When designer Meg Lonergan and her husband Tim were house hunting in Houston's Montrose neighborhood, they were thrilled to come across a 100-year-old, 2,500-square-foot Craftsman-style home that needed little maintenance. Read their story to see how the designer transformed the modest Craftsman-style home into a colorful testing ground for the latest decorating ideas.
Finding a home
At the time, Meg and Tim had their hands full raising their young son, Julian, and 8-month-old daughter, Margot. “We weren't going to sign on to a project that would be financially devastating,” she says. So they rewired and replumbed the house, painted it inside and out, and refinished the floors, and moved in. That's when interior designer Lonergan got to work creating a sophisticated yet cozy home enlivened with unexpected details.
The bright front entrance (Drawing Room Blue, No. 253, us.farrow-ball.com) hints at the bold ideas inside.
Design Experiments
A native of Louisiana, Lonergan moved around Chicago, Singapore, Paris and Colorado during her childhood, and is known for her deft mix of high-end, traditional and really inexpensive furniture. In fact, her eye for thrift-store finds can make even the most demure person swoon with envy. In her own home, she let her inventive talents run wild. “My home is my laboratory. I like to experiment and play around with stuff,” she says. She says the space is less than ideal, with her daughter's bedroom being small and her son's bedroom doubling as a guest room, but she didn't compromise when it came to decor. She paid attention to every surface, from wallpapered ceilings to custom-edged rugs, and included touches big and small in each room. “My goal with interiors is that when you leave a room that I've designed, you don't remember anything specific, you just remember that the room was beautiful,” she says.
Lonergan transformed the front porch into an outdoor room, complete with painted floors and English Colonial-style furniture.
Treasure Hunt
Lonergan is a frequent visitor to Houston thrift stores and the Original Round Top Antiques Fair, a massive twice-yearly Texas trade show where she scours the area for everything from big-name vintage pieces to regular old items that others would call junk. She uses the money she saves to refinish or reupholster her finds, especially if she's already decided on a particular fabric (and she usually is). “When I want to use a premium material, I wait until I find the right chair so the total cost doesn't get out of hand,” she says.
That's exactly what Lonergan did. She sourced a modern pink-and-red geometric fabric by Muriel Brandolini and waited until she found the right inexpensive chairs at a thrift store. Now the transformed chairs sit on either side of the entryway table, which also holds her collection of ginger jars, and serve as a cozy nook for her daughter's dollhouses.
Listen to Mom
“I like everything to be imperfect. I don't do that for my clients, but I like rooms in my own home to be a little imperfect, so I chose a different green for the chairs in the living room than the sofa,” says Lonergan. This gives the space personality and keeps it from feeling sterile, like a showroom or hotel. “If everything matched or perfect, it would lose its soul,” she says.
Inspired by legendary style icon Lee Radziwill's oft-photographed sofa (upholstered in a battered Scalamandre tiger-print silk velvet), Lonergan purchased a classic sofa for her living room and covered it in a similarly lavish and vibrant way. She, too, intends to wear her own sofa to the point of falling apart.
Mixing things up
Part of the rich, luxurious feel of Lonergan's rooms comes from the way she layers all kinds of patterns and textures: a single room might feature rough wool, plush velvet, rough sisal, and woods in various finishes. Some patterns are bold, but even smaller, more subtle ones become much more interesting when combined side by side, and often in similar shades.
The breakfast nook's unique light fixture was a former cupola that the designer found and wired in an antiques store in Charleston, South Carolina. Lonergan complemented the cupola's shape with a round jute rug (Flanagan Brown Area Rug, wayfair.com).
Let go of perfection
A complete kitchen renovation wasn't in the Lonergans' plan. Instead, she added fun to her functional kitchen with little decorative touches. Chalkboard paint under the island keeps the kids occupied and close by when the family is in the kitchen. Two windows have single bamboo shades hung straight up instead of two, keeping the wall of cabinets from looking too cluttered. A Louisiana native, Lonergan shows off her roots and collecting habits with oyster plates on the staircase wall.
Choose decorations
Because sofas can be expensive and subject to rough handling by kids, the designer constructed a family room sectional sofa using three modular pieces (plus armrests) from IKEA's Söderhamn collection and covered them in a variety of cushions. The sectional's cushions were found at online retailers in Turkey and from a variety of vendors on Etsy (see spilledpaintdesign.etsy.com) and feature a variety of textiles from around the world, including kilim, indigo batik and mud cloth. “I try to find things that are unique, things that not all my friends have,” Lonergan says.
Create a custom look with just a few adjustments
Although she has some furniture that is completely custom, such as the round white coffee table in the living room, she likes to “customize” basic furniture with special accents: To visually tie in the living room's seagrass rug and curtains, she added eggplant-colored trim to the rug (many vendors offer the option to choose your own trim).
A wallpapered ceiling adds more interest. Here, Graffito (kellywearstler.com) adds a touch of gold sparkle and a modern feel to the family room.
A mix of high-end and budget items
“I like to mix precious and non-precious things: “We have a gorgeous Louis Philippe buffet de corps in the family room, and a raw table with peeling, flaking paint next to the sectional sofa,” says Lonergan. In addition to mixing furniture, she also puts inexpensive rugs under expensive furniture and hangs authentic works of art next to mass-produced pieces or pieces made by her children. Antique furniture from different eras works together as the living room's bar.
Getting creative with everyday items
The TV, hidden behind a black “mat,” sits in a vintage frame purchased at the Round Top Antiques Fair.
Dig up a valuable old cache
Lonergan encourages her clients to use things they already have, not just to save money but to make the space unique. Instead of buying ready-made, look at objects and think about how you can reuse them, perhaps creating something unique, like the placement of the mirrors in the powder room, where she installed two vintage mirrors instead of mass-produced pieces. She also decided to paint the floors navy instead of laying new tile.
Embrace color
The designer's home is filled with hues of green, pink, blue, purple and gold, and she's a big advocate of using colour rather than sticking to neutrals. “Everyone's scared of colour. They say, 'Let's have neutral colours. Let's have solid colours. I don't want to do colour. What if I get bored of it?' But with neutrals, I get bored of it because it looks boring!” she says. To create a sense of unity, she sticks to muted tones with mostly matte finishes.
Playing it safe doesn't have to be boring
Wary of a contemporary decorating scheme that might quickly feel outdated, Lonergan opted to style the master bathroom (the only one to be fully remodeled) in a style that could be mistaken for the original: She used unlacquered brass fixtures that retained a patina, hung an antique French bistro mirror, and installed custom cabinetry that feels sturdy and like furniture.
Remember that your child's belongings don't have to be plastic
The sophistication and robustness of the Lonergans' furniture isn't limited to the “grown-up” spaces. Her daughter Margot (now 4) sleeps in an antique French bed, and her son Julien (now 6) stores his clothes in antique French armoires. The armoires were originally glass-fronted but are now mirrored (they also function as mirrors and conceal the contents of the armoire). These timeless pieces add flair to the rooms and, unlike typical children's furniture, won't need to be replaced as the kids grow up. Floor-to-ceiling curtains with floral trim soften the shingle walls of Margot's room, which was originally a porch.
Following a pattern
Layers of striped patterns — Peter Fasano's Angelina print paper on the walls, Albert Hadley's Fireworks wallpaper on the ceiling, Peter Dunham curtains, pillows, dust skirt and a Restoration Hardware rug — give her son's room, which doubles as a guest room, a playful yet sophisticated feel.
