By Rachael Lindley
Photography by Crystal Wise
Walking into Candice McDonald’s west Fort Worth home feels less like stepping into a decorated space and more like entering a curated world. The home is livable and teeming with life — two children, three dogs and a cat — yet every vignette, color choice and collected treasure tells the story of someone who sees interiors not as static rooms, but as a reflection of a life well-observed.
Finding treasure is in her blood. Her mother and grandmother laid the foundation of her traditional eclectic style. The result is a warmly layered home with character that reflects the people living inside its walls.
“I grew up going to estate sales, garage sales, thrift stores,” she says. “It’s just always been something I’ve loved.”
The McDonald home is a tapestry of influences. She’s drawn to classic French silhouettes, Asian antiques and mid-century lines. Her color palette is neutral, featuring calming blues and greens, with a pop of coral and well-placed patterns across various accessories.
“I like when you have a punch of something,” she explains. “I don’t like color splashes everywhere, but I love contrast.”
In her entry, a 70s Bernhardt Flair sofa in vibrant orange velvet from Neiman’s — her favorite piece — sits across from a Bert Stern photograph of four women wearing Courreges in technicolor wigs. McDonald saw the photo at Scout Design and had to have it. On either side hangs a pair of original Chagall lithographs that her mother found.
Continuing into the light-drenched kitchen and living room, McDonald’s love of classic lines and well built furniture is made more apparent by the selections she’s collected throughout the years. A Heneredon buffet, Widdicomb coffee table and century chairs mingle with patterned accessories like sourced blue and white ginger jars and Fortuny fabric curtains that she salvaged from a downtown Fort Worth hotel. Other finishing touches like light fixtures are anything but afterthoughts. McDonald artfully placed a statement Tronche chandelier above the family’s dining room table. And the sconces donning the wall? Procured from an old opera house in France.
Part of McDonald’s magic is the ability to blend the sentimental treasures and the modern finds, the inherited and the newly discovered, into a cohesive narrative of place.
Harper Hill Designs, McDonald’s full service interior design business, grew out of what she describes as a lifelong instinct to make spaces beautiful. As a child, she would surprise her parents and the families she babysat for by rearranging their rooms.
Even her husband, Dan McDonald, has learned to expect changes.
“He comes home, looks around and says, ‘This is different now.’” she admits, laughing.
Candice McDonald officially launched Harper Hill Designs in 2023. The result is interiors that reflect McDonald’s signature approach: traditional and intentional yet eclectic, layered, but never cluttered. She prioritizes getting to know her clients, often becoming friends by the end of the project.
“Everything looks intentional, but it also looks livable,” she says, echoing what clients often tell her. “A house is evolving. It’s a living, breathing thing.”
McDonald does this by studying her clients and anticipating their wants and needs, even when they can’t articulate them.
By building friendships with her clientele, she gains a true sense of their lifestyles and can make design decisions that not only reflect their personalities but also make sense in their homes.
McDonald never designed her own home with mood boards as she does for clients. Instead, she pieced the house together over many years, guided by intuition and a commitment to flow.
“The whole house has to feel connected,” she notes. “It all organically comes together to me.”
McDonald’s home is a curated collection of fine furniture, found and inherited. Her collection includes Kittinger pieces, antique bamboo tables and Florentine ceramics.
“These are my babies,” she says, gesturing to a display of pieces she’s collected throughout the years. “I love having lots of books, boxes and little trinkets.”
Her home is also filled with collectible art — Dali prints, Chagall lithographs, Ashley Longshore-inspired pieces, and works by friends and other local artists.
“I grew up in an artistic world,” she reflects.
And then, of course, McDonald’s calling card, the horse, features prominently, with sculptures in the animal’s likeness dotting each room.
What ultimately defines Candice’s interior style is not a set of rules but a feeling — warm, thoughtful, lived-in yet elegant. Her home is a canvas of memories and artistry. It’s a place where symmetry meets spontaneity, where intention meets ease, where every corner feels deeply and authentically hers.
“It’s just fun for me,” she says simply. “I can paint a beautiful room in my head — and I love to bring it to life.”