Last updated : Friday, February 12, 2010

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Designer Spotlight: Julia Buckingham Edelmann

Julia Buckingham Edelmann loves surprises. Not huge or overbearing – they are usually subtle additions that subconsciously create the ultimate tone of a space. Nothing is predictable: An antique Chippendale chair surrounds a clean-lined, metal-framed dining table; a modern dark wood accent offsets a Victorian upholstered sofa. By mixing elements that seem so disjointed, Edelmann has a way of making every piece look like it was made for the next.

"I'm defined by my clients and my client base," she says. "Every homeowner has a different style and I don't want every home to look the same. I like to take a twist on tradition."

After careers in fashion, antiquing and home staging, Edelmann started her Chicago-based interior design firm, Buckingham Interiors, in 2007. And in an economic climate in which eclecticism has become a trend, Edelmann's style is in line with what many homeowners envision.

"Ten years ago people were caught off guard by the mixing of antiques and modern," she says. "But a home feels comfortable when you are surrounded by comfortable pieces of furniture," she says." People want more timeless pieces. They don't want homes to look staged."

And while her designs may seem all over the map, it may have something to do with her varied geographic history. Chicago-bred, Edelmann has lived in Albuquerque, N.M, Tucson, Ariz., Los Angeles and Cincinnati. Her love for design has taken her as far as Paris, London and areas of South America, and yet it has also inspired her to return home.

But just as it took her many different addresses between the time she left Albuquerque as a high school senior for the University of Arizona, it took her a smattering of careers before she opened her firm three years ago. Graduating college with a degree in fashion merchandising and a minor in interior design, Edelmann took a job at Neiman Marcus, first in L.A. and then back in Chicago.

When she decided to leave the fashion industry to stay at home with her children, she found herself perusing flea markets and antique stores on the weekends. "My style started to become very eclectic," she says. "It was unusual among my modern and traditional pieces. I realized 'wow this is a passion'." And then when her husband's job moved the family to Cincinnati, her passion turned into a profession.

Quickly scouting out all the local antique shops, Edelmann found one she particularly enjoyed. "It was owned by three women from disparate backgrounds," she says. "It was a two-story building and they would each buy their own pieces." She spent so much time there that they asked her to join the team. Naming the store "Crackle", she had her own room in the store that regular clients would visit. "We were four women with four different takes and we became known," she says. "And I had this epiphany, 'I can be a shop owner!'" During that time, Edelmann made a name for herself in antiquing, traveling to famous flea markets in Los Angeles, Paris and London.

After four years of buying and selling antiques, Edelmann and her family returned to Chicago, where she started a small business of staging friends' living rooms with antiques and hosting open houses. "We would have cocktail parties on Thursday nights and sales over the weekend," she says. "I met a lot of my current clients through that."

In addition to designing for more than one dozen clients at one time, Edelmann has flipped nine houses with her husband. "Every home has been completely different," she says. " In Cincinatti we had a 14,000 sq. ft. modern, glass house and now we are in an 1870s Queen Anne Victorian." She's even surprised herself: "I didn't buy them to flip them, we just put so much work in them."

So whether it's adding unforeseen touches to a home of her own or taking clients out of their own comfort zones to reinvigorate their own sense of style, Edelmann enjoys a constantly-evolving, refreshing aesthetic. "To see a huge, amazing artifact in a traditional space, it's like an 'ah ha' moment to see the unexpected," she says. Of course, let's not forget the surprises.

For more from our "Designer Spotlight" series, go to the At Home section. 

 

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