Ep. 446: Santa Fe Style & The Art of Layering with French & French Interiors

How to Decorate

Caroline McDonald

Arts, Business, Design

4.4 • 838 Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We're excited to welcome husband-and-wife design duo Heather and Matt French to the show. Based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, their firm, French & French Interiors, is known for creating luxurious yet livable spaces that are rich in color, pattern, and storytelling. Heather and Matt join Caroline and Liz to discuss their unique journey from careers in natural medicine and building to becoming interior designers. They share how they blend their Southern roots with the distinct architecture of the American Southwest, why they believe in "softening" a harsh landscape with cozy florals, and how they turned their own home into a "designer lab." Quick Decorating Takeaways: Find Your "Keystone" Fabric: Heather anchors her elaborate color palettes with a single multi-colored "keystone" fabric that serves as a roadmap for the entire design scheme. Create a Respite from the Environment: Rather than mimicking harsh outdoor landscapes, Heather and Matt recommend using soft florals and wallpapers to create a cozy indoor respite. Study the Masters: Matt emphasizes that studying design history and legends like Sister Parish can be just as valuable as a formal degree for developing a great eye. What You’ll Hear on This Episode: 00:00 Welcome & Introductions 02:00 From Alabama to Santa Fe: Heather & Matt’s pivot into design 06:00 The "Shelter Magazine Budget": Prioritizing beauty in their first renovation 09:00 The historic Applegate Estate project and respecting Santa Fe style 15:00 Blending Southern traditionalism with Southwest architecture 18:00 Why florals are essential for softening "harsh" environments 26:00 How to build a color palette using a "Keystone Fabric" 30:00 The importance of design books and knowing the industry's history 40:00 Designing their own home as a creative laboratory 46:00 Collaborating with their teenage daughter on a "sunset-themed" room 52:00 Closing notes & where to find French & French Also Mentioned: French & French Interiors | Website Follow them on Instagram: @frenchandfrenchinteriors Designers/Books Mentioned: Sister Parish, Mario Buatta, Kathryn Ireland, Bunny Williams, Furlow Gatewood Shop Ballard Designs Please send in your questions so we can answer them on our next episode! And of course, subscribe to the podcast in Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. You can always check back here to see new episodes, but if you subscribe, it’ll automatically download to your phone. Happy Decorating! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to How to Decorate from Ballard Designs, a weekly podcast all about the trials and triumphs of decorating and redecorating your home.
0:09.1	I'm Caroline. I'm on the marketing team. And I'm Taryn and I'm a product designer. I'm Liz. I head of the creative team.
0:14.8	We're your hosts. Join the expert team at Ballard Designs for tips, tricks, and tales from interior designers, stylists,
0:20.9	and other talents in the design world. Plus, we'll answer your decorating dilemmas at the end of each
0:24.8	episode. We love answering your questions, so don't forget to email us at podcast at balderdesigns.net.
0:30.5	Now on with the show. All right, today we are thrilled to welcome husband and wife design duo, Heather and Matt French.
0:39.1	Heather, the studio's creative director, brings an artist instinct for color, scale, and storytelling.
0:44.2	And Matt is director of construction and product development, bridging creative vision and technical execution.
0:49.5	Turing every project is not only beautiful but built to last.
0:51.8	Together, their Santa Fe-based design firm,
0:54.3	French and French interiors, creates luxurious yet livable rooms for their clients across the
0:59.1	U.S. Heather and Matt, welcome to the show.
1:01.7	Thanks for having us.
1:03.9	I absolutely loved getting to dive into your portfolio because we have really not had many, many designers on the show who
1:14.2	do projects in the Southwest, like a few here and there, of course, but it was just really,
1:21.0	like it transports you into this new world where the colors and the patterns and the
1:27.4	landscape. It just all works together
1:29.1	so beautifully. So I just really had like, it was so fun to get to check out some of your
1:34.4	client projects. Thank you so much. It's a really great and beautiful place to work.
1:41.6	Yeah. Why don't we start there? Why don't you tell us, Bo, I know you're both
1:44.9	originally from the South, so maybe give us a little, you know, primer on how you made it out to Santa Fe and
1:53.5	how you started your design business about 15 years ago. How do we make it to Santa Fe? Well, we had fixed up a little house in southwest Florida where Heather's from. I'm from South Alabama, Fair Hope. And we knew we wanted to go back out west. And we wanted to find somewhere that both of our careers at the time would work. Heather was
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