Home Extension ? Over the Mountain Journal

By Laura McAlister
Journal Editor

Mary Evelyn McKee?s Mountain Brook home was originally built for an extended family, but for the last couple of years it?s been used by empty nesters ??until recently.

The interior decorator and owner of Mary Evelyn Interiors in Homewood has lived in her Mountain

Decorator Mary Evelyn McKee's granddaughter Madelyn is right at home in her new bedroom in Mary Evelyn's Mountain Brook home.

Brook home for about eight years. Her three boys are grown, but one recently brought his family back to Birmingham from California.

Temporarily, the family of three are making their home with Mary Evelyn, and true to her design style, she?s making it one the family will likely want to stay in.

?This house really was built with an extended family in mind,? she said. ?So we?ve really come full circle.?

It also comes full circle with Mary Evelyn?s theme at this year?s Birmingham Botanical Gardens? Antique at The Gardens. Mary Evelyn is one of the tastemakers, and her theme will be pied-?-terre, a term frequently used in big cities to refer to a small, secondary living space ? or in the case of Mary Evelyn and part of her home, a temporary living space.

When it comes to tackling such spaces, Mary Evelyn takes the same approach as she would in a larger permanent space: It should be comfortable and inviting, combining special family pieces with beautiful design.

?I?m inspired by personal items of the people who inhabit the space,? she said. ?It has to have a soul. It has to come from the people who spend time there.?

Evidence of this philosophy is found all over Mary Evelyn?s own home.

Whether it?s in her permanent living space or her granddaughter?s room, Mary Evelyn mixes family heirlooms with a combination of modern and traditional pieces to create spaces that are inviting and, as she likes to say, ?less than perfect, and not too demanding.?

Take her granddaughter?s new room, for example.

That was a fun one for Mary Evelyn. Being the mother of three boys, she said it was fun to create a room for her 3-year-old granddaughter, Madelyn.

While it would have been easy to go with an all-over pink ? which there is plenty of in the bedroom ? Mary Evelyn added some surprising yet still feminine touches, like the wallpaper. The Nina Campbell wallpaper is covered in butterflies but has a softer palette. Mary Evelyn liked the way the pattern paired with an old rocking chair that has been in her family for five generations.

The old wooden single bed frame is also special to the family. It was Madelyn?s father?s when he was a child; now, it?s covered in hot pink bedding. Pillows in shades of pink by John Robshaw decorate the bed. Another splash of hot pink is found in the chair and chaise where Madelyn likes to sit and read.

?I?ve never had a little girl, so I might have gone overboard on the pink, but I think that?s OK,? Mary Evelyn said. ?I love the quote that ?hot pink is the navy blue of India.??

When it came to decorating the permanent living spaces in the house, the color palette is much more neutral.

The breakfast room is painted in Benjamin Moore?s Cotton Ball. Mary Evelyn designed the banquette seating with a Greek key trim along the bottom that?s paired with an antique trestle table.

?That table has been in every house we?ve had,? she said. ?It has a new life every time we move.?

Mary Evelyn found the large round mirror above the table years ago at Robert Hill Antiques. The chest on the opposite wall of the table repeats the Greek key border found on the banquette seating.

?I?ve just always been drawn to neoclassical elements,? Mary Evelyn said.

She also is drawn to art, which is displayed throughout the house.

One of her favorite paintings hangs in the gallery at the front of the house. It?s by Birmingham artist Annie Kammerer Butrus.

?It?s one of a series she?s done over the years on the Chilton County peach harvest,? Mary Evelyn said.

Mary Evelyn loves mixing storied family pieces in her home. The table, she said, has been in every home the McKees have lived in.

Mary Evelyn also loves to mix the old with the new, as she does in the downstairs powder room.

There, a modern steel bowl sink sits on top of a custom-made table. A wall of antique mirror gives the room a classic feel, and the room wouldn?t be complete without a family treasure: A trumpet vase that belonged to her husband?s great-grandmother is displayed next to the sink.

Mary Evelyn?s home is a mix of family heirlooms and classic pieces, giving the spaces a timeless feel, which is the design philosophy she?s had since starting her career in 1986.

Her success in decorating led her to open her store in Homewood about six years ago. There, just like in her home, she has a wide variety of accessories and furniture to make a home inviting yet comfortable.

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Source: http://www.otmj.com/2012/09/home-extension/

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