All grown up

Jeff Mills and Yoko Uozumi

Sure, shacking up with your significant other or getting married is a big move into adult territory. But for internationally known DJ Jeff Mills and his wife, Yoko Uozumi (together they run Axis Records and the sleek, European designer–heavy Wicker Park clothing boutique, Gamma Player), it was their first purchase as a married couple that really cemented their residence in the world of grown-up living.

After the stylish couple got hitched six years ago, they began the search to furnish their new Bucktown townhouse. “We were looking for something very minimal,” Uozumi says. “Jeff is really known for minimal music, and that represents our lifestyle, as well.” They had just installed gray flooring, and were looking for something simple to go with the floors and their stark-white walls. That’s when they found these Fabien Baron–designed Bernhardt chairs from the ultramodern furniture shop Orange Skin (223 W Erie St, 312-335-1033 ) in River North. “I was a little hesitant because the maintenance would be a little hard, but we thought, Well, we are adults now,” she says. “We should be able to take care of white leather.” In addition to cleaning the chairs often, Uozumi says they have another way to keep them in top-notch condition: “I don’t know if this is a good thing to say, but we’re careful about who sits in the chairs.”

If it were up to Mills, the chairs would be the only furniture in the living room. “At the beginning, he said that he didn’t want to have any [other] furniture. Just a chair,” Uozumi says. And for a while, he got his way. “I asked him, Okay, but when we have guests over, what do we do? It took time, but we eventually got a little sofa and a table,” she says. “I want it to be a little more comfortable and practical.”