If the interiors designed by Sheryl T. McLean have a global vibe, it’s no accident. McLean is president and creative director of McLean & Tircuit, a business she opened in 2003, but prior to that, she spent 26 years as a flight attendant for United Airlines.

“Sometimes I will do a project and say, ‘This reminds me of something I saw in France or Brazil,’ but mostly it’s blended into who I am,” she says. “The exposure to color and culture—that enriches you.”

In addition to their underlying international flair, McLean’s designs are marked by bold use of color (think shimmering cobalt blue drapes and bright magenta wing chairs). She also has a penchant for art, which she selects, “with intention, not just as decoration.”

“So many people have beautiful homes, but they’re disconnected from them,” she says. “Art is a link that helps people connect to their environment more.”

The room she crafted for the Historic Ellicott City 2019 Decorator Show House exemplifies her grasp of color, art, and global flair. McLean paired black walls, a Japanese-inspired crane wallpaper, and a large painting from artist Ronald Jackson with a luxurious velvet sofa and handcrafted Peruvian accent pieces. The room could be in Paris or Madrid, New York or Buenos Aires.

McLean’s approach to interior design is a reflection of her own journey. Born in New Orleans, McLean and her family joined a migration of southerners who left the region in the 1960s. She was 11 when her family moved to California, but New Orleans remained in her heart and inspires her to this day, particularly her appreciation for art.

“In New Orleans, they have three great things: great music, great food, and great art—it’s in my culture,” she says. “My mother and father are also extremely creative people,” she adds. “My mother used to paint and do stained-glass windows as a hobby. I think that’s where I get my appreciation for art and color.”

In the late 1970s, McLean became a flight attendant. She intended to work for a few years and see the world, but stayed in the business for almost three decades. While flying, she also attended UCLA. She began taking interior design courses, but, at the encouragement of a dean, she entered the architecture program. In 1989, she became the first female African-American to graduate from that school’s masters in architecture program.

For a time, she worked in architecture and flew on weekends, but after 9/11, flying lost its luster, and she committed to design full-time. When she opened her own firm in 2003, she chose to focus exclusively on interiors.

“As much as I love architecture, I love interior design more,” she says, noting that her architecture background does influence her approach to design. “I’m sensitive to things other interior designers are not because I always go back to the structure.”

Throughout her career, McLean’s fearless love of color has remained consistent.

“Color does a lot for your mood and for your space,” she explains. “I can use the right color in the right texture and you just feel good in the room, or I can make you feel angry or feel anxious—as a designer we have those tools and, when used correctly, we can affect people’s lives.”

Although her business is based in Bethesda, she does a lot of work for Baltimore clients. One such undertaking is a penthouse at Silo Point, where she embraced colors from the home’s view. The gray of the water and industrial buildings inspired a steely wallpaper touched with a hint of sparkle, while the grid system for hanging a series of photographs was wrapped in a red leather, an idea she got from a sign at nearby Under Armour.

McLean explains that she makes a study of her clients to understand how to push them out of their comfort zone. “Often people don’t feel comfortable working with an interior designer because they think they’re being judged, which they’re not, but they are being observed,” she says. “Someone might have a very traditional home, and then I look at them and they’re wearing funky, fabulous earrings and I think, ‘Aha!’ I find that little place that I can push them out of the box.”

Observing and learning to work with clients is another skill set she attributes to her years traveling the world. “I’ve had to work with so many different cultures in my life, people who, if I hadn’t flown, I would never have known how they live, what kind of structures they live in and why. It is because of the climate? The religion?” she continues. “I have an appreciation for our differences.”

On April 12, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen announced the “Customers Not Cargo” act, which will prohibit the forcible removal of a passenger after boarding a flight due to overbooking. This new piece of legislation comes on the heels of a viral video showing a United Airlines passenger being forcefully ejected from a flight.

The video showed Dr. David Dao, with a bloodied face, being heaved and dragged through the aisle of a plane departing Chicago for Louisville on April 9. To accommodate for an overbooked flight and no volunteers coming forward to leave the plane, United Airlines randomly selected four passengers and when Dao refused, the Chicago Aviation Police forcibly removed him.

“It is outrageous that airlines can bodily remove passengers after boarding rather than providing appropriate incentives to encourage volunteers,” Van Hollen tells Baltimore. “A lot of people don’t realize that airlines currently have the legal right to forcibly eject a passenger who’s already on board. And that’s just not right.”

Van Hollen explains that his proposed legislation doesn’t prevent airlines from the common practice of overbooking, but requires them to instead offer sufficient incentives to passengers to encourage the voluntary release of seats. While the United passengers were offered $800 to de-board, Van Hollen argues that should have happened before passengers boarded the plane, not afterwards.

“Right now you have this perverse system where airlines are able to offer incentives to get passengers off flights,” he says. “But if they forcibly eject somebody or, say, voluntarily bump you, the financial risk for overbooking should be on the airline, not the passenger.”

The cause is especially important to Van Hollen, whose father shared a similar, albeit less violent, experience.

“My father, who passed many years ago, was thrown from a flight,” he says. “He wasn’t on board yet, but it was the last flight for the day, he was about 83 years old at the time. That’s why we named the bill Customers Not Cargo. [Airlines] overbook and then tell passengers they can’t get on.”

On April 11, Van Hollen and 13 other members of Congress sent a letter to the CEO of United Airlines, Oscar Muñoz—who originally praised the work of the Chicago Aviation Police and later publicly apologized to Dao—requesting answers about the current policies in place.

The same day, Muñoz released a statement, saying “no one should ever be mistreated this way.” He continued and said that United Airlines will “take full responsibility” and the airline is conducting a review, in which results will be made public by April 30.

Van Hollen and fellow Congress members have not yet received a response from Muñoz, but remain optimistic that they will. He has begun circulating the Customers Not Cargo act with hopes of gaining co-sponsors in time to introduce the bill to the Senate—in less than 10 days when Congress is back in session.

Right now, he is focused on spreading the word about the bill and highlighting Dao’s experience. Dao’s attorney, Thomas Demetrio, said at a news conference on April 13 that his client was released from a Chicago hospital after suffering a concussion, broken nose, missing teeth, and the need for reconstructive surgery.  

“It’s one thing to read about a passenger that was mistreated,” Van Hollen says. “It’s much different to see it with your own eyes on a video. It really adds transparency and accountability to the process. This is a passenger’s rights issue; it’s a consumer rights issue. It has created the opportunity for action.”