On the coldest and windiest day so far of the winter, we had a warm, fun conversation with interior designer Anne McDonald, who Architectural Digest named one of the New American Voices in 2024. Anne's sharp eye leans feminine and classic, which makes her personal hobby outside of interior design the perfect contradiction. We had a blast talking to Anne and we know you'll be inspired by her.
Tell us your story! How did you get started in design?
Design was always a part of my life. My dad was a high school art history teacher when I was really little, then he decided he didn't like teaching and began building homes. That's how I grew up, running around job sites with him and doing all sorts of odd jobs. Work ethic has always been a big deal for our family. I got to know homes from a very construction-related background, but also through the eyes of an artist because, ultimately, that's what my dad is. I come from a long line of artists; my grandpa was an artist, too. We've got sculptors, painters, and woodworkers, too, so I grew up with a cool combination of execution (building houses) and also art. I was always set up to do something, and I definitely have the creative gene.
I ultimately went to college for something totally unrelated and realized it wasn't something I wanted to spend all my days doing. I got a side job working for a colorist in Minneapolis. She was the go-to person in her time for historical color. It was so cool to work with her and get way out of the box in terms of how I grew up (with a craftsperson's perspective) and all of a sudden being dumped into paint color, which is just purely through an artist's lens. I really went to school with her around historic color and fell head-over-heels with it.
She recognized I had a gift and suggested I go take a few interior design courses and gain some basic knowledge, so then I took some courses at the Art Institutes International in downtown Minneapolis. I took a drafting course, color theory, and basic design 101 classes. I just really took to it, I loved drafting, I loved taking everything that was running around in my brain and putting it to paper and executing it.
Interior Designer: Anne McDonald | Stylist: Liz Gardner | Photographer: Tim Lenz
How would you describe your design style?
This is the hardest question! Words I often use are warmth, grounded, rooted, anchored. There's a certain eclecticism to my design because I do adhere to classical principles. There's something very classical and traditional about some of my designs, but I have a little bit of an irreverence. I like mixing it up and putting a fabric on a classic sofa shape that might feel like, oh, I wouldn't have thought of putting that there.
Congratulations on landing the cover of the Mpls.St.Paul Home & Design issue! Can you tell us about that experience and what it means to you to be featured?
That project was really such a dream. I was with my clients when they were house shopping and I didn't think they were looking for that sort of thing, and then we got there and they fell in love and decided to buy the 10,000-square, foot very important home on Summit Avenue in St. Paul. It was a pretty extensive project in terms of scope and years; it took awhile. Kelly, the editor at Mpls.St.Paul H&D knew about the project and loved it, too, and this summer I got word she wanted to include it in the H&D 100 issue. Shortly after that I learned it would make the cover. When I actually got the magazine and saw the cover, it was surreal.
Interior Designer: Anne McDonald | Photographer: Haris Kenjar
You say in the article featuring you about being awarded the 2024 Architectural Digest New American Voice Award that every project starts in the kitchen for you. Can you elaborate on that? What about the kitchen speaks to the rest of the home?
That has a lot to do with my background in construction design. For the first part of my career, I was in kitchen bath design. I worked for my father's company as an in-house designer, so I never did furniture before going out on my own as an interior designer in 2018. That was the first year I was like, what do I do with a sofa? It was a huge learning curve. Before that I did construction design, so if you did remodeling you'd have me help with tile and kitchen layout. I designed all of it, and I did a lot of kitchen design. This gave me a crazy opportunity to design hundreds of kitchens, but also bathrooms and different spaces. For me, I always started in the kitchen; it just felt like the natural place. There are so many elements in the kitchen: millwork and cabinetry; hard surface or countertop; brass or polished nickel or chrome. This really sets the vibe of the house. It's a precedent. I think about that now very much in projects. I think, where do I set precedent in the house? I start there and then move to the rest of the house.
What is your favorite room in the house to design?
I don't think I have a favorite room to design. It is so dependent upon the home. I work on many old homes, so maybe there's a really special fireplace in a living room and maybe it has neoclassical elements to it, then I am going to riff off of that completely. I take the existing architectural features and that's really exciting to me, whether I'm creating them and leaning into them in a kitchen or I'm starting with something that's already there.
Interior Designer: Anne McDonald | Stylist: Liz Gardner | Photographer: Taylor Hall O'Brien
Let's talk about rugs! How do you go about choosing a rug for a design? Do you start with the rug or add it after the design is complete?
It's different every time, but I have actually never started with a rug. I'm always going to do a mix of vintage, like a Moroccan or a Mahal, and then a couple new rugs as well, maybe a silk low-pile or a new production. When I start I kind of have those ideas swirling around in my head, and once the room starts to develop I see a pieces of furniture or pieces of fabric or the fireplace mantel and I think, this room wants a gigantic green and gold vintage Mahal or something really special and that's going to anchor the whole room, and I design from there. Other times it's like, oh this room wants a completely bombastic floral sofa. I'm not necessarily a more is more person so in the case of a floral sofa, I'll scale back the rug. I choose the hero first, and sometimes the rug is the hero.
What is a rule you find yourself breaking?
I actually think the rule I break is this idea is that there are no rules in design. I do think there are rules. Any art has some level of bumpers, barriers, or boundaries, and we push those boundaries, but I come back to these classical principals of proportion, tension, and color theory -- these things that are tried and true in all versions of design (graphic design, fine art, architecture, interior design, etc.). There's so much flexibility if you're rooted in the principals, and then the sky's the limit.
Interior Designer: Anne McDonald | Stylist: Liz Gardner | Photographer: Tim Lenz
What is your favorite space you have ever designed?
I tend to gravitate personally toward things that have a strong femininity to them, like you can see on the homepage on my website. That room feels so feminine to me. What you can't quite tell from the photo is that the Roman shades on the windows are a really fine stripe in blush and cream with a little blue stripe in between, and they're done in silk. They're really fine, they have this precious quality to them, very French ultimately, and they're so cool. Any of my stuff I've done, I really lean that direction.
Is there anything about the design industry you wish was different?
Accessibility is a big one for me. I'm working with the 1%, there's just no way around it for the most part. I do think that's where platforms like The Expert have shaken up the industry because it's a way you can access these incredible designers, and you're going to pay a lot of money for an hour session with them, but you can also get a lot done and you're not signing on for the whole project. At the end of the day you still need to have time and extra money and all of those things, and enough extra cash to even care what you're doing to your living room. But home is important to everybody -- that is universal. So I think for this industry that really serves the top 1%, The Expert is a good example of a way that someone has really thought differently about how we can get people to access these designers.
What are your hobbies outside of design?
I'm a lifelong snowboarder! I started when I was 14. It was the mid-90s and I was one of two girls that snowboarded at Highland Hills in Bloomington, Minnesota. Back in the day, it was the stomping grounds for a lot of professional snowboarders. I went on to meet a bunch of friends there. We all moved out to Breckenridge, CO to snowboard, then eventually out to Encinitas, CA to surf, so chasing that Surf Skate Snow life defined my life for years.
My kids snowboard and my husband skis. It's a huge part of our family. In fact, when I met my husband 25 years ago, it was a non-negotiable that whoever I date has to keep up with me on a mountain. He's a great skier. It's been a big part of our family culture and we spend a lot of time skiing out west.
Interior Designer: Anne McDonald | Stylist: Liz Gardner | Photographer: Taylor Hall O'Brien
We loved learning about Anne's style, background, and her snowboarding hobby! Learn more about interior designer Anne McDonald on her website and Instagram.
Featured image at the top of the post was styled by Yedda Morrison and photographed by Laure Joliet
