‘Million Dollar Decorator’ Mary Mcdonald
Even before she was known for high style — and high drama — on BRAVO’s “Million Dollar Decorators,” Mary McDonald was recognized as a top designer by House Beautiful and Veranda magazines, famous for her glamorously multilayered spaces.
“I love everything, I just don’t love everything all together,” said McDonald of her aesthetic during a recent visit to Houston for a panel at the Decorative Center.
Now, on the heels of launching her first collection of fabrics and trims with Schumacher, as well as a rug line with Patterson, Flynn & Martin, we asked the Los Angeles-based interior designer and TV star to share a few of her decorating tips.
There are two things that inspire me: Things that are flowery and things that are Chinoiserie-esque. Our textiles have patterns that are seen quite often in Chinese Chippendale furniture. You’ll also notice geometrics, especially super-scale geometrics, which are still hot and current, paired with Chinoiserie floral and Chinoiserie fretwork that you would find in many patterns in the 18th century. So those three things together, I made it so ... It’s very user-friendly, but it looks like something I would have to custom design and go to different fabric houses to accomplish.
I try not to be trendy about it. Geometric design has been around for hundreds of years, it’s nothing new. Something I’ve done is I super-scaled it, so we’re not dealing with a small-scale, busy pattern. The central design, lots of the geometrics, are based on are 18 to 24 inches; it leaves a lot of negative space so the eye doesn’t get caught up in something that’s busy. Either go really small, so small that it’s not busy because it’s even, or super big because something in the middle can lend itself to busyness and trendiness. It’s really how you put it together. If you put everything I made all together it could come off as trendy. It’s like (Coco) Chanel’s “take a piece of jewelry off” idea.
It’s so easy to change at the very least some pillows — just throw out all your throw pillows and add a pop of color. But make sure you don’t do too little or too much. You don’t want to look like you’re a pillow farm. I like to have a pop of color and a neutral with it, so perhaps on your sofa you might do two solids in each corner and then in front of it something that has a pattern, and maybe in the middle a small roll pillow with something that’s just a teeny bit off from the others.
Lighting! Bad lighting makes everybody look bad, and good lighting makes everyone, even if you don’t have the greatest place, look good. First of all: dimmers, dimmers, dimmers. And if you live in an apartment and you don’t want to put dimmers in, go get 15-watt bulbs and put them in when you’re entertaining — it’s like candlelight. You can’t see anything, but it’s all so romantic! Everyone looks
Designer/TV star Mary McDonald recently debuted new lines for Schumacher and Patterson, Flynn & Martin.
so good!
Right now the trend is still moving toward beige, neutral, driftwood, ivory and bone. That’s the trend, but people will never commit to that because color makes you very emotional. This is a fact; it’s why hospitals paint rooms certain colors. So people will always be drawn to colors — it’s part of our psyche.
I love pink. It’s a real hard sell, though. I’m always trying to work pink into couple’s lives. The easiest to use is this very soft shell pink like my (Schumacher) blush conch fabric. There’s a way to ground it with chocolate or taupe or gray, and it’s one of the most complementary colors on people’s skin. I think it was Mario Buatta who used to paint ceilings pink. You didn’t really notice it but it gave off this soft glow.
Items from McDonald’s new collections of fabrics and rugs.
I’ve been coming to Texas for 20 years, and I love Texas style. It’s big! It’s kind of go big or stay home. There are so many different kinds of people in Texas. There are people that are very clean and modern, and others who are more collected and they like very English interiors — which is fun for me because I’m kind of a hoarder like that. I can relate to Texas style because they do like things grand and big. I love that scale of things, plus I think they really respond to the traditional, and that’s really my customer.
sarah.rufca@chron.com