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How to Decorate

Ep. 193: Houston week designer Meg Lonergan

How to Decorate

Ballard Designs

Arts, Business, Design

4.2 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2021

⏱️ 64 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s the final day of Houston week, and we close it out with Meg Lonergan, Founder and Principal Designer of Meg Lonergan Interiors. Since founding her firm in 2009, Meg has become one of Houston’s most in-demand designers. She talks with us about mixing classic with contemporary, how to balance investing in nice pieces while still knowing that we change our tastes and minds over the years, and get a behind-the-scenes look from her work featured on HGTV and Southern Living. Meg also has some great ideas for helping children appreciate the finer things in their home while creating an environment that welcomes play and comfortability. What You’ll Hear on This Episode: Meg is originally from South Louisiana, but she has lived all over the world and this is a huge influence on her style and open mind when it comes to working with clients. Don’t let a bold sofa scare you! Meg shares some of her ideas for working with bright and vibrant colors. Meg’s own home is filled with funky patterns and textures, and she loves the surprise element of design. It’s okay for your house to evolve over the years. Try to plan ahead and stay flexible, but know that things such as toy storage are more temporary. The importance of teaching children to be around nice things, even if there is a major spill every now and then. How she incorporated color with the HGTV home. Why Meg believes designers should push their clients to think outside the box - if you aren’t a little scared every now and then your designer isn’t doing it right! Meg’s experience working with dark, moody colors for the bedroom. Ideas for mixing your taste with the design of the home, and what to do when they are vastly different. Decorating Dilemma Hello! Thank you for writing in. First, we would suggest painting your cabinets a cool color. We agree that it would make it feel charming and English! Meg thinks you should do an oval or round breakfast table, and lighting is very important. We aren’t feeling the dark grout. Next, check out Ballards Seagrass rug, and layer a small rug on top to maximize your space. Even though we mention off-center art, we wouldn’t do anything off-center for your built-in. It’s all about creating a warm ambiance here, and two cabinets painted white like the trim on the house with some pretty hardware could add a nice touch. For your entryway, a console table with lamps would be nice. Under the console table, you could put some storage cubes plus a mirror on the wall for a last-minute look as you head out. Warming up the kitchen will help balance the big navy blue sectional couch. We heard that you like Jonathan Adler, and adding a pop of saturated color even by adding pillows or art can add that special funky touch. You have your work cut out for you, but we believe in you and are glad you reached out! Mentioned in This Episode: Meg Lonergan HGTV Farrow & Ball - Studio Green Southern Living Suzanne Kasler @meglonerganinteriors

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to How to Decorate from Ballard Designs, a podcast all about the trials and triumphs of decorating and redecorating your home.

0:07.7

Each week, they'll help you unleash your inner decorator.

0:10.6

I'm Caroline. I write the How to Decorate blog.

0:12.7

And I'm Taryn, and I'm a product designer.

0:14.6

And I'm Karen. I head up Ballard's branding team.

0:17.0

We're your host. Join the expert team at Ballard Designs for tips, tricks, and tales from

0:21.4

interior designers, stylists, and other talents in the design world. Plus, we'll answer a listener

0:26.4

question at the end of the show. So don't forget to send them to podcast at Ballarddesigns.net.

0:30.9

I guess we love answering them. And now on with the show. All right, so our guest today,

0:36.2

day five of Houston Week, our final day. We're so

0:39.2

excited to open our new River Oak store in the Houston area. And today we're going to chat with Meg

0:44.3

Lonergan of Meg Lonnergan interiors. She founded her firm in 2009. And you're originally from

0:51.0

South Louisiana, but you've lived all over the world, Singapore, New Zealand,

1:00.8

France, and that has certainly influenced your style. You're all about mixing old and new flea market finds with fine antiques, classic with inventive, although I guess I could say

1:08.7

classic and vintage. And you love to use some colors. So we're

1:12.8

excited to chat with you and thanks for joining this. Well, thank you for having me and for inviting

1:16.9

me. This is exciting. Yeah. So I just, I really enjoyed looking through your portfolio and I

1:21.7

especially love seeing, I always get the biggest thrill from seeing designers own houses. I think that

1:27.1

you can learn like twice as much from their own house than their clients just

1:32.7

because you are then expressing yourself.

1:35.1

And like what a hard, you know, I know that designers always talk about how their own house

1:39.6

was like the hardest project they ever had.

...

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