Jessie McLaughlin

As we say goodbye to summer, here’s my current short list of what’s giving me life: ☀️☀️☀️ 1. Sitting with my dogs and learning to breathe, rest, and be still, preferably by the fire. 2. The @richroll podcast! His most recent interview with @bradstulberg on change, rugged flexibility, and how we accept and embrace life’s movement from disorder to order and back again is A WORD. 3. My @teva Flatforms. They’ve ruined me for all other shoes. I have a problem. This is not sponsored!!😜 4. The news story about the bull riding shotgun in that guy’s car. If you haven’t seen it yet I’ll put it in my stories!!🤯 🐂🐂🐂 📸by the excellent @jess_isaac #poolview #poolrenovation #indooroutdoorliving #moroccandesign #jungalowstyle

Today, AD is welcomed by Rhett (@rhettmc ) and Jessie McLaughlin to tour their woodland cabin in North Carolina. After 15 years living in Los Angeles, where Jessie runs her design firm, @jessielaneinteriors , and Rhett co-leads @mythical Entertainment, the couple wanted a place to bring family together back home. The result? A storybook log cabin in the woods, lovingly renovated and designed by Jessie herself to feel like you’re stepping into a fairytale or daydream. “When people walk in the door, I don’t want them to know when they are or where they are…I really want it to feel like a storybook.” Watch the full tour at the link in our bio. Director: @joeldaviddd Senior Producer: @lyssmarino DP: @stewart.jeffers Cam Op: @josephfrazermohler Editor: @leticia_edits AP: @manda.bee

✨Room Reveal✨ For the first few years we were in the house, this room was a dining room. It’s a strange room that is mostly just a pass-through, open to a hallway on both sides, as the kids say, a “liminal space” if you will. As a dining room, it always felt a little cramped. A few years ago I decided to relocate the dining room to beside the kitchen and turn this into a room….with a couch. I refuse to call it a sitting room. That’s just dumb and weird. “Couch Room” is also dumb and weird so that was a no-go. The piano has stayed in the corner the whole time, so sometimes I call this room “the piano room” which is the basic bitch naming of a room, or to put it more couthly, it’s totally uninspired, y’all. Rooms, like people, often need time to figure out just who they are. You may ask “How, dear Jessie,” (you always call me dear when you ask me a question) “do you take a room from wallflower to the belle of the ball?” Well, dear reader, you give her CONFIDENCE! And how do you give a room confidence? You make her intentional. This approach works not only for rooms but for strange little corners or awkward spaces. Stop ignoring these spaces and treat ‘em like they were meant to be there! Small rooms are always a fun opportunity for wall treatments that might break the bank in a larger room. I considered wallpaper in here, but kept feeling THE CALL OF THE WOOD. I’ve learned that when something is calling me, it’s best to answer. This might be my favorite room in the house now, even if I still don’t know what to call IT. Any suggestions??? Scroll through to see our piano corner. 📸 by the talented @jess_isaac 🎹 🎹 🎹 #woodpaneling #modernwoodpaneling #whiteoak #crateandbarrel #vintagemodern #70sstyle #apartmenttherapy #lonnymag #sodomino #getclever #currentdesignsituation #currenthomeview #hauteecclectic #myhousethismonth #designattractor #homewithrue #wearevivir #hunkerhome #myhousebeautiful #bhghome #houseandhome #howwelive

I’m over on the Hudson Valley Group Lighting blog today talking about the role their gorgeous lighting played in the design of the cabin, amongst other things. It also gave me the chance to team up with my very own offspring, the extremely talented @lockeemclaughlin to shoot the lighting. I’ve been in awe of his photography and videography expertise for years, but this was my first official chance to hire him for myself! What a lucky mama I am!!!😭 Hop on over to Hudson Valley Lighting Group’s blog (link in profile) to read about the design process! 💡 #HVLGpartner @hudsonvalleylighting @corbettlighting @troylighting @mymitzi

When my youngest, Shepherd, was about 5, he was hanging out in my parents’ back yard with them one evening. He pointed to the sky and exclaimed in his sweet, tiny voice that was already sounding a little California, “LOOK AT THE MYOOON, GRANDPA!” So of course, any time the moon is doing her thing now, we have to say, “Look at the MYOOON!” Are globe lights so great because it’s like having your very own little moon or solar system above your head? Being entranced by big, glowing orbs is basically in our DNA as humans. Hudson Valley Lighting Group has all the variations on the theme of globe lights you can dream of, and it was a pure joy getting to use them at the cabin. They’re somehow both timeless and modern, whether it’s a single globe or a gorgeous grouping. Do y’all have any family catchphrases that you can’t stop saying?! I wanna hear them! 📸 by @jennapeffley 🌕 🌕 🌕 @hudsonvalleylighting @corbettlighting @troylighting @mymitzi #HVLGPartner

Excited to SHUT IT DOWN tomorrow! We’re going to let those in power know that we will not stand for our cities being occupied! We will not sit idly by while our friends and neighbors are harassed, kidnapped, and murdered. Every action matters, so do what you can! Maybe you can’t stay home from work, but you can decide not to place that Amazon order tomorrow. This is not about showing up perfectly, it’s about participating, and there are sooo many ways to do that. In addition to the General Strike, you can help by giving to a local organization who is connected to what’s happening on the ground in your city or state. They are doing incredible work across our country, from Minneapolis to LA through Immigration Defense Funds and mutual aid groups. I love to get the girls together to protest. If you’re nervous or have never done it before, being with friends gives you courage. I’ve placed a link in my bio to a great tool that helps you find a protest near you. This is what democracy looks like! Happy General Strike!✨

I’ve never left my Christmas decorations up until January 20th, but here we are. Locke snapped a pic for me while he was home over break and the cover image is still how my dining room looks. I was talking to @theunlimitedvoice recently and she said she likes to think of January as a transition month. This is my new philosophy. There is no longer January 1st. It’s just January. Between family sickness, world sadness, holiday travel, client meetings, and trying to keep myself from being swallowed up by the horrors, I haven’t taken the time to reflect on 2025 like I’d like to, so I’m doing that this week. For me personally, it was a little like being put in a machine designed to extract the full range of human emotions. We had some incredibly high highs, like being featured in @archdigest Open Door Series. We also had some significantly low lows, among them Rhett’s surgery. Music and community were a consistent theme, and I continue to be convinced that the darker the world feels the more we need to lean in to the things that make us human—namely art, beauty, storytelling, and loving our neighbors in word and action. As my little company moves into 2026, I’m looking forward to revealing/sharing the projects we’re working on in their various stages. I feel grateful to be so inspired. Lindsey Schuberth, our Studio Director since day one, is officially on maternity leave, and I am beside myself waiting to meet this new precious soul. What are you looking forward to this year? Also, what things are you interested in or would you like for me to share more of in 2026? 🫶

In a fit of optimism and excitement, let’s pretend there’s a woman who orders a huge tree to go with her huge logs (not a euphemism). She might not consider what a huge tree requires. 1. Lots of ornaments and when she thinks surely that must be enough, a lot more. That’s still not enough. 2. A tall ladder 3. A joy de vivre and a willingness, bordering on recklessness, to perch precariously on said ladder to get the ornaments hung 4. An inordinately tall husband who is willing to stand on the top of the ladder to put up the miniscule topper she ordered last minute 5. An inordinately tall husband (same guy from #4) who is willing to get the ladder back out and climb up on it one more time when she casually mentions “for future reference” that the way that saint of a man put the topper on was basically all wrong. Happy December, friends! Would you have gotten back up on that ladder?

I am planning on getting some quality time with these sofas over Thanksgiving in between making my Gaga’s sweet potato casserole and cranberry chutney. I will watch movies and maybe some bad reality tv on them. I will not let my need to get things done get in the way of getting some enjoyment done. I’m making this promise to myself now in presence of the great cloud of social media witnesses. This room was a puzzle. @Rhettmc wanted to use that beautiful back wall for a big tv. I tried. I put the sofas on the complete other side of the room, facing that wall, creating an awkward block to the flow of traffic when you walked in the door. But thank God for wise and kind sisters-in-law who tell you what you need to hear. @teressamac walked into the room and delivered the news. “Jessie, this isn’t working!” “I knowwwww!!!” I whined. “But if we switch it around we’ll have to do a projector instead of a tv because of the windows and— “Then do a projector.” (This is a reenactment. I don’t remember exactly what was said because I do not weirdly record my conversations.) You can see where the projector sits now, exactly where it should have always been! I’ve found this Miles Davis quote very handy lately “Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself.” Apparently this also applies to rooms. Click through to see the transformation of the space. Apparently I never took pics of the sofas facing the wrong direction! What will y’all be watching/bingeing this Thanksgiving? ✨ ✨ 📸 by the fabulous @jennapeffley as seen in @archdigest

If you wouldn’t pick a boring book, why pick a boring light?! One thing I’m gonna do if I have a second of free time is READ (cue Reading Rainbow Song.) Lately, if I get part way into a book and realize I’m not invested in these people and do not care what happens to them, I PUT THAT BOOK DOWN. There are too many good books in the world to waste time on ones that don’t resonate. Free yourself! You do not have to finish a mediocre book! And while you’re freeing yourself from finishing boring books, free yourself from choosing uninteresting lighting. Lighting sets the scene. It takes a room from being just another room to being another world. I’ll never forget seeing the Thornwood Chandelier at Highpoint Market a few years ago and immediately being swept away by the drama of it! What a dream it was to work with Hudson Valley Group to bring each of these unique beauties into the cabin. ✨ ✨ ✨ #hvlgpartner #hudsonvalleylighting #troylighting #corbettlighting #mymitzi

Happy Halloween! Did someone request a giant velvet shoe chair, a furry ceiling, and a disco ball bathroom?! Cause I actually have that right here! We’re throwing it back to the @sunbeamvintage remodel where we turned the huge showroom/warehouse into a Time Machine full of era-specific rooms to display the vintage furniture offerings. While most client briefs won’t include a Saturday Night Fever Bathroom, we definitely went all in when we had the chance! No matter what our clients are looking for, there are a few things that will be true of the spaces we create. They will be unique. As a boutique firm, there is no plug and play design here! We spend time crafting one-of-kind spaces full of joy and soul. We’re not afraid to take big risks, and we love color. We believe that play is part of good design, and the most exciting things happen when people get in touch with their whimsy. Can you dig it?!🕺Scroll through to see the before! I’d love to hear what’s bringing you whimsy in your life right now?! 🪩 🪩 🪩 #lavintage #ladesign #vintagebathroom 📸by @deweythedewster

I did not anticipate the overwhelming response I’d receive to my post about Rhett’s heart procedure. Y’all blew me away. I can’t thank you enough for all of the texts, comments, and words of love and encouragement. We both feel really humbled and appreciative. After it was clear @rhettmc was on the road to recovery, I thought, “You know, things haven’t been stressful enough. I should probably go to a conference where I don’t know anybody to learn something new.” Lucky for me, the Boutique Hotel Owner’s Conference put on by @bllaboutiquelodging was happening outside of Los Angeles at the @westlakevillageinn , and I was already signed up! If you know me, you know that I adore Hospitality Design. I believe that designing a boutique hotel is in my future, the specifics are simply still working themselves out! For the past 16 years, people from every facet of the Boutique Hotel Industry come together at this conference to learn, connect, get inspired, brainstorm, and ask questions. Before we arrived, @boutiquehotelgirl asked us to bring an old school flyer for the community bulletin board (thank you, Lauren Shikanda!) that tells a little about ourselves. I’m still processing everything I learned from the sessions, packed with incredible info from industry leaders. I was so busy taking it all in that the only pics I snapped were slides from @drdaniellanger ’s talk on what luxury actually means. The idea that true luxury is making people feel seen and heard is one that resonates deeply with me. A southern girl at heart, the call of hospitality often echoes inside me like a bone-deep ache. Excited to see where following that call leads. 1st photo of primary guest suite at our NC cabin by @jennapeffley for @archdigest