A recent grad makes her first place her dream place

WASHINGTON -- When Heloise McKee moved here after college, she packed her car with the essentials: five bags of clothes, an alarm clock and a folder filled with tear sheets from shelter magazines.

Like many recent colleges graduates, McKee, 23, was gearing up to start a new job, begin graduate school and support herself for the first time. The highlight of this heady transition was finding, and decorating, her first apartment.

“I was excited about moving to D.C., but I was more excited about decorating,” the native of Memphis, Tenn., says in her charming Southern drawl.

“I knew what I wanted my place to look like before I moved in.”

McKee says her three roommates are equally enthused and can talk about decorating for hours. They often sit together and pass around home furnishing catalogues, folding down page corners and pointing out pieces they want.

They are having so much fun outfitting their rowhouse, McKee says, that at one point they decreed: “We're not going out, we're not eating, we're just decorating!”

Today's 20-somethings are more design-conscious and design-savvy than previous generations: They grew up with 24-hour decorating cable TV channels, they read design blogs and online shelter magazines, and they shop at retailers that offer good design at budget-friendly prices. They know that decorating is not only about aesthetics; it's about expressing who they are.

For McKee, it's also about independence. “This is the first time I get to choose everything,” she says.

But she began by listening to her mother: “I took my mom's advice to go through magazines and pull pages with things I liked.”

She ended up with a pile of pages that featured rooms with a predominantly white-and-beige palette, salon-style walls with framed photos and art hung in large groupings, shelving that displayed perfectly placed books and accessories, and creative storage solutions, such as a tall glass cylinder filled with different-colored belts.

Next, she called on an expert.

Her aunt, Catharine Roberts, is a co-owner of Catharine Roberts, Oliver Dunn and Moss & Co., a shop in Georgetown that sells a mix of old and new American, French and Swedish furniture and accessories. McKee affectionately refers to Roberts as “auntmother.”

“Heloise knew what she wanted and what she didn't want,” says Roberts. “I shopped with her and helped her place furniture.”

Together, Roberts and McKee searched for the basics (bedding, bookshelves, tables and lighting) at budget-friendly, big box stores (Ikea and Target) and at outlets of pricier chains (Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn and West Elm). Roberts also introduced McKee to local places to look for small accessories.

“Then,” says Roberts, “she went into my basement and filled in the rest.”

All recent grads should be so lucky. Roberts's basement is loaded with finds from shops and flea markets in Paris.

From this well-curated stash, McKee scored a headboard, a decorative screen, a pair of red occasional chairs, a side table, a large framed blackboard, small accessories and several pairs of pale yellow silk curtain panels.

McKee chose to live in the basement of her group house. While many people wouldn't have chosen it, McKee saw its potential and transformed it into a cozy, inviting retreat. The large space is a soothing sea of neutrals, with a mix of old and new pieces, flea market finds and personal accessories.

To soften the basement's concrete walls, Roberts suggested hanging fabric from floor to ceiling behind the bed, using a vertical stripe to make the ceiling appear taller. “One of the things she taught me is how to look at things in different ways,” McKee says.

The roommates had placed a large L-shaped sectional in the upstairs living room, visually dividing the room in half. Roberts opened up the room by separating the sectional's two pieces, placing them on opposite sides of the room to face each other.

She used a linen tablecloth to fashion a skirt to conceal where the sectional had been split.

McKee says Roberts will walk around the room and move things, and “I'll follow her and watch what she's doing.”

McKee has been interested in design for years. Her high-school bedroom was dressed in toile brought back from a trip to Paris. She collaborated with her freshman roommate to create a “very pulled together” (and very pink and green) dorm room. When she moved off-campus she hammered nails into an old pair of white shutters she found in her parents' attic to hang jewelry.

Town & Country, Veranda, Real Simple, Southern Living and Garden & Gun are her go-to reads. “I would pick up one of those before People or Us Weekly, for sure,” she says.

McKee wants to finish decorating the sunroom, address the landscaping, put down area rugs in the kitchen and hallway, and swap out accessories here and there. So her fun is far from over, her tastes far from being defined.

“This house is still in the process of being finished,” McKee says while looking around and mentally ticking off things yet to do. “And my style is still to be determined.”