groups a custom table and Jean Prouv chairs beneath an Isamu Noguchi lantern; modular credenza by USM.Photo: Marta Xochilt PerezThorntons bespoke de Gournay wallpaper wraps the stair hall.Photo: Marta Xochilt PerezIn the front salon, Rupert Nikoll chandelier, Boussac wall covering from Pierre Frey, and Warner house settee upholstery.Photo: Marta Xochilt PerezIntended as both a showcase for client meetings and a home base for Thornton and her team of 15, the space couldnt fall a millimeter short of her exacting standards. We wanted to make it really spectacular, she notes. Case in point: the entry, with its terrazzo floors, bold green carpeting up the stairs, and pagoda pendants. Here, walls are covered in the motif that she conceived with de Gournay and dubbed Summers Folly. Its a mismatch of inspirations, from classical to folk to fairy tale. Her young daughter suggested including cheetahs alongside sheep, giraffes, swans, and deera wink to the decorators youth in rural Illinois. In some ways, I never feel like a grown-up myself.Thorntons personal office.Photo: Marta Xochilt PerezMost PopularTravelThe 11 Most Beautiful Mountain Cities in the WorldBy Emma TubbsArchitecture + DesignA Creative Directors Milan Home Is a Master Class in Secondhand ShoppingBy Kelly DawsonMagazineMieke ten Have Fashions a Home for Hudson Valley NeighborsBy Michael BoodroThe materials library and conference room beyond.Photo: Marta Xochilt Perez.Colleagues at work in the studios materials library.Photo: Marta Xochilt PerezMust-haves included the materials library, lined in oak shelving, and beyond it the conference room, whichdespite its silvered ceiling treatment and Chinese Art Deco rugis the offices most subdued expanse, a place to spread out samples for projects like Casa Rosada, the full-service rental villa she recently completed in Sayulita, Mexico. (Her current slate of work includes homes in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cabo, and Aspen, and a private club in Manhattan.) Wrapped in a floral pattern, the adjacent front parlor is where employees can find inspiration perusing the many design books and magazines. We wanted it all to feel elevated, notes Thornton, who delights in details like the bespoke seamless blue-dolomite desks or the kitchens skirted sink. Its also a little nod to how organized we aresome people pick up on that.Most PopularTravelThe 11 Most Beautiful Mountain Cities in the WorldBy Emma TubbsArchitecture + DesignA Creative Directors Milan Home Is a Master Class in Secondhand ShoppingBy Kelly DawsonMagazineMieke ten Have Fashions a Home for Hudson Valley NeighborsBy Michael BoodroWells Abbott wallpaper lines the kitchen; chairs by Haute Living.Photo: Marta Xochilt PerezThe teams workspace features built-in desks of Azul Cielo dolomite.Photo: Marta Xochilt PerezCole & Son wallpaper swirls in the office of Thorntons husband and business partner, Josh.Photo: Marta Xochilt PerezReturning to the question of what she might not reprise for a clients home, she looks around her eclectic private workspace, marked by a tiger-print sofa and large-scale floral wallpaper, smiling. Its so funny, I was Zooming with a client once and he was like, Your office is hideous, she laughs, never one to take offense. He was sitting in this very sterile building, and I said, Well, I think yours is hideous! Strong opinions, of course, are what appeal to her most. I was like, I got youwere good.