Southern Home | Jul/Aug 2021
Written by Tiffany Adams | Photography by Sara Essex Bradley
Having spent her childhood in Bay St. Louis, Nancy McDonald has a special appreciation for the beauty and charm of the Mississippi coastline.
“I grew up just a block from this property, which has been in my family since 1904, and I had a cottage here later in life,” she says. However, as her family began to grow and be parceled out during holidays, she and her husband, Ralph Ervine, realized they needed more space if their house was going to be the gathering place.
Envisioning a vacation home where grandchildren would play in the pool, adults would convene on the porch, and everyone could stay under one roof come nightfall, McDonald made a decision. “I decided to build a home that I’ll have forever on a property that’s been in our family forever,” she says.
McDonald worked with two of her nephews on the project: Regan Kane and Sanders Kane, who helped her to start the development where the home now sits. Sanders, who owns Kane Construction, also built the home. McDonald had worked in the interior design field herself but felt she needed fresh inspiration for this home’s décor and turned to Chad Graci (@graciinteriors), who studied architecture at Louisiana State University and worked in interior design in both New York and Los Angeles before moving back to the South and opening his New Orleans firm, Graci Interiors.
When McDonald and Graci first began working together, plans for the home were underway, and she had selected a few fixtures as well as having inspiration for other spaces. “I knew she wanted something that wasn’t a cliché beach house look,” says Graci. “Clients come to me for a style that is grounded in tradition but feels fresh, fun, and collected.”
McDonald’s collection of English and American antiques served as a starting point. Graci drew inspiration for the palette from a work by artist Kevin Gillentine that hangs in the entry. “The piece depicts a marsh in Mississippi, and it draws you deeper into the house the more you look into it,” he says. “There’s a mocha-lavender color sprinkled in that is not typical of coastal sunsets but that is reflective of the dynamic ones here.”
Aside from the wood antiques, other elements bring a collected-over-time feel to the new-construction home, including a variety of artwork McDonald has acquired through local vendors and travels, bamboo-inspired pieces in the living room, and straw and raffia additions that are artful details throughout the home.
An especially meaningful piece hangs over the dining room’s sideboard: “This clock hung over the entrance to my grandparents’ jewelry store in Mexico, Missouri, for more than a century. When the store closed, we had it shipped here, and Chad repurposed it by finding it a new home,” says McDonald.
While character was always key, a home on the water where children and family frequently gather meant that practicality was also top of mind. For example, save for the master bedroom, all the floors on the first level are tile. However, they are laid in a stately, traditional basket weave pattern, which Graci drew, and were then executed on-site using wood-look and a slate cabochon tile.
The same principle is true of the furnishings in the living room. “I think you need a little old and a little new in any design,” says McDonald of the end result.
