All about me
I'm an interior designer, creative mentor, and retreat host with over 30 years’ experience designing distinctive, character-filled homes across Europe and North America.
My work spans everything from beach houses in Los Angeles and Spanish hideaways to 1930s show-stoppers in Leeds and luxury, design-led apartments in London. Whether renovating, restoring, or re-imagining a space from the ground up and my approach is always the same: interiors should feel personal, layered, and full of life.
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This creative path hasn’t been linear — and I believe that’s my strength. After beginning my career through a graduate scheme with a major national retailer, I stepped away from prescriptive design to spend a decade in showbusiness, working across film, theatre, Broadway, the West End, and the Edinburgh Fringe and along the way even managed a gloriously chaotic Cuban singer, leading to a two-night Fringe run, two national tours, and a record deal.
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That mix of structure and spontaneity now defines my interiors work — spaces that balance elegance with individuality, polish with personality.
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Study at UCLA led me to return to interiors with renewed focus, designing, staging, and developing homes ranging from private residences to luxury serviced apartments. Alongside my client work, I've has always had my own renovation projects on the go, from sensitive restorations to full demolition and rebuilds.
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Today this experience comes together through interior design masterclasses and immersive creative retreats, hosted in inspiring locations. These retreats combine structured workshops with travel, culture, food, and downtime — offering guests not just design knowledge, but space to reconnect with their creativity in beautiful surroundings.
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Whether working with clients, aspiring designers, interiors enthusiasts, or curious creatives,
my aim is simple: to help people discover their own style, gain confidence in their decisions, and create homes that truly reflect who they are.
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As Coco Chanel said, “An interior is the natural projection of the soul.”
I couldn’t agree more.
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joanie
RECENT PRESS
Designer Joan Maclean is selling her beautiful Harrogate home after a major transformation
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By Sharon Dale
Property and Interiors Editor
Designer Joan Maclean has worked wonders in extending and transforming her Harrogate home
American architect Frank Lloyd Wright passed away in 1959 but his legacy lives on and not just in landmark buildings and his most famous home, the sublime Fallingwater in Pennsylvania. His influence is present in a sensational semi in Harrogate, thanks to its owner Joan Maclean...
Stories of Entrepeneurship - Create Your Own Dream Place - Joanie Mac Interior Design
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Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Joan Maclean, Founder of Joanie Mac Interior Design, located in Harrogate, UK.
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Bringing Hong Kong home to Yorkshire created this home with spectacular oriental interiors
By Sharon Dale
Property and Interiors Editor
Adding instant character and interest to a newly-constructed property can be a fiendishly difficult task, not least because these attributes are usually acquired over time. It’s one of the main reasons why Michelle Southern hesitated before she and her husband bought their four bedroom, four bathroom house near Knaresborough. Their previous home was a large apartment in Hong Kong, where they had lived for 31 years, and it was packed with fabulous oriental finds...
They bought the detached property, which is on a small, upmarket development in a pretty village... the builder also agreed to make a few changes to suit them but it still didn’t feel like home to Michelle who, while still adjusting back to life in Britain was struggling to marry her collection of Chinese furniture and accessories with her new English house. “I didn’t know where to start and was overwhelmed,” she says.
Help was needed and it came in the form of interior designer Joan Maclean, aka Joanie Mac Interior Design, who came highly recommended.
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Not only has she used Michelle’s collection to great effect, she has had a wonderful time doing it.
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“Michelle has great taste and what she had already done to the house was good but she needed help with the rest and with curating what she had,” says Joan.
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