Often I work with interior designer Patti Krohngold. One of our clients moved to Atlanta from Miami, and due to his needs he purchased a large traditional home in Buckhead. When we walked thru the house he told Patti and me how much he loved his Ultra-modern home in Miami. A lot of the furniture he brought with him was modern and reminiscent of the Miami flavor. Our challenge would be to find a way to blend it with the style and architectural features of his new house. How do you work with the architecture of your home if it's not your personal style? The most important things to keep in mind are, you can't ignore it and you can't cover it up so do your best to embrace it. The house was many shades of warm and creamy yellows and beige when we started (a great background for oil paintings in gilded frames and antique wood furniture) and as you can still see the iron work and details are very traditional and swirly. The first step was to cool down the palette with shades of grey, black and white - no more butter yellow! The client didn't want to deal with removing the iron or changing many light fixtures so we had to include these traditional form and materials when furnishing the rooms; this keeps things in balance so no feature sticks out like a sore thumb. You need to work with the foundation you have; by mixing eras, styles and artwork you will personalize any home.
One of my favorite things about this project is the silver leaf entry! We were working with very high ceiling and wanting to create a statement upon entry. Because the railing, light fixture and door were not up for negotiation, we decided to customize the walls. Tommy Taylor, a talented Atlanta artist, created a large scale pattern that he painted with adhesive and then silver leafed. It's subtle on the grey wall until it hits the light and shines! The dining room directly off the entry was a great opportunity to spread the traditional and formal elements by selecting furniture with classic curves and antique finishes. The cool color palette and pop of a unique materials (goat-skin end chairs) brought the room back to this century.
In the living room we paired the home-owners modern sofa set with some more eclectic pieces like this hand-painted city landscape and rugged cocktail table. We especially love this table because its a replication of an elephant stand (from the circus), the rubber and leather materials are incredibly durrable - perfect for the two little boys who live here to climb all over! The built-in media storage is simple and modern; a great juxtaposition against the existing cast stone mantle.
The master suite needed to be black-out ready, so we darkened it and added heavy-weight custom drapery. The clients already started a distinct theme in this room with his previous furniture, it was fun and very easy tying it all together. That included custom bedding for the extra large mega-bed.
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