{"id":912653,"date":"2026-09-28T09:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T09:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/912653\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T09:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T09:28:11","slug":"her-place-to-be-how-actress-andie-macdowell-found-her-haven-on-an-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/912653\/","title":{"rendered":"Her place to be: How actress Andie MacDowell found her haven on an island"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2023, actress Andie MacDowell turned 65 and took due note of another milestone: She had been living in Los Angeles, California, the United States for 10 years.<\/p>\n

“I moved there because my daughter Sarah Margaret who was going into the 12th grade at the Professional Children\u2019s School in New York, wanted to be in the same place where her sister Rainey was, and Rainey was in LA,\u201d MacDowell, 68, said, referring to actress Margaret Qualley and actress-singer Rainey Qualley. (She also has a son, Justin, who lives in Montana.)<\/p>\n

Over that decade in Los Angeles, MacDowell had made a few friends, but “I\u2019m a pretty quiet person. It was hard for me to find my place there 100%. I felt I had to do more in my life besides wait for my children to need me,\u201d said MacDowell, whose credits include the movies Sex, Lies, And Videotape, Groundhog Day and Four Weddings And A Funeral. She stars in the Hallmark Channel\u2019s time-travel drama The Way Home, now in its fourth season.<\/p>\n

\"AA cabinet and paintings at a corner in the home.<\/p>\n

MacDowell found her place on Kiawah Island, South Carolina, a resort area she had frequently visited \u2013 she is a South Carolina native \u2013 and had loved more on each successive stay.<\/p>\n

A few months after her 65th birthday, she bought a five-bedroom house there, one that overlooked a pond and seemed to disappear into the surrounding maritime forest. No one could see her house; she couldn\u2019t see anybody else\u2019s house.<\/p>\n

MacDowell seems similarly well situated.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve met so many people I can\u2019t keep up with them,\u201d she said. “It\u2019s just extremely social and that\u2019s nice for me, because I\u2019m a single person,\u201d added MacDowell, who has been married and divorced twice.<\/p>\n

“I like being a single person, you know, I enjoy my own company. The whole thing just works for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AudubonAudubon sterling silver from Tiffany & Company owned by MacDowell.<\/p>\n

The house came furnished. She gave some of the contents to her son and some to a friend, and has since filled it, as she put it, “with some cheap furniture and a few nice pieces\u201d, among them carryovers from previous residences.<\/p>\n

A 2008 portrait of MacDowell\u2019s children by Asheville, North Carolina-based artist Michele Mitchell is the focal point of the dining room.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s what I spent more money on than anything in my entire life,\u201d MacDowell said. “My kids were very sweet about the whole process. It was a very special gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rainey, then 19, and Margaret, then 14, were both wearing Alberta Ferretti dresses that belonged to their mother, and were pinned and tucked for the occasion.<\/p>\n

“My son had a black eye,\u201d MacDowell added, “and the only thing I regret is not painting in the black eye.<\/p>\n

\"MacDowellMacDowell with her dog, Daisy, at her home.<\/p>\n

“I have a huge shell collection,\u201d MacDowell said, pointing to a crowded side table in the dining room. “My favourite thing to do is walk in the morning, and usually my friends are all talking and I just like to be quiet. I just look at the ocean and I look for shells.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacDowell mostly left the kitchen alone when she moved in but, because she\u2019s a fan of painted floors, got rid of the cherry wood planks that were there, exchanging them for a diamond pattern of sandy brown and off-white.<\/p>\n

MacDowell was 28 when she began buying pieces of Audubon sterling silver from Tiffany & Co.<\/p>\n

“I use it every day,\u201d she said. “Particularly when I moved down here at 65, I knew I had limited time. It was like, ‘Time\u2019s running out. Use the silver!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe tufted rocking chair in which MacDowell rocks her grandchildren.<\/p>\n

She is honouring family tradition: Her mother and grandmother used silver for formal Sunday dinners.<\/p>\n

“We weren\u2019t rich, but you would think we were, eating with silver.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a counter and wall adjacent to a utility sink in the kitchen are photos of MacDowell\u2019s grandchildren and photos from the weddings of MacDowell\u2019s children.<\/p>\n

“This is sort of the marriage place,\u201d she said. “It\u2019s like my warm and cosy place keeping my family with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A caramel-coloured tufted rocking chair, sitting in an adjacent room, was acquired by MacDowell at an auction to benefit transgender youth.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe first pair of Prada shoes MacDowell ever bought, kept as a memento at her home.<\/p>\n

“I bought it after drinking a little bit of champagne, and I\u2019m glad I did,\u201d she said. “The rocker doesn\u2019t fit the space, but I love it. It\u2019s where I rock my grandbabies,\u201d MacDowell added, referring to Rainey\u2019s daughter, Bluebell, and Justin\u2019s two daughters, Cozette and Josephine.<\/p>\n

In the living room, the wallpaper backing the open shelves is printed with trees.<\/p>\n

“I want to feel like I\u2019m in nature,\u201d MacDowell said.<\/p>\n

The curtains pick up the sylvan theme, and a peacock rattan chair is one of MacDowell\u2019s favourite perches. The first pair of Prada shoes she ever bought are on display among the books, awards and family photos.<\/p>\n

\"ShellsShells collected by MacDowell during her morning walks on the beach.<\/p>\n

“My daughter Rainey paints,\u201d MacDowell said.<\/p>\n

The living room includes Rainey\u2019s portrait of her sister, Margaret.<\/p>\n

The sun room got the most rehab work in the house. MacDowell got rid of an “ugly\u201d built-in desk, painted the floor, lowered a window and added French doors for easy access to the back porch.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s really light and airy in here,\u201d she said. “I tell friends, ‘You can do puzzles in here, you can read and you can drink champagne’.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MacDowellMacDowell mostly left the kitchen alone when she moved in, but got rid of the cherry wood planks that were there, exchanging them for a diamond pattern of sandy brown and off-white.<\/p>\n

An egret painted by a local artist hangs in the primary bedroom on the first floor.<\/p>\n

“I just love the colours,\u201d she said, adding that the curtains “are very romantic\u201d.<\/p>\n

“My friends must want to laugh at me because I wear my Hermes scarves to the beach and when I go hiking. I\u2019m sure they think it\u2019s bizarre to be wearing them in the dust,\u201d said MacDowell, who began collecting the scarves in her 20s.<\/p>\n

“But what am I gonna do? I\u2019m gonna die and then they won\u2019t have been worn. I keep them at the end of the drawer and wear them all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FamilyFamily photos line a wall in MacDowell’s home.<\/p>\n

Family photographs hang in the hall upstairs along with magazine photo covers of MacDowell with her children. Justin is with her on the cover of Harper\u2019s Bazaar, Margaret is with her on the cover of InStyle. Another photo shows MacDowell with her father: “They cut my hair in a pixie because I was the fourth girl and my father would take me hunting.\u201d<\/p>\n

A friend stops by routinely to leave fresh produce on MacDowell\u2019s front porch and also the occasional tomato pie. She has biking friends and walking friends and kayaking friends, and she has become involved with the nature conservancy.<\/p>\n

She has no need to take vacations, because, she said, “I travel all the time for work. My vacation is staying home. I want to be home.\u201d \u2013\u00a92026 The New York Times Company<\/p>\n

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