Layered Luxe

Interior designer Meredith McBrearty’s home office reflects her penchant for taking design risks, as antique, vintage and more modern elements act in harmony. She designed the coffee table in collaboration with Mitchell Yanosky Furniture and named it after her son, Stuart. The chandelier is from the MoMA Design Store.

A serene vignette in the dining room.

To hold up to the wear and tear of this family of five, the sofa in the den off the kitchen features a custom quilted runner crafted from a Perennials outdoor fabric. The hand-painted pillows by Martyn Thompson Studio are from M Naeve in Houston.

The back foyer showcases McBrearty’s most treasured pieces, including an antique gilded corbel purchased on a trip to Scott Antique Markets. The custom ash wood pedestal table is by Skylar Morgan Furniture + Design and the stool is Formations through Jerry Pair.

The dining room is elegant but practical, says McBrearty, who recovered the vintage chairs in vinyl by Joseph Noble for easy cleanups. The designer’s penchant for creativity is evidenced by the sculptural piece above the mantle, which is powder-coated in a pale pink and set against antiqued mirror. The plaster light fixture is by Ironware International via Paul+.

A Meredith Pardue painting—purchased by the couple to celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary—resides above a console designed by McBrearty in collaboration with Mitchell Yanosky Furniture.

This passthrough space was transformed into a library with the addition of bookshelves and a handsome arched opening. Skylar Morgan was commissioned to create a sleek white oak accent wall that serves as a backdrop for the room’s unique mix of furnishings. The curved couch was an eBay find that was given new life with gold velvet from Holland & Sherry and the coffee table, made of waxed oak by Nickey Kehoe in Los Angeles, was inspired by the work of iconic French designer Charlotte Perriand. The ceiling light is from The Urban Electric Co. and features a custom eggplant color. The bronze head and white chair are from R. Hughes.

Unexpected combinations contribute to the charm of this home, including the breakfast room’s circa-1940s chairs from France that sidle up to a modern acrylic base table. Cabinetry by Georgia Cabinets & Millwork, Inc. conceals the fridge and freezer for a seamless look.

McBrearty in her home office. The painting is by Katharina Chapuis through Pryor Fine Art.

The kitchen’s blue-and-white cement tile backsplash captures the family’s youthful spirit.

McBrearty achieved a calming atmosphere in the master bedroom with a soothing palette of creams and pale purple. A collection of mirrors purchased from Paris flea markets hangs above the hand-blocked headboard. A Swedish writing table from Foxglove Antiques that’s paired with a Z chair showcases McBrearty’s talent for effortlessly mixing design genres. Beside lamp, R. Hughes.

Drawn to items with character, the Swedish armoire (purchased from an antique dealer in Dallas) is among McBrearty’s most prized pieces. The womb chair is upholstered in a boiled wool from Holland & Sherry and the leather pillow is Jerry Pair Leather.

In a vestibule just outside the master bedroom, a grasscloth by Schumacher offers a preview of the latter’s color scheme. The abstract painting is by Graham Harmon (through R. Hughes) and hangs above an antique Louis XVI chest.

Packed with personality, McBrearty’s youngest daughter’s bedroom features a fanciful wallpaper by The Pattern Collective and a daybed made from twin headboards that the designer purchased at a consignment shop. The feathered light fixture is from Restoration Hardware and the framed art is by Amanda Stone Talley, an artist whose work McBrearty and husband Lee fell in love with during a trip to New Orleans. But the room’s most treasured piece is the papier-mâché giraffe made by Lee for his daughter when she was born.

Before interior designer Meredith McBrearty began renovations on her charming midcentury cottage that she shares with husband Lee and their three young children, she asked herself a key question that she always poses to her clients at the start of a project: “What do you want your home to feel like?”

While McBrearty’s job affords her access to the finest fabrics and most covetable furnishings, her design philosophy digs deeper, aiming to capture the essence of the homeowners and bring their story to life, rather than just filling a home with pretty things, she says.

For McBrearty, her home is all about family. “I remember thinking, ‘This is going to be the house that my kids grow up in,’” says the designer. “A home is where so many of life’s important moments happen and I wanted to create a fun and fresh backdrop for those memories.”

Her first order of business was to make the compact 1940s layout feel lighter and brighter by stripping the floors, gutting the kitchen, and painting every wall, both inside and out. Next up was filling the home with the things she and her family love—a few “design risks” included.

A graphic blue-and-white cement tile backsplash in the kitchen makes a bold statement, as does whimsical floral wallpaper in her youngest daughter’s bedroom. But McBrearty’s eclectic design style truly shines in her home office. Here, an antelope rug serves as the foundation for a classic Belgian-style sofa, a pair of vintage Milo Baughman chairs and an antique Italian inlaid-bone chair—all capped off with a sweeping chandelier that McBrearty playfully likens to a sombrero. “This room is a good example of how differing styles can actually work very well together,” she says. “I always encourage buying what you love, and then getting somebody who knows what they’re doing to pull it all together and really make it sing.”

Another tip from the seasoned designer, who counts Washington, D.C., powerhouse design firm Solis Betancourt & Sherrill as the stepping stone for her design experience, is to splurge on an antique or two. “You can always count on the enduring appeal of well-loved, well-built furniture that have seen a few, or a hundred, years. Plus, in a home full of children, they’re a solid investment as they’ve already stood up to the test of time,” says McBrearty. A quick glance around her home offers a glimpse of several antiques—from a Swedish armoire in the master bedroom to a French chest in the vestibule—that blend seamlessly into the home’s laid-back luxury aesthetic where modern and classic silhouettes comfortably mingle.

For all of its chic sensibilities, the home at its core revolves around family life, which McBrearty found clever ways to accommodate through textiles. Vinyl chairs in the dining room provide easy cleanup, and a quilted runner crafted from an outdoor fabric acts as a stylish but sensible overlay for the family room sofa. “With kids, sometimes you have to get creative and come up with beautiful ways to conceal real life,” she says.

So while you’re likely to find Legos stacked high on the dining room table or the remnants of an impromptu tea party taken place in the library, the McBreartys’ home is about as picture-perfect a family place as one could imagine.

INTERIOR DESIGN Meredith McBrearty, (202) 390-2912; meredithmcbrearty.com BUILDER Castles & Cottages, (404) 377-9991; castlescottages.com