ROGERS PARK — To neighbors and passersby, the brightly colored Pratt Boulevard home is known as the Candyland House, the Barbie House or the Rainbow Cone Home.
But to friends and family, the house at 1525 W. Pratt Blvd. is the longtime home of artists Jackie Seiden and the late Don Seiden. The prolific artists turned the century-old home into their own personal canvas, creating one of the most unique homes in Rogers Park.
After 47 years of owning the home, the Seiden family has now listed it for $600,000.
“The whole house is pastel-colored and glitter from head to toe,” said Kathy Schrage, a real estate agent with Redfin who is listing the home. “It’s like a Barbie’s dream home.
“It’s the most eclectic house I’ve seen in 20 years as a realtor.”
Don Seiden was an artist, art educator and pioneer of art therapy who founded the art therapy department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A renowned sculptor, he also served as chair of the sculpture department at SAIC. He died in 2019, two days after his 92nd birthday.
Jackie Seiden is an artist and art teacher who held classes in her Rogers Park home. Jackie was the creative force behind the Candyland House, using the house for a blank canvas.
When Jackie Seiden moved in, the house was painted a “drab olive green,” she told DNAinfo Chicago in 2013. That coat of paint had to go.
“The inside grew into these pastel colors, and I carried them on to the outside,” she said.
Virtually every part of the house sticks to the bright pastel theme. Even the blinds, radiators and a piano are painted shades of pink, yellow, blue and green. Some ceilings sparkle with a glitter-infused pastel pink, and bedroom floors have a pastel yellow hue.
Even the silverware had handles painted in pastels, Jackie Seiden told DNAinfo.
Jackie Seiden said the inspiration for the colors came from sneaking into the now-defunct, art-deco-inspired Edgewater Beach Hotel with her friends as a youth.
The “colored deco” style “really stuck with me,” Jackie Seiden said.
Jackie Seiden has moved out of the house and into an apartment. A family friend is acting as caretaker of the home as the family looks for a buyer, Schrage said.
The five-bedroom home was built in 1891 and sits on a double-wide lot. Aside from the decor updates, the home has been renovated to feature skylights and make room to practice art.
The home’s garage, painted pastel orange, has been converted into an art studio, including a second-floor loft space. A pastel-colored wooden walkway leads from the house to the studio.
A third-floor loft space has hardwood floors and plenty of natural light, and it has acted as a studio for Jackie’s art classes. It also has a toilet and bathtub that are not separated from the larger room by any walls or partitions.
The home was listed listed in late April for $525,000 and went under contract in about a week’s time, according to the home listing site Zillow. It was put back on the market on May 26 with a higher asking price of $600,000.
Schrage said the price increase reflects the hot home buying market. The family received a “bunch” of offers on the home, she said. A neighboring home went on the market for $675,000.
The Seiden family is hoping there is a buyer who would like to keep some of the home’s more unique elements, Schrage said. But that will be dictated by the market, she said.
“The sellers would greatly appreciate someone who loves the home and wants to refurbish it,” Schrage said. “But again, they need to sell it.”
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