Art and style paired in new Winnetka home furnishings store

Robert Bryan Home in Hubbard Woods offers transitional-modern home furnishings. | Contributed photo

Updated: August 20, 2012 6:22AM

WINNETKA — Adding to the charm of Winnetka’s newly coined “Hubbard Design District,” Robert Bryan Home store recently moved into its new shop at 984 Green Bay Rd., offering a timeless yet transitional-modern style of home furnishings and interior design services to the North Shore community.

Owners Bryan Boomershine and Robert Levine combine their talents in the arts and home design to offer a unique selection of home furnishings and décor including custom upholstery, accessories, lighting, furniture, antiques and original art from Boomershine’s exclusive collection of contemporary abstract paintings.

Although Boomershine and Levine’s Winnetka shop has only been open for two months, the pair shares a business partnership that stretches back more than 28 years.

After opening an interior design showroom together near downtown Chicago in 1987, Boomershine and Levine later started a successful wholesale business manufacturing accessories in 1990. After closing the business in 2003, the two teamed up a third time and opened a home furnishings/interior design store on Broadway Street in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood.

They closed the store — Apartment Number Five — in 2010 after four years of business, and moved their expertise in all things interior design to the North Shore on May 1.

Levine brings more than 25 years of interior design experience to the business, and Levine — a recently featured artist in the exclusive Chicago Art Coalition — sells his original acrylic paintings in the gallery.

Robert Bryan Home is the exclusive North Shore gallery for Boomershine’s paintings, which mix vibrant colors, patterns and texture.

“I sort of look at the interior design business from the standpoint of either you have it or you don’t, because to be successful you have to have a bit of a flair for putting the right styles and colors together,” Levine said. “When selecting items for the store a lot of it has to do with taste, but you also have to ask yourself if others are going to like your taste, and take into consideration what people are going to want.”

Besides the full showroom of home décor items for sale in the store, Levine also offers personal interior design services where he visits his clients homes and helps them with color selection, furniture placement and basically all other full-scale interior design services to make a house feel like a home.

Bommershine and Levine chose Winnetka as the location for their shop after the search for the perfect location in the city came up empty.

“At first we looked in the city, but then realized that there just aren’t a lot of good shopping areas out there anymore,” Levine said. “Winnetka turned out to be perfect for us because we had a lot of clients who live here already, and many of our clients from the city are moving to the suburbs as they start getting married and having kids.”

Robert Bryan Home is nestled in the quiet shopping district known as the Hubbard Woods area located on Green Bay Road in between Tower Road and Scott Avenue.

The three-block stretch of quiet suburban shopping is packed with restaurants, eclectic shops and boutiques offering clothing, accessories, home goods, gifts, antiques and other items.

Levine loves the Hubbard Woods shopping area and its building recognition as the Hubbard Woods Design District.

“The area is absolutely amazing — it’s just store after store of cute and quaint stores, and it’s just fun,” he said.

For more information on Robert Bryan Home, go to www.robertbryanhome.com or call 847-446-5522.

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