Ep. 221: designer Lilse McKenna

How to Decorate

Ballard Designs

Arts, Business, Design

4.2 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2021

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Our guest today is interior designer Lilse McKenna. Before starting her own firm, she worked with designers Markham Roberts and Lindsey Coral Harper and drew inspiration from their styles. She has since had her work featured in House Beautiful, The Wallstreet Journal, Real Simple, and more. Her signature style is rooted in tradition yet layered with colors, textures, and patterns. We talk about how she uses layers, where she searches for killer fabrics, her best budget buys, and more! What You’ll Hear on This Episode: Why Lilse wants your interior to make you “think”. How did Lilse get started? What does Lilse love about fabrics? Tips for the pattern people and non-pattern people. What are Lilse’s rules for sconces, wall art… and mattress heights? What are Lilse’s thoughts on the “Grandmillennial” style? Are vertical line patterns in wallpaper a new trend? Where does Lilse like to save vs. splurge on items? Decorating Dilemma Hi Melissa, I like the Pinterest example you showed with the custom shower curtain that was especially long, hung close to the ceiling, and almost to the floor. You may have to custom make it, but I would get an ivory linen with a narrow contrast banding on all 4 sides that pulls from the colors of the wallpaper. This will make sort of a fabric wall and make it look less “bathroomy”. You could even have the shower curtain made with pinch pleats or grommets to make it look more like a curtain. Good luck! We are very invested in your shower curtain so show us after photos! Mentioned in This Episode: Lilse McKenna Lilse McKenna on Instagram Etsy

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.
0:08.7	Each week will help you unleash your inner decorator.
0:11.6	I'm Caroline, and I'm on the marketing team.
0:13.7	And I'm Taryn, and I'm a product designer.
0:15.8	And I'm Liz.
0:16.5	I head up the Ballard Creative Team.
0:18.2	We're your host. Join the expert team at Ballard Designs
0:21.6	for tips, tricks, and tales from interior designers, stylists, and other talents in the design world.
0:25.9	Plus, we'll answer our listener question at the end of each show. So don't forget to send them to
0:30.0	podcast at Ballarddesigns.net. Yes, we love answering them. Now on with the show.
0:35.7	Okay, so our guest today is Connecticut-based interior designer Lills McKenna.
0:41.1	Before starting her own firm, she worked with designers Markham Roberts and Lindsay Coral Harper
0:45.5	and has since had her work featured in House Beautiful, the Wall Street Journal,
0:49.3	Real Simple Magazine, and more.
0:51.4	And like her mentors, her styles layered and rooted in tradition, lots of color,
0:56.4	lots of texture. Thanks for joining us. I mean, thank you guys so much for having me. This is
1:01.8	exciting. Is that how you describe yourself? Yeah, definitely. I think it's a lot of layers, a lot of
1:07.8	pattern, a lot of textures. I definitely am drawn towards a room that has
1:14.1	a lot of different elements that make you think. Maybe different elements that you wouldn't
1:19.5	expect to be together. And that kind of makes you think. And that's certainly what I loved about.
1:24.7	Markham's work and Lindsay's work and how I ended up working for them
1:28.5	and learning from them. I just, I've never heard, I don't think any designer has ever responded
	...

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