The Middle Star Patricia Heaton on Her New Lifestyle Endeavor Creating Fashion for the Home

It’s summer time and living has moved outdoors, so it isn’t surprising that Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle star Patricia Heaton has launched her new line Patricia Heaton Home with a Melamine tabletop collection that is perfect for dining alfresco.

I live in Los Angeles, so you can pretty much be outdoors year-round, and like many Angelinos, we have a pool and an outdoor barbeque, so we spend a lot of time outside,” Heaton tells Parade.com in this exclusive interview. “Melamine is just such a wonderful product because you really can do so many things with it and make it look fun and elegant, and it’s unbreakable, so you don’t have to worry about glass near the pool.”

Patricia Heaton Home, which can be found at Walmart, isn’t the two-time Emmy Award winner’s first foray into lifestyle. She previously released the cookbook Patricia Heaton’s Food for Family and Friends and hosted Patricia Heaton Parties on the Food Network for several seasons.

“I had a year off, so I like to stay busy,” she continues. “I’m a bit all at sea when I don’t have something to do, so I have been getting involved in some other creative endeavors.”

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Your sons are all in their 20s now, so it seems the time is right to explore new avenues.

You’re right. They are 25, 23, 21, and 20. The two youngest are at university, but the third one lives out of the house now by school, and the fourth one just came home about three weeks ago for summer break, but he’ll be working, too, so they’re more or less for most of the year out of the house. The two oldest live out of town.

It’s interesting. I remember when Melmac first came out and everyone wanted it, then it wasn’t cool, but everything that used to be cool and then wasn’t seems to be getting cool again.

I think you’re right. Design has come so far these days. When you look at older magazines of interior design and even old recipes, it’s not that great, you know? We have had this beautiful renaissance in the last 10 to 20 years that really everything to the most modest aspect of your life, meaning outdoor stuff, can be really wonderful and elegant, and you can put together a whole look for yourself with everything in the kitchen or in the kid’s room

Design has just come so far, so it’s really fun to play with that and come up with something really bright and fun with a little bit of sophistication but that’s also affordable, and that’s the other aspect of this. I think today at stores like Walmart, you can find beautiful designs at a really good price, and I love that idea.

Is Walmart maybe an obvious partner because coming off The Middle, that’s somewhere the Hecks would have shopped?

I agree with you. I think Frankie Heck, and even Debra Barone, really represent so much of the country that often isn’t represented, and to be able to offer really beautiful design at an affordable price, it’s just a nice little uplift in your life to have things around you daily that bring a smile to your face.

So, talk about working with Ricci DeMartino. How did your collaboration happen?

I met Ricci when, I believe, I was pregnant with the third of my fourth babies. The first time he ever had to style me, I was hugely pregnant, and he immediately was presented with that challenge, which he met beautifully. We’ve been working together ever since.