Featured Home
By Alan G. Brake
Photos by Tommy Downs
Todd and Beth Meyer’s new home is a showcase of innovatively used (and cut) colored travertines and marble.
The interior of Todd and Beth Meyer’s Lake Forest home looks, at first glance, like what you would expect in a handsome Lake Forest residence. But on closer examination, some of the home’s details — especially its use of tile and stone — markedly distinguish it from its neighbors. The Meyers are the third-generation owners of Mees Tile & Marble, a locally owned regional distributor of tile, slate and stone, so it isn’t surprising that they would want to show off the best in tile and stone products throughout their home.
Visitors enter the double-height foyer through double doors. A curved wrought-iron staircase featuring oak and inlaid-travertine steps leads to the second floor, where an open catwalk looks over the foyer on one side and the living room on the other. To the left, through an airy colonnade off the foyer, the dining room has an Oriental rug, on which a table for eight and its chairs stand. But look closer and you see that it’s no ordinary
carpet: The design is actually a mosaic composed of thousands of pieces of colored marble hand-laid by Mexican artisans. The custom piece was made from a photograph of a carpet that Beth found. “It really catches the light at night,” she says. Todd sells many small mosaic medallions as flooring inserts, but a larger piece like this is much more rare. “We wanted to have something that truly differentiated the house,” he says. A wrought-iron chandelier hangs 
over the table and coordinates with sconces beside the china cabinet and the chandelier in the foyer.
Straight ahead through the foyer, the double-height living room has patterned cut-and-loop carpeting. “We wanted to make this room comfortable and alternate the textures a bit,” says Beth, as tile and stone are used underfoot almost everywhere else on the first floor. Built-in bookcases frame the fireplace, and a leather couch and armchair give the room a cozy, masculine feel. The fireplace’s facing is made up of chisel-edged and mortarless Rosoni crosscut Turkish travertine, which lends a slightly rusticated look. Large windows overlook the back yard and the covered back porch, which has an outdoor fireplace and a flat-screen TV. Off the kitchen, the powder room’s furnishings include an impressive red marble vanity with a bullnose edge and mosaic medallions.
Behind and to the left of the living room, the kitchen has a professional six-burner range, an icemaker and a warming oven alongside the standard amenities, and “buckskin” maple cabinets with beadboard backing on the island cupboard. Faucets and cabinet pulls are oil-rubbed bronzed cooper, to match hand-hammered copper sinks. Backsplashes are made of tumbled crosscut Turkish travertine laid in a harlequin (diamond) pattern, with metal accent darts of oil-rubbed bronzed copper. The Meyers chose alternating Walnut and Durango travertines for the floors in the kitchen as well as the adjacent dining and TV areas.
Back through the foyer to the right of the front door is a small study, its photo-lined bookcases showcasing an elaborate baroque-style desk, and the master suite. The suite has a generous bedroom with a trey ceiling and fireplace, while the master bath includes more intricate stonework, such as the basket-weave “mat” on the floor in front of the whirlpool tub, made of French Crema Luna limestone. Similar stonework adorns the wall beneath an arched window over the tub. The tub rests in a New Venetian Gold granite-covered base, the panels of which are held in place by strong magnetic fasteners, so that if plumbers need to access the pipes behind the panels they can be reached without damaging the stone. A weighty vanity is made from double-laminated New Venetian Gold with a double-bullnose edge.
Upstairs, the Meyers’ three children — Morgan, 10; Clayton, 13; and Grant, 4 — each have bedrooms. Morgan has her own bathroom, while the two boys share one. Morgan’s bathroom has white ceramic tile floors custom-cut to accommodate blue-glass diamond-shaped corner accent tiles that match the Oceania blue-glass sink. The boys’ bathroom has distinctive glass shower doors cut to form a curved top and finished with a scalloped edge, which, combined with the Indian slate flooring, gives the bathroom a Southwestern feel. “This is my favorite bathroom in the house,” Todd says.
Down a curved staircase from the foyer, the full-height basement features a bar, open family room, a fully equipped gym and a guest suite. The custom bar’s top and sides are slabs of Verde Scuro onyx from Pakistan, which has a dramatic, almost aquatic, look. But what makes the material even more unique is its translucence, which the Meyers showcase with under-mounted up lights. A wall-mounted wine rack and cabinets and a built-in fish tank round out the bar. The family room has overstuffed couches, a matching onyx fireplace and sliding glass doors that lead out to the back yard. Off the family room, the fully outfitted gym has rubber mat flooring, which helps to reduce stress on joints and the back during workouts. “It’s great to be able to get up and work out, without even leaving the house,” says Beth.
The guest suite has a private entrance off the rear of the house and a large bathroom with distinctive ceramic tile in a mermaid relief pattern. The bath also has a large walk-in shower with jambs, corner shelves and benches made of Verde Portofino granite. The shower doubles as a steam room. “It’s a pleasure for guests or for us after a workout,” says Todd. The Meyers regularly have family or clients stay at the house, so the guest suite will be well used.
When you’re building a new house — and you own a tile and stone company — sometimes it makes sense to bring work home.
