Celebrated interior designer Shea McGee’s collaboration with Kohler and Ann Sacks provides everything you need for a stylish, dreamy bathroom.
By Janice Randall Rohlf
With nearly four million followers on Instagram, an eponymous design studio, a line of home products, a pair of popular coffee-table books, and the long-running Netflix show “Dream Home Makeover,” interior designer Shea McGee has become a household name in a short amount of time.
Her brand, Studio McGee, was created in 2014. The Kohler Co. has been a global leader in kitchen and bath products for 150 years. Where McGee and Kohler merge is a happy-ending story of the past meeting the present in recently debuted new product collections that bridge classic styles and current aesthetics. Available to view in displays at Supply New England’s Kohler Signature Stores in Burlington and Natick, MA, the Kohler x Studio McGee Collection was introduced in Fall 2023.
It features kitchen and bath faucets, accessories, vanities, lighting, and mirrors, while the Ann Sacks x Studio McGee collaboration launches with three tile collections. (Ann Sacks is a brand within Kohler’s luxury collection.)
“I’ve always been a fan of the quality and craftsmanship that Kohler adheres to. You can tell it’s a fixture that will stand the test of time,” says McGee. “For my own collection, I went deep into the Kohler archives to find some of the historical details and styling that make a fixture timeless. From there, I gave them modern updates for a mix that’s uniquely Studio McGee.”
Castia faucets and accessories, for example, showcase the artistry of precision machine knurling, delicately stamped levers, and stacked connection points in a subtle homage to the raw beauty of pipe fittings, while Malin vanities—with distinctive square legs and clean lines— represent an undeniable Shaker sensibility. “The Malin vanity feels very modern because of how minimal it is,” notes Margaret Mazz, studio manager at the Kohler Co. “The Shaker foundation
makes it feel very clean and of today, then adding the reeded drawer front and the classic mushroom cabinet knobs gives it a little bit of softness and gleam— combined, they create a timeless appeal.”
Only on rare occasions in the past has Kohler collaborated with a prominent designer, but McGee, who has worked with Kohler over recent years on
smaller-scale projects, seemed a natural for the partnership. “In our time working with Shea, we collaborated in a variety of ways that routinely sparked a lot of interest and excitement with our audience,” says Alyssa Wilterdink, senior marketing manager at Kohler. “One year, she was in a panel discussion at our kitchen and bath show, and you could barely move because so many people wanted to come and hear from her.”
McGee’s aesthetic appeals to homeowners in a broad cross-section of the country who gravitate toward her clean-lined looks. “Shea has a very national reach and appeal,” says Mazz. “She hits a sweet spot of timeless and enduring design that’s hard not to love.”
Mazz adds that she and her design team at Kohler didn’t attempt to replicate any specific period in the company’s history and looked at catalogs from the turn
of the 20th century to the 1950s. “Most of our inspiration came from catalogs between 1914 and 1931,” she explains. “We extracted details that caught our interest.”
For instance, the Seagrove vanity is imbued with midcentury modern styling, which has surged in popularity today. It features tapered legs adorned with beveled edges and gracefully curved transitions. Drop ring pulls embellished with exposed slotted screws exemplify the type of dimensional detail that creates a striking balance. Exposed screw details appear as well in the Embra lighting collection, balancing the refined reeding on the glass spheres.
The three new tile collections by Studio McGee that Ann Sacks has launched—Canyon Lake, Willow Height, and Novah—share classic and enduring qualities. For McGee, it was an opportunity to design versatile tiles that she felt would round out Ann Sacks’s existing collection. When designing Novah tiles, McGee says she “wanted to create a porcelain limestone that hit all the right notes I’ve been looking for and couldn’t find.”
“Working with Shea is an exciting endeavor that combines her highly coveted style with the expertise and craftsmanship that’s synonymous with Kohler,” says Samie Barr, chief brand officer at Kohler. “Shea’s collections with Kohler and Ann Sacks pair seamlessly for customers who aspire to explore new possibilities and create their own unique spaces throughout the home.”
