Small churches can provide an excellent opportunity for residential conversions, offering both architectural character and solidly built structures. Typically, they also include large spaces that give architects a blank canvas on which to design fluid, open-concept interiors. When Scrafano Architects and Linc Thelen Design took on this church conversion near Chicago, however, they didn’t have such a blank canvas to work with – someone else had beaten them to it.

Quartz fireplace cladding by Transceramica. Hyde rug, Bantam sofa and Noguchi coffee table via Design Within Reach.

In its first go as a residence, the building saw its front and rear split into two storeys, and its central volume given over to a double-height living room with 7.6 metre ceilings. Here, a series of low walls had been used as partitions, with central parts of the main floor taken up by staircases leading up to bedrooms or down to ground level.

To transform this space, the design team gutted the entire building, stripping it to the bare structure. Once again a portion of the great room was split between two levels, but this time, instead of the rear of the building, it was a section running front-to-back that was partitioned off by a two-storey wall with a dramatic fireplace.

Living room pendants and wall sconces by Arteriors.

With this gesture, the team re-oriented the great room so that it runs the depth of the structure, giving them the chance to shift the kitchen area from a dark corner and into the centre of the great room. They built it anew, with quartz countertops and stained-hickory casework, beautifully contrasted against the large pre-existing stained-glass windows.

Custom cabinets by Home Things. LEM Piston stools by Shin and Tomoko Azumi, via Design Within Reach.

Custom stair and climbing wall by Linc Thelen. Wallpaper by Spoon Flower.

Many of the home’s details are preserved and enhanced from its former life; the bell tower has been reclaimed as a media room, and the existing ceilings have been stripped back to explose the formerly hidden wooden beams and iron turnbuckles. To these traces of the structure’s former life, new elements have been added. Access to the new upstairs bedrooms is provided by Linc Thelen’s glass and steel staircase, which extends catwalk-like over the great room. Linc Thelen also custom-designed the dining table, Murphy bed, and – in one of the bedrooms – even added a rock-climbing wall.

The final touches are a new slate of contemporary furnishings and lighting fixtures, energized by the judicious use of highly graphic wallcoverings by Anne Wolfsman, Spoon Flower and Serena and Lily.

Custom barn doors with track hardware by Rustica. Carpet tiles by Flor.