Taking cues from the home’s original details, McDonald, who was also the construction designer for a COVID-era gut renovation, says she “just enhanced what should have been there to begin with.” At the back of the house, she accentuated the vaulted ceiling with birch, native to the Upper Midwest, creating a cocooning Scandi effect that befit the homeowners’ Swedish heritage. Where once small windows offered little sunlight, floor-to-ceiling glass now surrounds the painted-brick fireplace in the den (affectionately called “the snug”), while skylights and glass patio doors help illuminate the kitchen and dining room. Such a radiant “glow up,” as the designer calls it, highlights the compression and release technique developed by late architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Moving through the rambler’s entry, living room, and home office—all capped under a low eight-foot ceiling—heightens the sense of openness one feels upon reaching the soaring spaces.
McDonald also embraced the home’s midcentury roots with a palette of subdued gem tones, leaning “away from glamour and into the hippie spirit”—a nod, perhaps, to the 1967 Summer of Love, arguably the era’s most colorful hallmark. The kitchen cabinets are painted in a fading-sunset hue; the 1950s armchairs in the living room are covered in Aquarian blue leather; and the sultry primary bath is color-blocked with lush merlot and dusky mauve tiles. “I’m particular about repetition of color, since there’s a danger of creating boredom or feeling a little too ‘Disneyland,’” says McDonald, who used a variety of purple hues from room to room. “So it’s important that they’re mixed up—a little cooler here, a little warmer there.”
