Luxury Renovations & Custom Homes in Barrington
Design-led renovations, custom homes and interiors for Barrington's equestrian estates and acreage properties, shaped by the land, the house and the lives lived within them.
Barrington is defined by land. Across Barrington Hills and the surrounding countryside, five-acre minimums, wooded parcels, paddocks and quiet lake frontage give these homes room to breathe, and ask to be lived in slowly. The housing stock is as generous as the lots: gentleman's farmhouses and converted barns, stone-and-timber country houses, traditional estates set well back behind their own gates and tree lines. Here a renovation is rarely about a single room; it is about how an entire property holds together, house, outbuildings, landscape and the long view between them. Martire Custom Homes works precisely at this scale. Principal-led, design-led and deeply personal, Courtenay Martire reads the land, the existing home and the homeowner's life before a line is ever drawn, so that what follows feels inevitable rather than imposed, the homeowner, not the house, made the star of the home.
Acreage that invites ambition
Barrington's defining luxury is space, and space invites the kind of work tighter suburbs simply cannot hold. On large parcels across Barrington Hills and the surrounding country, there is room for substantial additions, reconfigured wings, guest and pool houses, equestrian and outbuilding considerations, and ground-up custom homes that settle gracefully into their acreage. The studio engages best in the pre-architect, pre-construction phase, when the footprint, the sightlines and the conversation between house and land are still open questions. From there, Courtenay can select or work alongside your architect, guide or create the plans, and carry full artistic direction through to the final finish, so the scale of the property becomes something to compose, not something to manage.
Country character, editorial restraint
An equestrian or country estate carries a particular spirit that polished, generic interiors can quietly flatten. The work here is to honour the texture of the place, stone, timber, light, the long sightline to the paddock or the water, while resolving it all with a refined, unhurried hand. Drawing on a background that blends art, fashion, photography, architecture and materials, Martire crafts custom joinery, millwork and cabinetry, considered lighting plans, drapery, textiles and finishes that feel gathered over time rather than installed in a season. The aim is to read a family's lifestyle and synchronise it with the home, so the finished rooms carry the homeowner's soul print, warm, collected and entirely their own.
One vision, from land to finish
On a Barrington estate the moving parts are many: architecture, structure, interiors, landscape and the daily rhythm of how the rooms are actually used. The value of a principal-led studio is one consistent artistic direction holding all of it together. With long-standing artisan partnerships and more than two decades of practice, Martire guides whole-home transformations and custom builds from pre-construction through finishes and styling, so the joinery answers the lighting, the materials answer the land, and the completed home reads as a single composed idea. This is considered, trust-based work for serious projects: substantial renovations, additions and custom homes, undertaken with restraint, warmth and genuine care.
A studio suited to homes of this calibre.
- Principal-led direction suited to large-parcel estates, where house, land and outbuildings must be composed as one property
- Best engaged pre-architect and pre-construction, ideal for the ambitious additions and ground-up custom homes Barrington's acreage allows
- A design background spanning art, fashion, materials and architecture, bringing editorial refinement to country and equestrian character
- Custom joinery, millwork, cabinetry, lighting, drapery and finishes carried under one consistent artistic vision
- More than 23 years of practice, enduring artisan partnerships and roughly 90% repeat-client business, a studio built on trust
Good to know.
Do you work on equestrian and acreage estates in Barrington Hills?
Yes, large-parcel properties are where this studio is at its best. The land around the home allows for ambitious additions, reconfigured wings and ground-up custom houses, and a principal-led approach means the house, its setting and any outbuildings are considered as one composed property rather than in isolation.
When is the best time to bring Martire into a Barrington project?
As early as possible, ideally in the pre-architect, pre-construction phase. Engaging early keeps the footprint, the sightlines and the relationship between house and land open, so Courtenay can select or work alongside your architect, guide or create the plans, and carry the artistic direction all the way through to finishes and styling.
What size of project do you usually take on here?
The studio is built for substantial, design-led work, major luxury renovations, large additions, whole-home transformations and custom homes, generally in the $300K to $1M-plus range. The focus is on serious, trust-based projects where a single artistic direction can be carried from concept through to the final finish.
If you are considering a renovation or custom home among Barrington's estates and acreage, we would be glad to begin the conversation.