By Elaine Matsushita
This place, home to artist Derek Erdman and film editor Amy Cargill, is a far, far cry from the cave Derek first saw five years ago. Then, this one-time  bakery in Bucktown was a dusty cavern with seafoam green floors. Today, the raw space has been tamed (even if the bakery’s dumbwaiter remains). Oriental carpets and red polka-dots cover floors. And the mark of Derek and Amy are everywhere.

“I’ve never liked couches. I’ve never liked comfortable things. “The reason for that? I have no idea,”  Derek says. [But] I always thought it was better to have the space than to have the clutter of furniture.”

Much of the furniture here came with Amy. The antique green sofa was from her grandmother, an antiques dealer from Oklahoma. The wooden rocking chair from a friend who was nursed in it (her grandmother, Mary Ann Cahill, was one of the seven founders of La Leche League in the mid-’50s).

 
 
Derek’s paintings (sold at derekerdman.com and in Bleeding Heart Bakery and area clothing stores) are done with house paint on wood.

Who better to watch over Derek's phone (Yes, it's got a cord! He hates cell phones.)? It's Alexander Graham Bell, painted on an old window by Derek.

No art school training for Derek. His teachers for his projection/tracing painting style? The Internet, friends and “a lot of trial and error.”

 ”I like it when I find things in pairs, things that match,” Derek says. Though the black leather chairs are garage sale finds, he never goes out of his way to hit a garage sale. He only stops at those he stumbles upon. The dramatic settee is something Amy found in the garbage and painted. “We never knew what to do with it,” he says. But affter friends saw it and everyone wanted it so bad, Amy decided to keep it.

The dining chairs belonged to Derek’s great-grandparents.  The table that originally went with them have been replaced with a beautiful table and sideboard with gold detailing, which Derek’s mom found at an estate sale. “We like to entertain a lot,” Derek says, adding that the original table paid the price.

  Interesting finds pop up throughout the spacious apartment – but each apparently passes the ”special” test: “As I get older, I like stuff less and less.”

 Derek used to work in record stores and later owned one in Hyde Park. The vinyl came in pretty handy in the bedroom, doing double-duty — their second role being wallcovering.

 I loved Derek’s storage system — straightforward and raw yet so full of character and personality.  “I have to have things in a place,” Derek says.

 I hated to leave. But when the time came, it was easy to find my way.