Designer Joan Maclean is selling her beautiful Harrogate home after a major transformation
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.
The house has been extended to the rear and the side
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“I am a big fan and he definitely influenced me. The asymmetric windows and the overhanging pod at the back of house echo Frank Lloyd Wright’s work,” says Joan, who worked in showbusiness and TV before moving to Los Angeles for five years, where she studied interior design at the University of California.
After a career working on everything from LA mansions to a variety of projects back in the UK, she now spends much of her time hosting one-day courses at her home. The idea is to give others the skills and confidence they need to design their own schemes.
Joan in the kitchen. She designed the layout.
“I still take on commissions but what I love most is empowering people and teaching them how to create their own interiors that reflect their own story,” she says. "I also have an online course, the Mac Method, showing people who have a talent and passion for interior design how to turn it into a profession.”
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Joan’s prowess is on show in her 1919 semi on Wetherby Road, which she has extended and completely transformed, though she had to be persuaded to view it. “It was owned by a friend of a friend so I went to look out of politeness because I didn’t think I wanted a home on a main road, but once you are inside you don’t even realise the road is there and there was a huge surprise at the back of the house.”
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That surprise was a garden leading to a second, enormous “secret garden”, better described as a field with two lean-to sheds. Joan has since had the secret garden landscaped to designs by Sarah Jane Hayward while Marland Landscapes helped her create an outdoor cinema with films projected onto the wall of a neighbouring cottage.
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“The garden is all about curves and was inspired by the Italianate Getty Villa, one of my favourite museums in LA. One of the features there is trailing rosemary, which is quite hard to find here but luckily I managed to get some and the smell is amazing,” says Joan, who will miss the garden and the house when she sells her home.
The sitting room with treasured paintings by Joan's grandmother
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“I love it here and it’s got everything I need. It has lots of space, it is walking distance to Harrogate town centre and there is plenty of parking and a huge garden but I want another project,” says Joan, who has certainly left her mark. The house she bought had a sitting room, kitchen, two bedrooms and a box room.
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Now, thanks to a contemporary rear and side extension, an attic conversion and reorganisation of the original layout, the property has an enormous open-plan living kitchen, a drawing room and a cloakroom on the ground floor. On the first floor, there are three double bedrooms, an en-suite and a house bathroom, and on the top floor, there is a large master suite with shower room and dressing room.
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The extension was conceived by Joan, designed by David Scott at Studio 4 in Harrogate and the work carried out by JWI Builders. The project, which included rewiring and replumbing, took just six months to complete and came in on time and on budget.
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The kitchen is from Kitchen Warehouse in Ripon, the quartz top on the island is from Mayfair Granite in Bradford and the surrounding chairs are Masters by Philippe Starck for Kartell. The furniture and accessories are a mix of old and new. A modern dining table is surrounded by Arts and Crafts chairs and lit by a Weed light by Sompex and an Art Deco cabinet is topped with an H&M lamp.
The bedroom in the extension
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“It is all quite eclectic. I have got some inherited pieces and I love antique shops and auctions. I think old pieces add some soul to a modern space,” says Joan, who has a host of collections, including Mordillo cartoons, matchbooks, vintage Penguin books and chairs she has fashioned from champagne cages.
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Art plays a big role with stand-out pieces including the puffin by Ean Dawbarn on the kitchen island, the wood light by Marcus Jakka and a wire sculpture on the first-floor roof terrace by Rachel Ducke.
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Most precious are paintings by her grandmother, the artist Joan Langley-Smith, whose paintings feature in the drawing room, which is also home to a chair that belonged to her great- grandfather and a typewriter that was her grandfather’s.
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“I am going to miss this place when I leave but I love moving and I am really excited about starting a new project,” says Joan.
The dining room with Weed light by Sompex over the dining table
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. It could not have been more different to a new build in North Yorkshire. “I wanted something with a bit of character and history and my husband wanted a new-build but we were struggling to find anything,” says Michelle, who was hunting at the height of a red hot housing market. The golden rule “location, location, location” and the weariness that comes with living in temporary accommodation while most of your belongings sit in a shipping container forced the decision.
They bought the detached property, which is on a small, upmarket development in a pretty village, as it is close to family and has countryside on the doorstep, along with easy access to great road and rail links.
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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Interior designer Joan MacLean who helped Michelle style her new home
Not only has she used Michelle’s collection to great effect, she has had a wonderful time doing it.
“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.
The handmade kitchen by Thirsk based Watkinsons Cabinet Makers was already in situ, as was the island, which is topped with Calacatta marble from Aktiv Granite in Follifoot.
Joan sourced the china Fin lights above from BTC while Michelle came up with the idea of installing a rustic beam above the Rangemaster stove and placed one of her favourite pictures, a painting by Singapore based artist Louise Hill, above it.
Joanie mounted the Balinese masks in frames for extra impact. Below are ginger jars from China
In a corner of the dining area decorative bird cages. “Most people live in flats in Hong Kong so birds are a popular pets. Their owners take them out for a walk in their cages,” says Michelle.
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Rather than being shut off, the utility is a gorgeous small space on show and is part of the open plan living area on one side of the house.
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It now features vintage Hong Kong mail boxes, Chinese flasks plus an illuminated taxi sign from the island, along with other fabulous finds.
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Michelle had spent decades collecting treasures, making regular trips from Hong Kong to China.
Perfectly styled by Joan
“Back then, the Chinese people weren’t interested in antiques and considered them worthless so they were very inexpensive. I found some wonderful things rummaging in junk shops and I’d often come back on the ferry fully laden,” says Michelle, who gave away a third of them so she could squeeze the rest into her UK bound container.
With plenty to choose from Joan set about fusing a traditional English house with oriental accessories, a match made in heaven thanks to very careful curating and an abundance of choice,
“Joan would say we need something in this colour and this shape and I’d say great, I’ve got four of them to choose from,” says Michelle. Foo dogs traditionally protect a house so they sit by the patio doors and dragons too are on display as they defend and bring luck.
A vignette featuring a collection of oriental jars and a painting by Singapore-based artist Louise Hill
The hall is sensational thanks to a set of Balinese masks mounted on panels while below is a collection of ginger jars. In the open plan sitting area, the walls are in Fired Earth’s Little Owl and the stand out item is the cabinet painted with masks.
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The Barker and Stonehouse sofas and the Orla Kiely footstool reflect the colours in it, while the Chinese lotus lamps give a soft glow. The blinds are in Linwood’s Mountain Retreat design and the gas fire is from Feature Fireplaces in Harrogate.
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A second sitting room is painted in Fired Earth’s Tempest and has Indian carpets and a red wedding cabinet and Joanie also wall mounted antique wood screens and backed them with mirrors to create even more interest.
Under the window is an antique Kung Fu bench. As many Chinese people could not afford expensive weapons, they improvised so the heavy bench was a go-to for bashing enemies, along with being a place to sit.
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Upstairs, the main bedroom suite is a dream. Extra large it comes with a hidden ensuite behind what appear to be wardrobe doors.
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The decorative bed head is from Atkin and Thyme and plush, velvet soft carpet is from KD Carpets in Harrogate and the light shade is from Maison du Monde, though the showstopper is the Chinese chest.
The sitting room with Chinese wedding cabinet and statues
Joan says: “It was an absolute pleasure working on this home. There were so many wonderful things to choose from and they all had a story.”
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Michelle too is delighted and adds: “When I first moved to Hong Kong I imported oak furniture and an old pew because I wanted it to be Britain. I didn’t bring any of that back with me though. I brought my oriental pieces and they make me smile because they bring back so many happy memories of Hong Kong.”