SHOWHOUSE SPLENDOR

Mary McDonald, the Honorary Chair of the 20th Annual Lake Forest Showhouse & Gardens, reflects on her own showhouse experiences and introduces the designers behind 18 of the Showhouse’s spaces.

“It was like being in dollhouse land!” declares celebrated interior designer Mary McDonald recalling the first time she saw Lake Forest. “I was so impressed by the timeless beauty of the traditional architecture I saw throughout the neighborhoods—especially coming from Los Angeles where so many beautiful old estates are torn down to make way for McMansions. It’s wonderful to see a community that has preserved the integrity of its classic buildings while still moving forward with interior design.

McDonald is delighted to represent the design community as Honorary Chair of the 20th Annual Lake Forest Showhouse & Gardens. “I love Lake Forest. I love my relationship with F. Schumacher & Co. and its Creative Director Dara Caponigro, who first asked me to be part of this event. And I’m honored to support the cause of the Lake Forest Chapter Infant Welfare Society of Chicago.”

Viewing this year’s Showhouse, a limestone Georgian designed in 1895 by Henry Ives Cobb, with landscape architecture by Frederick Law Olmsted, and additional design work by David Adler and his sister Frances Elkins, “my reaction was literally, ‘Where is my room?’” McDonald laughs. “Honestly, I could move right in! I love big grand spaces—the limestone, the walled gardens, all of it. My father is from England, and I love English country houses, which is what Pembroke Lodge immediately made me think of. I’m really a traditionalist and love balance, symmetry, and classicism.”

“I can’t wait to see what each of the designers has done,” she says. “There are so many interesting things people can do that pair nicely with an old canvas like this home”

McDonald relishes the drama and creative fun intrinsic to a designer showhouse. “You have so much freedom to realize your vision and show your best work.” When asked to choose favorites from her showhouse design work, McDonald hesitates. “That is almost like trying to choose a favorite child,” McDonald notes. “They are all so different, and wonderful for different reasons.”

Yet, she does single out two showhouse rooms because her design for one was so unlike the other. “Each seemed to represent a different aspect of my personality,” McDonald explains. One was a bedroom at Veranda magazine’s The Greystone Mansion Showhouse in Beverly Hills. And the other, a Kips Bay Decorator Show House in New York. The Kips Bay room featured a new Schumacher wallpaper “so it was very layered, and kind of collected European,” describes McDonald. “The room was almost a cabinet of curiosities because of the wallpaper. I loved the eccentricity of that and got to layer it with antiques and oddities.”

In contrast, the room she did in Greystone “was very soothing and elegant—the most ‘me’ bedroom I’ve ever done,” says McDonald. “It had chinoiserie wallpaper and a bed treatment in soothing tones of grey and white with elegant details including a French desk and Midcentury lacquered piece.”

A leader in the interior design world, McDonald, who starred in Bravo TV’s Million Dollar Decorators and Property Envy series, is a member of ELLE DÉCOR’s A-List, Veranda’s Top 25, and House Beautiful’s Top 100. Designing lighting, rugs, fabric, trim, furniture, and jewelry, she currently has lines with F. Schumacher & Co., Patterson Flynn, and Chaddock Furniture with new collections that come out every two years.

As such, McDonald is keenly aware of evolutions in the world of interior design and has seen many changes since Rizzoli published her first book, “Mary McDonald: Interiors: The Allure of Style,” in 2010 (McDonald’s second design book, also from Rizzoli, is slated to come out before the end of 2025).

“For several years, the wave of clean minimalism that swept through the design world meant a lot of tonal interiors paired with organic silhouettes and materials that had an element of nature,” says McDonald. “Things like naturally woven wall panels and furniture.”

“But I’m excited that maximalism is having its day right now,” she continues. “There’s an appreciation for pattern on pattern, layer on layer, and oddly collected curiosities. Displays with an almost museum collector quality—so, tablescapes of these collections on top of a mix of patterns.”

While it’s difficult to say which design evolutions have staying power, and which are passing trends, McDonald believes “there is a certain classicism with history that will always be ‘in.’ Things based in flora, and fauna and anything based in nature will always inspire us and be resurgent,” she sums.

But whatever the approach to a building’s interior, “when working with these historic canvases of old homes, it really is important to respect the past while moving forward in the design,” she emphasizes. “We need to work with discernment always remembering, ‘If I tear this out or demolish that, I’m never getting it back.’”

To hear more from McDonald, join the Lake Forest Showhouse & Gardens luncheon on April 28 where she will be the keynote speaker. Dara Caponigro, Editor-in-Chief of design magazine FREDERIC will moderate the talk and sign advance copies of her new book, Glorious Gardens: Private Edens of the World’s Leading Interior Designers, to be released in May. For tickets to the luncheon, the opening night benefit party, or to visit the showhouse, visit lakeforestshowhouse.com.

And now, read on to learn the stories and inspirations behind 18 of the Showhouse’s beautiful spaces from the designers who led this stunning renovation.