Founder Kelsey McGregor’s timeless interior design work has recently been featured in Magnolia Journal, Rue, House Beautiful, Luxe, Good Housekeeping, Architectural Digest and The Spruce. This fall, Magnolia Network filmed a pilot for a home network show called “Building Oklahoma” about the work that Kelsey does in tandem with her husband, Scott McGregor. Their design-build team features both new homes and renovation projects.
Kelsey and Scott met in college in 2004. She remembered, “We met for tacos and Scott made me laugh so hard I had to leave the building and run outside so that I didn’t choke.” Married in 2007, they moved to Oklahoma following family connections. Kelsey said, “Scott grew up in L.A. and I grew up in Denver. We thought we’d just be here for a couple of years — but 17 years later, here we are, loving it. We loved the quality of life here and found a community and a church. We put down roots here.”
In 2009, Scott started his own company called McGregor Homes. “We build homes in the Edmond and Oklahoma City metro area. And Kelsey was helping us with all things design on the side, when she wasn’t pregnant,” he laughs. “We have four kids.”
In 2019, Kelsey began designing for a few of her friends’ homes, and soon word of mouth had her phone ringing. People loved her warmth and orientation to natural surroundings. Her degree is in teaching, and she admitted that she was nervous to go into design full-time: “I’m what they call self-taught. I read books and learned my own software. At first, this was a point of insecurity for me, especially in the beginning. And then I found out that some of my heroes in design are also self-taught. Design is art and art is subjective.
“I worked at my dining room table for a year and a half. Now we office as Kelsey Leigh Design Company in downtown Edmond and our retail office, Heritage House. This was born from my Instagram account of things that inspired me and our first ever McGregor Home. Scott had been building homes for other people for 10 years, and we had been hearing people say, ‘It’s our dream to live in a McGregor home,’ and we were like, ‘Ours too.’” And she laughed.
Kelsey continued, “If you want to work with us, and you love what you see on Instagram, but you can’t afford to work with us as a full-service interior design, you can get a good feel for our interior design by checking out our retail store, Heritage House. This is a good way to get a look and feel for the interior furnishings, lighting and home décor.”
When asked about trends that she is seeing currently in design, she said, “A love of everything old; there has been an evolution of rustic American farmhouse to European farmhouse. ‘Rustic’ is a word that we are using more — things that feel vintage and storied. We love items that have a sense of history and story. We are seeing warmth come back into our color palette. Red is back. Brown is on the rise. Wallpaper is very big again. There is a trend called ‘Grand Millennial’ — think ‘grandma’ plus ‘millennial.’ It’s bringing pleated shades, floral prints, plaid, fringe, ruffled details and intricate trim work.”
As far as house building goes, Scott mentioned that he sees a trend of moving away from cheap builds and mass production. “We are moving back toward the authentic.”
Kelsey agrees with him: “A balance of beauty and function. The best laid plans are made far in advance. And that is true professionally and personally.”
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For more info, check the couple’s businesses out online at kelseyleighdesignco.com, mcgregorhomes.com or heritage-house.com
