— Photographer:  / January 8, 2025
large-scale geometric wallpaper in a smoky slate shade in the entry of an Atlanta Colonial Revival

To a thirtysomething Atlanta couple trading their urbane Midtown loft for a more family-centric homestead a few miles north, not just any home would do. For the wife, embracing the polar opposite of walkable city life—a multi-acre property in a particularly forested part of Buckhead—provided the fresh perspective she and her family desired. “Because the lot sizes are so large, it really feels like you’re out in the country,” she notes. “We frequently spot deer grazing, and many of our neighbors have horse stables or working farms.”

At the heart of this sylvan retreat is a shingle-clad center-hall Colonial Revival residence designed in 1989 by revered Atlanta architect Norman Askins. “Although it was built in the ’80s, when you walk inside you get the sense—due to the scale of the rooms, age of the floors and the ornate moldings—that this house is much older,” the wife comments. Decorations introduced by previous owners reinforced the home’s mature demeanor, “but we were after a cooler vibe; we wanted to ‘young it up’ a bit,” she adds.

Home Details

Interior Design:

Bradley Odom, Bradley Odom Interiors

Home Builder:

Michael Jordan, Sterling Millworks, LLC

Aiming to bring youth and vigor to the somewhat serious abode, the couple looked no further than Bradley Odom, a designer whose work they felt could be as much at home in New York or Los Angeles as in Atlanta. “For us, it was important to work with someone who wasn’t going to take this house in its natural direction—which would have been to double down on a Southern traditional aesthetic,” the wife explains.

Odom was excited by the challenge. “The evidence of Norman Askins was running through everything—the elaborate details, trim package, layout,” he says. “But his design was tailored to a different time, and we needed to update it for modern-day living.”

Thankfully, the home’s original bones, trim package and century-old heart pine floors were intact; Odom’s charge was to add a dash of modernity and edge. Drawing inspiration from the woodsy surroundings, the designer’s sophisticated palette centers on mossy greens and burnt oranges teamed with the classic blues and grays of tailored suiting. It’s a combination Odom calls “a little more masculine and moodier” than your usual fare.

Kravet grass cloth wraps the walls of a family room with pops of color on the furnishings

Kravet grass cloth wraps the walls of the family room, where Lancaster upholstery from Dixon Rye—the brand’s Carmel sectional and Genevie swivel chair—offer comfortable spots to unwind. Pillows of Kelly Wearstler’s District linen for Lee Jofa complete the scheme.

“There’s so much texture and pattern, it feels like a hotel retreat in the countryside.”

–BRADLEY ODOM

cozy bedroom with floral patterned drapes, burnt orange bed and a pink fireplace
elegant foyer with modern wallpaper in a Colonial Revival

Clad in Holly Hunt’s Regents Street wallcovering, the foyer features The Urban Electric Co.’s Albee pendant, a 19th-century Khotan rug from Moattar and an antique bench updated in Donghia’s Points of View textile. In the back hall, a skirted table wears Schumacher’s Marietta cotton.

large-scale geometric wallpaper in a smoky slate shade in the entry of an Atlanta Colonial Revival
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