By the Book

Decorum Furniture owners, Claus Ihlemann and Robert Roman where featured in the July / August 2009 issue of Home & Design Magazine.

In the foyer, a vintage Orrefors crystal chandelier hangs above an early 20th-century oak desk from Denmark.	An Italian leather sofa and a pair of cotton bouclé-covered chairs in the family room are oriented to a media wall and fireplace.	In the kitchen, vintage-style hardware on glass-fronted wood cabinets complements the stainless-steel appliances.	Claus Ihlemann and Robert Roman host frequent visitors in their waterfront home.

By the Book

Volumes of design ideas led two furniture retailers to create their riverfront dream house in Norfolk, Virginia

Building a dream home can take years of plan-ning and research. Starting in 1995, Norfolk, Virginia-based furniture retailer Claus Ihlemann dedicated himself to the task, compiling design sources and inspirations in what his business and life partner Robert Roman laughingly calls “the book.” But it took the damage wrought by Hurricane Isabel’s 2003 pummeling of their home on the Lafayette River for Ihlemann and Roman to decide that they would have to realize their dream house by necessity.

“We thought insurance money from the flood would allow us to restore the house, but the settlement offer only covered basic repairs and didn’t even begin to address a total restoration. At that point, it made sense for us to consider tearing the house down and starting over,” says Ihlemann, who owns Decorum, a contemporary home furnishings store located in Norfolk’s Ghent neighborhood.

Check us out the complete article in Home & Design Magazine