Elements of Style

(from an article in Atlanta Magazine.  January 1998)

...Tricia McLean goes for color.  A client once told McLean that she had the "ability to carry colors in her head".

McLean, who founded Patricia McLean Interiors in 1985, is very color-conscious.  "There are no ugly colors." McLean asserts, "Just bad combinations."  Searching out good combinations is something McLean enjoys.  She's developed a fine appreciation for antiques, a skill that's well-suited to the current design trend of mixing and matching items from different time periods.  In the past few months she's attended the Decorex design show in London and the Antique Textile Fair at Battersea Park, scavenged the Bermondsey Market and traveled to an antiques show in Birmingham, AL.  McLean noticed bright colors everywhere in Europe and, given that trends in the U.S. often follow those in Europe, she predicts a bright-color resurgence here.

Her European finds have included some "really unusual" tole lamps, which McLean describes as made in the traditional tole manner but with a more contemporary look.  "Tole lamps are always hand-painted and usually feature flowers, a kind of Directoire look," McLean explains.  "Instead of the usual swags and jabots, some had a leopard-skin motif and others had gold and white stripes." On a trip to Paris, McLean also scooped up some papier mache plates whose patterns perfectly matched that of a pair of spill vases she's bought in Birmingham.  At Decorex, she noticed quite a bit of crewel work on display and predicts a comeback.

While McLean loves antiques, she recognizes the importance of new pieces, too.  She uses reproductions, and works with a custom furniture maker to reproduce pieces she may have spied on her trips.  One is a table McLean has nicknamed the "stairstep table".  She spotted the piece that inspired it in a Paris shop window.  "It looks like a set of library steps," McLean describes.  "It can be custom-made to any height, width or depth.  With three surfaces, it's a perfect bedside table-it allows space for clocks, lamps, books and odds and ends."

Technology is driving some of the new pieces McLean has crafted.  She is receiving requests for custom armoires and entertainment centers, as well as custom computer desks.  "They can be made to look like any piece from any period," she says.  "We can paint them for a French look or use fine wood and stain it for an American feel.  We can even add faux inlay.  And we can fit the piece to any wall.  We just made one to fit a corner."

McLean is not shy about using whatever materials she feels are right for a job.  She recently created custom-made, box-pleated seat coverings with French ties from prewashed painter's drop cloths from Home Depot.  "The key to good decorating," she says, "is bringing together a pleasant, balanced blend of colors and textures."

That belief, plus her enthusiasm for color, leads to another of McLean's passions: window treatments, or, as she calls it, "the art of window dressing."  Window treatments set the tone of the room - a new setting can completely change the look of a window treatment, and a window treatment can completely change the look of a new room.  McLean loves to use trimmings such as passementerie.  "The finishing details play such an important role," she notes.  "Trim is a luxury, but it's what pulls everything together."

Even the drapery poles don't escape her eye.  McLean often uses treatments to get the pole to match a room's millwork, using a white French glaze, for example, to give an aged look.