Icon Building Group · Design + Build Remodeling

Your before.Our process.One extraordinary after.

Walk the CompassThe seven phases, start to finish→ See the proofEleven projects, befores included→
See the truth
The Lake Bluff kitchen — before The same kitchen — after
Drag the line The Lake Bluff home · read the case study →

Remodeling is hard.Here’s how we make it easier.

Open walls hide surprises. “Fixed” prices drift via change order. Timelines slip and the updates go quiet. And you have to live through it all. We understand that — and the responsibility we carry as a result — so we built a process around the exact places a remodel tends to go wrong. We call it the Compass, and it is built to guide you from start to finish.

How We Do It · The Compass

Anyone can open your walls.Almost no one can promise what happens next.

Checklists work when nothing surprises you. In remodeling, something always does — behind the drywall, under the floor, inside a sixty-year-old wall. A list can’t handle territory like that. A bearing can. We built ours, and we put it in writing: the Compass.

First, the Paper · Then the Process

Three decisions before a hammer ever swings.

1Design Agreement · Phase 1Concept design. The smallest commitment we offer — and the least expensive place to decide we are not the right fit. →you decide 2Design Agreement · Phase 2Trades bid your final drawings and we verify the house itself. Both phases are priced on page one, so what it costs to find out is never a surprise. →you decide 3Fixed-Price ContractA real number, not an estimate. The price you sign is the price you pay.

Two signatures, three decisions — because your spend should follow your certainty, not lead it. Each step costs more than the last and tells you more than the last, and at every gate either of us can say the honest thing. Stop at the end of design and the drawings are yours. How the agreements protect you →

PHASE 07 · LIFETIME PARTNERSHIP · NO END DATE · FOR AS LONG AS YOU LIVE IN THE HOME COMMUNICATION TRANSPARENCY EMPATHY SERVICE N E S W 01 02 03 04 05 06
Phase 07 · The covenant Lifetime Partnership A direct line to people who know your home — for as long as you live in it. The 45-day, 11-month, and annual cadence is the floor — not the ceiling. Read the full service spec →
01
Phase 01 · Education

Before we ever talk.

Read our cost guides, our builder evaluation workbook, and our process overview. Learn what a real build costs and what to watch for in any builder relationship — before you ever pick up the phone.

You walk away withAn informed perspective. No sales pressure. No obligation.
01 / 07

Most builders' service starts when you sign a contract and ends when they hand you the keys.
We service for life.

Walk the full Compass → See the Compass in motion
The Payoff

Every remodel dips.We tell you when — and we hold you through it.

Here’s the chart most remodelers will never show you: how clients actually feel, milestone by milestone. Excitement at contract. A high at demo. And then the Drywall Valley — the weeks when the money is spent, the walls are closed, and nothing looks different day to day. We can’t spare you the valley. No remodeler can. What we can do is lock your price before the dip — bid and verified, then fixed in writing — and stay present through it: a written update every Friday, every week, precisely when other firms go quiet. And we measure the job on a clock most builders never mention: not signing day to move-in day, but the day we first walk into your house to the day we walk out of it. You are living here while we work. So is your family. Every trade hears that before they carry a tool through the door — and the floors, the stairs, the dust and the air get protected accordingly. That’s why our line comes out of the valley fast, and why it ends at referrals.

Signed Before Swung

Design Agreement → fixed-price contract. The price is locked before the dip ever starts.

Education, Then Mastery

We teach you the trade-offs, then master the process and the craft on your behalf.

Loudest in the Valley

A written Friday update, every job, every week — most valuable in the exact weeks other firms go quiet.

Thoroughness Over Speed

Process is never sacrificed for an unrealistic timeline or to chase a dollar.

A Partnership for Life

A 45-day check-in, an 11-month walk, then every year after. We don’t leave.

We hold steady where most don’t — from the day we walk in to year ten and beyond.

The Proof · Visualized

Seeing is believing.Drag every one of them.

Three projects, three transformations — grab the line on any of them.

The Master Bathroom After The Master Bathroom Before
BeforeAfter
The BathroomFrom shabby to chic.
The Exterior After The Exterior Before
BeforeAfter
The ExteriorElevated lake life living.
The Kitchen After The Kitchen Before
BeforeAfter
The KitchenWalls down, sightlines restored.

Every one of these is a real Icon project, start to finish — see the full case studies →

Single room
Whole home & additions

We work every point on this scale — a single room to a whole home — and own all of it, end to end.

The Case Files

Recent projects.Start anywhere.

Told the way we run them — the design intent, the structural moves, the finished rooms, and the befores that make the afters mean something.

The Lake Bluff Whole-Home
The Lake Bluff Whole-HomeLake Bluff · whole home + video tour
 The Chain O'Lakes Lakehouse
The Chain O’Lakes LakehouseAntioch · whole home, inside & out
 The Fox Trail Ranch
The Fox Trail Ranch, RebornLincolnshire · studs-out + new roof structure
 The Lakewood Manor
The Lakewood ManorVillage of Lakewood · whole home
 Gregg's Landing, Rethought
Gregg’s Landing, RethoughtVernon Hills · full interior + 2nd kitchen
 The 1885 Evanston Lower Level
The 1885 Evanston Lower LevelEvanston · vintage-home build-out
Open the proof — all case studies, befores & afters →Browse the full portfolio by room →
The Proof — Experienced

Behind every Icon remodel isa relationship.

Hear directly from the families we've served — including the ones we never built for.

A Whole Home, Well Executed
We got our 5-bed / 5-bath home in Long Grove completely remodeled with Icon. What initially seemed like a daunting task turned out to be a well-executed project. Charlie, the CEO, lives the customer-first philosophy — and it's evident across the employees as well.
Sharath KatipallyWhole-Home Remodel — Long Grove, IL
Living at Home Through It
The project manager was hands-on, checked the project daily, and was an excellent communicator. He kept the project on schedule. We lived in the house during the renovation and the construction zone was kept orderly.
Pat S.Main-Floor Renovation with Full Kitchen Remodel
An Older Home, Handled
With an older home we anticipated hiccups and additional costs, but the team at Icon handled and solved any difficulties along the way. Our kitchen went from old, dark and dated to elegant, sophisticated and inviting.
Suzy EvansHistoric-Home Kitchen Remodel

Best of Houzz, eight consecutive years · 4.9★ across 69 reviews →

And the part that brings us the most pride —
No Contract · No Invoice · No Project

The most valuable thing we give awaysometimes costs us the job.

Where to put the money. When to wait. Whether the project even makes sense. Icon will walk your home and give you that guidance whether or not a project ever follows — because looking out for the people whose paths we cross was never supposed to depend on winning the job. Some of the people below never hired us. All of them were served.

They met with us several times as we met with our architect, to make sure we weren't getting outrageous with our design ideas. When the comps changed and the project no longer made sense, they were realistic with us — they didn't push us into an investment that didn't make sense. We never felt pressured. I'd recommend them to anyone thinking of remodeling.
Florence Q.Months of design guidance · No contract, no invoice — by Icon's own advice
We met with the Icon team, loved them — but the timing wasn't right for us. Two years later, when we were finally ready, they took us to coffee. No contract. No pressure. Just to share what had changed in the market. I will never not call Icon first again.
A homeowner in Winnetka, ILFirst conversation 2022 · Started their Icon remodel 2024
Read all client stories →
Who We Are

Process-driven. Quality-obsessed. White-glove Service.

↓Reviews from people we’ve served

Icon is a white-glove, high-end design + build firm — and high-end, here, is earned in the work. It lives in the process, the craft, and the thousand quiet decisions that determine whether a remodel still feels right ten years on — not in the flash some firms charge for without building behind it. Our work begins with education — and the largest, most complex projects in this market are where it shows. We won’t trade thoroughness for an unrealistic timeline or a chased dollar, and we’ll always guide you toward what earns its keep, for as long as you own the home. Founded in 2008 by Charlie and Jenny Murphy — with the next generation, Jeremy Murphy, now building alongside them.

"Anyone can install a kitchen. The experience around it — and whether it’s still right ten years on — is the whole job. That’s what we’re built for."

— Jeremy Murphy Next generation · Icon Building Group · Est. 2008
Meet the full team →
The Icon Story · press play
Charlie & Jenny Murphy · Founded 2008
Letters from the Murphy family · IBG leadership June 2026 · A letter from Jeremy

A new letter, on a familiar subject.

When my parents — Charlie and Jenny — opened Icon’s doors in 2008, they made the decision that the relationship would be the thing we measured everything else against. Eighteen years and hundreds of homes later, that decision still holds. So does the family. So does the conviction.

I’m Jeremy, the next generation of that family. As we grow, the one thing that won’t change is the one that started it: when the call comes from a client at year ten, it’s answered by someone who knows you and your home. Not a call center. Not a coordinator. The team my parents built.

— Jeremy MurphyNext generation · Est. 2008
All letters →
From the Journal

Projects, process, andthinking from the field.

Cost Guide · 2026

What a high-end remodel actually costs in 2026.

A candid look at where the dollars really go on a remodel — from demolition through final clean.

Read →
Process

How the Compass's seven phases reduce your risk.

Why we anchor pre-construction in fixed-price certainty — and what that means for your remodel.

Read →
Jenny's Hot Tips · Expert Analysis

Hundreds of remodels, distilled: the selections that quietly matter most.

Since 2008, our team has guided hundreds of families through design-build remodeling. Jenny shares the design and selection decisions that quietly define how every Icon remodel feels.

Read Jenny's Hot Tips →
Trade Partners · Architects · Realtors

Built on the best relationships with the highest quality partners in the region.

Our trade partners, architects, and realtors are held to the same standard we hold ourselves — and treated with the same respect we give clients. That’s why the best ones keep choosing to work on Icon projects.

01For Trade PartnersStandards, billing, jobsite, partnership → 02For RealtorsReferral program & registration → 03For ArchitectsCollaboration framework & market view →