How Steve Martin Inspired Million Dollar Decorators' Kathryn M. Ireland To Become A Designer
It’s an impressive resume by any measure. In the span of four decades, Kathryn M. Ireland has worked on the homes of some of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities, written several books, and starred in the hit Bravo TV show Million Dollar Decorators. By all accounts, she is one of today’s most influential interior designers, but according to Ireland, her drive to the top wasn’t exactly a direct route.
“I never really had a plan,” confesses the British-born designer in her signature raspy voice. “It was trial and error. I came to New York in my early 20s to work in fashion, and then went to Los Angeles, really, on a whim. From there, everything just fell into place.” “Everything” started with meeting film director Gary Weis when she first arrived in California in 1986. It was a whirlwind: “We were married within three months,” laughs Ireland. Weis, who was known for directing Saturday Night Live’s comedic shorts, also felt a creative connection with Ireland, and when he asked her to help out on set making a music video, her future was set in motion. “From that moment forward, I produced for him,” she says. “It was right when music videos were becoming a big deal. We did one, then another, and the next thing we knew, we were ‘the music video team.’ ”
Their aesthetic—pared down and witty—played against what was trending at the time, and viewers couldn’t get enough. “Everyone else was spend-ing hun-dreds of thou-sands of dollars on smoke machines,” Ireland remembers, “and we were just doing these funny little con-ceptual clips. We probably did about 60 of them in a few years.” Their works, which included the Bangles’ “Walk Like an Egyptian” and Paul Simon’s “You Can Call Me Al” with Chevy Chase, became some of the most iconic music videos of the MTV era.
When the couple started a family, the pace of production became too much. “I had three boys in four years, and it was difficult to get to set in the morning,” recalls Ireland. The decision to step back ultimately pushed her design career forward. “My nesting instinct was to create homes.”
Design was in her blood. “My mother was very good at doing houses,” she remembers, “and I was very lucky growing up in London, going to my friends’ beautiful houses. My eye became accustomed to beauty.” It may have also been a subconscious desire to re-create a bit of her own idyllic English childhood in the States for her boys that prompted her to begin bringing back pieces from Europe, like lamps and textiles that she’d turn into pillows. Guests would come over and admire these in her home.
After an onslaught of inquiries, she decided to open a business with her friend, British actress Amanda Pays. “We turned my husband’s editing suite on Main Street in Santa Monica into a little pillows-and-accessories store,” she says. They named it Ireland-Pays, and, much to their surprise, it was an instant hit. “This was a time in L.A. when you couldn’t buy a sofa or get a cup of coffee,” Ireland says, still sounding a bit awed. “We had quirky artisans from England who hand-printed trays and glass lamps. It was just bits and pieces from everywhere. And people started coming.”
Shortly after, Ireland hosted a friend for dinner—actor and comedian Steve Martin. “He said, ‘You know, I love your home, I’d like to live in something similar,’ ” Ireland says. “And I said, ‘OK, I’ll help you.’ And that kick-started my career in decorating.”
“I became like a house whisperer,” she says, and suddenly, anyone with a good sense of humor wanted to be a client. “I worked with Lorne Michaels, Fran Drescher, Julia Louis-Dreyfus. I seemed to attract comedians.”
It certainly wasn’t an accident: Ireland’s cheeky personality—along with her ability to create beautiful spaces that still feel whimsical and not the least bit pretentious—helps explain why she became such a success. “I’ve never taken decorating too seriously. It’s simply evolved because I love helping people create,” she says. “People who hire me have children and dogs and lives; they don’t want their houses to look overly decorated. I understand proportions. I know where to put things. It’s second nature to me.”
Ireland hopes to make her second nature more accessible to others with the launch of The Perfect Room, a website she describes as a cross between One Kings Lane, 1stdibs, Homepolish, and Million Dollar Decorators, which will invite users to take a style quiz before offering them shoppable decor and inspiration packages from prestigious designers. “Every project I do is original and different. That’s what I spend all my time in my studio doing: deciding what goes where, and how we’re going to make it more fabulous than the last project.”
She laughs: “I’m setting the scene for a life—a life that’s manageable. It’s not just about the aesthetic, it’s got to be practical. It’s got to work.”
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