Design Advice

No green thumb? Master gardener? There are houseplants for everyone. From bold foliage patterns to macrame hangers, the design world is inspiring us to embrace our inner gardener. Every room needs a touch of something organic—even the most minimalist spaces.

The Druid Hills house where interior designer Susan Ferrier lives with her husband, Adrian, was described in her new book as a “portrait of an artist and a bit of a sorceress’s cave.”

If you fancy becoming one of those hammer-swinging, do-it-yourself home renovators on television, you’re in luck. The metro Atlanta area is coveted by producers for its rich variety of housing styles and neighborhoods.

After years living in London and designing high-end hotels and restaurants all over the world, Summer Williams returned home to Rome, Georgia, to design an airplane hangar for her pilot father, Mick, who wanted a home for his Cessna T206 airplane at Russell Field—and a place to relax. Here’s how the design took off.

Gone are the dark and dreary basements of 1970s sitcoms. Today’s terrace levels are no longer afterthoughts full of used furniture.

It’s no surprise that New York–based designer Miles Redd, an Atlanta native, is currently crushing on the big and the bold, the graphic and traditional, the dramatic and cinematic (after all, he was a film major). His new collection with Atlanta-based Ballard Designs is a reflection of this eclectic, fantastical vision.

Nothing beats the patina of an authentic loft. John Cugasi’s condo in Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts (built in 1881) has 19-foot ceilings; 10-foot windows; and brick that has weathered a brush with the 2008 tornado, a dramatic fire in 1999, and decades of textile manufacturing. Kohl Sudnikovich, a design consultant with Cantoni, created a kitchen redo that marries modern furnishings with historical bones.

This lively breakfast room addition by Atlanta architect Norman Askins and interior designer/author James Farmer fits nicely in a 19th-century house.

“The dark color really envelops you and feels cozy,” says interior designer Nina Nash. When she and her Mathews Furniture partner Don Easterling created this sultry and sophisticated study in Ansley Park, they installed classic built-ins, then furnished the room in rich tones from both ends of the color spectrum

Ditch the lucite, curate your kids' spaces (but don't leave their voices out!), and don't feel like you have to spend a fortune, says designer and TV personality Jeremiah Brent.