Designer Story: The Storied Interiors of Lindsay MacRae

 

I have a great Designer Story for you today. Before we get into it, I have a little backstory as to how I found today’s feature designer.

 

How Do You Want to FEEL in Your Forever Home?

 

Let me ask you — have you ever thought, I mean *really thought and committed to paper* about how you want to FEEL in your Forever Home?

Determining how you want to FEEL is imperative to creating a home that becomes that extension of you and your family’s history as you make your memories. It is your North Star, your guiding principle.

Some people want to feel creative & energized, others want to be cocooned in serenity, and still others want to see layers and stories everywhere they look. I wanted my own 1790 farmhouse to feel:

• Inviting
• Fresh-Classic, and above all,
• Charming.

These words were my compass points as I set out to decorate my Forever Home over an extended period of time.

It’s the same exercise I go through when designing for clients. We really drill down into their vision of how they and their families want to FEEL in their homes.  Only once we’ve determined that feeling do we then develop the aesthetic that will create & support it.

 

To that end, participants in Home Glow’s “Sheltering in Your Forever Home” Challenge (You can still join for a chance to win a FREE consult!) were tasked this week with coming up with 3 descriptive ideas about how they wanted their homes to feel for their families.

To help illustrate the exercise, I posted some lesser-known house tours to the private Facebook Group to give participants an idea of how those “ideas of feeling” can lead to aesthetics … and how then those aesthetics impart a true identity of home to the family living there.

In doing so, I came across a designer that was entirely new to me: Lindsay MacRae.

 

The Storied Interiors of Lindsay MacRae

 

Though I’ve never met Lindsay, we share a couple of things in common (besides an obsession with design) —  Cincinnati & Disney World. Lindsay is a native of Ohio (now resident of NYC’s Upper West Side) and went to U. Cincinnati, and Cincinnati is where both of my parents grew up and all of my extended family live! Lindsay’s taste for interiors was developed during a college internship in the Disney World’s Imagineering department, which is responsible for the park’s aesthetic. My father-in-law was an executive at Disney World and my husband basically grew up at the Magic Kingdom, being a kid in the parades, a pirate at the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, a hat embroiderer, and a valet at the hotels.  

 

Her most recent project — a 1920s home in Scarsdale, NY — is what caught my eye.

It struck me as Stylish, Fresh, but yet Serene.

 

 

I love a formal dining room, and this one apparently gets heavy use during family gatherings. Gorgeous “brown furniture” mixed with fresh new chairs with a little red trim. The same wallpaper had hung in the family’s dining room in their previous home, and they loved it so much, Lindsay found the last few rolls of this discontinued colorway.

 

 

 

Fresh classic ceiling lantern mixed with a vintage demi-lune sideboard and a Bunny Williams Home Brushstroke Lamp.

 

 

I have a crush on colorful kitchen pendants.

Lindsay felt that gutting the kitchen would have been a waste of money. Instead, she removed some overly heavy millwork, replaced the backsplash, painted the cabinets, and brought in new lighting and fabrics. I wish I could see the “before!”

 

 

Her use of pattern with space in between for the eye to rest allows spaces to be interesting and yet calm.

 

 

 

Mint green and coral pink is one of my favorite color combinations! I used it in my own dining room.

 

 

A cozy nook with a custom upholstered niche under some stairs.

 

 

 

 

 

All images via New York Cottages & Gardens

 

Says Lindsay, “I like pieces that have special meaning to the homeowner…. Those are the touches that make clients smile.” 

There’s a lot more storied style in her portfolio. You should definitely check it. out.

 

 

What Shelter Challenge Participants Learned

 

Most of our Challengers had not gone through this exercise before, and it helped them gain a lot of clarity! Some of the types of “feelings” they are seeking for their own homes:

 

“Happy/fun– because I have 3 teenage boys and I want them and their friends to feel welcome here, as well as our family and friends.”

“Interesting (collected, layered with beautiful things, filled with meaning and history — hard, since sometimes the things with meaning aren’t beautiful or interesting. Also, I love things from around the globe but don’t feel I can pull off the eclectic look).”

“I want our home to be a place of calm (five kids! Lol) and place of peace… a respite from the world. I want this for all who enter, but especially for my husband as his work can be very stressful. I know that our aesthetic environments play a role in creating that and I want to achieve it!”

“Fresh!! I want things to feel new, clean and fresh.”

“Casually sophisticated with industrialized edge style for entertaining happy hours and dinner parties with friends.”

“I would like for our home to offer a ‘soft landing’ for our family and our friends. I want those we love to feel welcome and comfortable here.”

“CASUAL ELEGANCE, I love beautiful things.”

 

What FEELING do you crave in your Forever Home? Let us know in the comments. Do you feel that you have been able to achieve that feeling, or is something holding you back?

 

Our final Challenge task will be posted to the Facebook group on Sunday, with the winner of a FREE 30-minute consult via email drawn at random from the entries a week from today. Join us!

See you next Saturday!

-Amy