Huntley Home is Artist's Latest Canvas

When Sonia Graf wanted to go beyond a fresh coat of paint in spicing up her Huntley home she turned to her brother-in-law, Tony Graf of Fresh Coat Painting in Algonquin, who, in turn, referred her to Doug Coggeshall of Coggeshall Artistry. Pretty straightforward, right?

But as Graf searched the virtual gallery on Coggeshall’s website, eyeing work he had done previously in private residences, she discovered Coggeshall is a two-time invitee to the International Trompe-L'oeil Festival held in Italy, and is a multi-commissioned artist who has worked on actor Nick Nolte’s home and on the Senate Chamber Lounge in the West Virginia State Capitol.

Coggeshall also has been featured in "Paint" magazine and on HGTV, all of which begged the question, does he still do private residences and is he available?

“It was like, I hope we can get this person,” said Graf of her reaction to Coggeshall’s extensive portfolio.

As the old saying goes, it doesn’t hurt to ask, which Graf did, and a few consultations and several weeks later, Coggeshall was rolling up his sleeves in Graf’s house ­– producing a cloudscape on her foyer ceiling, painting the kitchen ceiling and employing a parchment technique to decorate its tray, using an art technique called trompe-l’oeil to create exposed bricks that match Graf’s nearby fireplace.

“I think he does magic on the walls,” said Graf, adding that the house she and her family have lived in for five years now feels “finished.”

Coggeshall said clients are sometimes hesitant to call him because of his resume, and when they do they’re often surprised to learn that not only does he still work on private residences, but he’s available – the latter made more likely in a weak economy.

“People think that I’m booked out for 100 years,” Coggeshall said. “I used to be, and those days will come back again. Right now, I’m humbled for every job I get.”

Coggeshall was certainly busy in 2009, helping restore a 100-year old private chapel in the rectory of St. John Cantius Church in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. There, over a five-month period, he recreated the original hand-painted artwork that had been whitewashed over when the space was converted into a closet then library some 70 years ago. So neglected was the building housing the rectory that an architect was called in to help prevent a four-story exterior wall from collapsing.

“Here’s this chapel that had survived 100 years of neglect and abuse and the only way to fix it was to match the colors, figure out what you’re going to fix, and then you have to prime over it – and that’s where I had to destroy it,“ Coggeshall said. “I had to cover it up with primer so that it could receive paint again, and then repeat the process and repeat the technique that I assumed was used to paint it originally. So I had to study it first, match the colors, mimic the technique, destroy it, and then recreate it. It’s frightening, but it worked.”

Photos of the restoration project are posted on Coggeshall’s Facebook page, as technical errors have prevented him from posting it on his website.

While you wouldn’t think that restoring a neglected, aging chapel compares to spicing up a newer house in Huntley, Coggeshall said it does.

“What you bring to the table, to like in a house in Huntley, is all of that knowledge,” he said. “When I show up at a job site, what I bring is this enormous amount of knowledge of how to do illustration work and marbleizing and wood graining so you just pull out what you need. That St. John restoration? I didn’t know how to do that stuff. You make it up as you go. I learned so much just doing that job. You learn, just as you always do, on the job.”

Based in southwest suburban Darien, Coggeshall says this is his first job in Huntley, which reminded him of the southern Illinois farm town where he grew up.

“Huntley is very visually similar to Belleville,” he said. “I had to go from (Graf’s house) to Del Webb to look at another house and I took Harmony Road – very similar to driving through southern Illinois. I was supposed to be looking for Hemmer Road, but I spent more time looking at the barns (and) saying, ‘Look at the barn. Damn it looks cool.’ So it was very comforting to drive through Huntley. It made me feel good.”

And at least one member of Graf’s family is hoping that Coggeshall will someday find her hometown just as comforting.

“My mom is trying to get a bunch of girls together to have him go up to northern Minnesota and paint their houses,” Graf said. “I have been sending her text pictures and she’s been loving what she’s seeing.”