Mary McDonald's Ideas for Home Decor

Mega Fabulous Interior Designer: Mary McDonald gives her top 10 home design pointers to Veranda Magazine.  Here's her scoop: 

1.  Arrange a Color-Minded Tablescape

"When you collect these types of things, the mere fact that they’re all in the same color family ties everything together and makes it all fun and interesting.”  McDonald also mentions to have different sized items also is important - so something short, something tall.... to make it flow.

2. Paint a Bold Pattern on Seagrass

I absolutely love how this geometric print has been painted onto a seagrass rug.  She says, "You have to do a bit of homework when you’re going to paint a rug and make sure the pattern’s going to hit where you want it to. If you do it right, it’ll really add a lot to the room. Just make sure you’re using natural fibers — seagrass, sisal, jute. You can’t really paint on wool or acrylic, because it won’t take.”

3. Use Decorative Painting

With painting murals she says, "this is something you can do with any silhouette you like. It could be a tree or a big flower, and you can blow it up to any size you want. This kind of thing is perfect for kids’ rooms and guest rooms, maybe a cute breakfast room. This is a silly guest room, so it’s meant to be too much.”

4. Make a Four Panel Bed

I absolutely love this idea and have seen it also done in Domino Magazine and it makes the room look so rich.  McDonald says here, “Attaching a valance to the ceiling is a little trick I use when people don’t have a four-poster bed and the ceiling isn’t super-high. The panels you see here are mounted to the ceiling, so gravity is the frame. And if your ceiling isn’t extremely high, the effect will be perfect — it will make the room feel much taller.”

5. Create a Hexagonal Table

This hexagonal table through me off a bit, but I do like it a lot.  Its very unexpected and its a detail many people would miss.  Mary says, “If you’ve got a lot of empty space, you can have an octagonal top cut and put it on a table before you cover it. That will create a lot more contemporary interest, even if you’re using a traditional cover. You can even have the cover pleated at the corners to make it super-tailored.”

6. Add an Assymetrical Touch

Here Mary says, "“I always like to pair very symmetrical elements with something that’s asymmetrical, because the symmetry cleans up the asymmetrical parts and keeps them from getting too crazy."

7. Add Pizzazz to a Wooden Floor

This bathoom has been around the blog world for quite some time, and its stunning.   Here she states, “In this master bath the wood floor was originally pretty boring. I knew I wanted something more, so I had it painted in zigzags because I thought it felt fun and now and current. To tie the floors in with all of the marble, I looked at the different light grays in the stone and picked out this one nice shade of almost blue-gray.”

8. Pair Bold Patterns

The patterns in this room really balance each other out.  Its brilliant with hint of acid green.  "This is a bedroom in a pretty formal Tudor house, but it’s a lot of fun. The homeowner wanted something really bright, so I picked out those shades of red and coral. What’s important is to have the exact same weight of the colors and patterns on the bed and the wallpaper, so that even though they’re super–strong and heavy, the fact that they’re both super–strong and heavy — and one doesn’t seem wimpy in comparison — makes them balance each other out.” says Mary.

9. Squeeze in a Window Seat

This is a fantastic breakfast nook and the zig zig print jus makes me sooooo in love! Here she discusses the window seat, " “I built that window seat where there used to be a balcony to make a banquette nook in the kitchen. If you have a balcony or just a little extra space, you should always try to add a window seat where you hadn’t necessarily thought of it — even in your bedroom, if you have a little niche.It brings a nice feeling to any place where you’re going to want to sit and get cozy.”

10. Reveal Raw Stone and Metal

“Those are actually the original stone stairs in that house. They’d been painted over, so I had them stripped. I even had that railing stripped too. You should always think about stripping things down to find out what the original material is. A lot of the time it’ll be something that really gives the room a sense of patina and age.”

See it all HERE