Many residents of Atlanta are seeking houses that are both homey and stylish, modern but infused with Southern hospitality and charm, and suited to busy professionals and growing families. There is a collective respect for the region’s history and cultural traditions, but also for technological advances, the progressive nature of its people and growing corporate climate, and an increasing sensitivity to sustaining the environment. These sentiments, and the tensions between them, often play out in the new styles of Atlanta homes. The following interior design firms were chosen for their creative and high-end work in Atlanta residences, their recognition and prestige, and their mission-driven and client-centered approaches to design.
Nandina Home & Design
6170 Roswell Road, Sandy Springs, GA 30328
Co-owner, interior designer and Director of Marketing Susan Victor says that “great interiors are defined as much by emotions as they are by beauty.” Nandina Home & Design works with decors that include traditional, transitional, eclectic, and contemporary. Victor is joined by co-owners/designers Sue Shannon and John Ishmael, as well as Lead Designers Michelle Merritt and Jessie La Falce. The team’s Atlanta office, which opened in 2010, is run by John Ishmael, bringing to the firm more than two decades of combined interior design experience. Nandina Home & Design has been featured as Best South Carolina Interior Designs by KeyInteriorDesigners.com, and the Atlanta branch of the firm has been called one of the top Atlanta Interior Designers.
Nandina designed the interior of an Atlanta home in 2015 with an estimated project cost of $500k. The home, which is classical in style, features white built-in shelving; a traditional wooden dining table; upholstered chairs decorated with cursive, French words; gray-and-white paneled walls; sofa and chair sets with sophisticated patterns; artistic light fixtures; a cozy, stone fireplace; a granite kitchen counter below pendant lights; a powder room; and a master bathroom featuring his-and-her sinks. Another residence in Atlanta designed by Nandina in 2012 cost an estimated $500k and utilized 5,600 square feet of interior space. The clients sought a brighter atmosphere with a better sense of connectivity. Their house, which was transformed into an open-concept, family-friendly residence, now contains soft, beige walls, a stone hearth fireplace, arched walkways over hardwood floors, a series of brightly colored pillows to spark joy and excitement, detailed area rugs and patterned curtains, large windows letting in natural light, a home library containing several wooden bookcases, a round dining table to emphasize togetherness, a chic modern granite kitchen counter, bar stools with splashes of daffodil yellow, and outdoor furniture made of wicker.
Jeffrey Bruce Baker
1145 Zonolite Road NE, Suite 2, Atlanta, GA 30306
Jeffrey Bruce Baker is a full-service architecture, interior design, and design-build firm located in Atlanta. Known for its modern designs, the firm was founded in 2009 by Jeffrey Baker. Since then, its designs have popped up in Metropolitan Atlanta, Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, and Mexico. Jeffrey Bruce Baker is NCARB certified and works on projects ranging from luxury residential to restaurant, small business, and hospitality. He is the chief client experience Advocate, CEO/design director of the firm, as well as a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), and he formerly worked for Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart & Stewart, and for Hunter Group Architects. Jeffrey Baker is joined by Chris McKinley, client experience director and vice president/COO, who has more than 20 years of expertise with client experience, marketing, and business management. McKinley formerly did advocacy work to raise hundreds of millions of fundraising dollars for nonprofit organizations, both national and international.
The firm’s team is licensed for architecture and interior design and also completes design-build projects for clients seeking both a designer and contractor. One project, a hillside residence in Atlanta, had an estimated project cost of $1.5M. The house boasts views of tree-covered hills and a small river that runs behind the property, underneath it and then cuts across the yard. The goal was not to detract from the presence of nature around this house. Instead, the firm created vistas specifically for residents to better appreciate the natural beauty in their immediate surroundings. Although modern in style, the house was designed in such a way that it would blend in with the hillside and features an interior courtyard/swimming pool area with a stone fireplace and outdoor seating. The outdoors and indoors feature modern decorative pieces, light fixtures and wall hangings; a common thread in Jeffrey Bruce Baker designs is warm yet modern interiors.
Erika Ward Interiors
1035 Research Center Drive, Suite F, Atlanta, GA 30331
A full-service and Atlanta-based firm, Erika Ward Interiors offers creative and client-focused solutions to design dilemmas. The firm’s approach is founded on “clienteling,” where both clients and Facebook and blog fans are placed front and center. Erika Ward operates on three principles: 1) the firm stands for everything that matters to its clients, 2) luxury doesn’t have to be expensive and 3) the firm keeps it real, i.e., transparency enables strong, long-lasting client-designer relationships. Erika Ward Interiors’ designs have been featured in Atlanta Homes, Better Homes and Gardens, Atlanta Neighborhoods, Refresh Magazine, The Huffington Post, and several others. She has appeared on Fox 5 and was selected as a top design firm by The Atlanta Tribune. She appears on Expertise as one of the top 21 interior designers in Atlanta.
One of Erika Ward’s projects, in Dunwoody, GA, started with a bland and dim-lit living room, making poor use of the room’s space, and turned it into a warm and cheery Nantucket-style family area. In place of drab furniture, Erika Ward brought in a single, L-shaped Bernhardt sectional sofa, a durable jet-blue rug to arouse the mood of the ocean, and swapped the small wall photos with large works of art by Barclay Butera. The pieces are maritime-themed, and their size helps the room feel larger than it really is. Accessories like knit throw blankets, an ornamental boat oar, and reclaimed wood enforce the maritime pattern. Another design, this one for a residence in Alpharetta, GA, brought a feeling of calm to a bustling neighborhood. Inspired by the urban farming community in Serenbe, the design includes bright green colors, wood furnishings with a weathered look, and several neutral-colored textiles, all conjuring images of nature.
CG Interiors Group
537 Rosalyn Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30318
CG Interiors Group was founded 20 years ago on the simple notion that good design is magic; that each space tells a story all its own. Led by principal designer Caryn Grossman and senior associate Chris Buxbaum, cg interiors group prides itself on listening — transforming clients’ dreams and desires into solutions that are elegant, playful, enticing, and extraordinary.
The company provides a full range of interior design services to both the residential and commercial markets, from boutique hospitality to turn-key renovations and expansions. Driven by boundless curiosity, CG Interiors Group is known for its bold use of space, sustainable solutions, and innovative sourcing from around the world.
Based in Atlanta, projects span the country, including Miami, San Francisco, and Chicago. The company has been recognized locally and internationally, including winner of the Southeastern Design Challenge at the Museum of Design Atlanta, the Spark International Design Awards, Atlanta Downtown Design Excellence Award and numerous Best of Atlanta awards.
Several of CG Interiors Group’s projects are located in Atlanta, and many occupy modern, high-end places of residence. In addition to newly built structures, the firm also specializes in revitalizing historic buildings. In a 1915 building listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the firm combined two vacant warehouse units to create one spacious modern loft. The firm went out of its way to honor and preserve the original structure, maintaining the exposed brick and plaster walls, timber columns and beams, and hardwood and concrete flooring. All furniture and fixtures within the space were custom-designed by CG Interiors Group and local artisans, and feature an innovative palette of sustainable materials, original artwork, and bold colorways.
Habachy Designs
434 Marietta Street, Suite 406, Atlanta, GA 30313
Michael Habachy, owner of Habachy Designs, has created luxury interiors for decades. He attributes his success to passion, strong work ethic, and positive relationships with clients. The firm’s designs have appeared in several publications — local, national, and international. One of Habachy’s projects was chosen to appear on the cover of Trends Magazine, and another was featured in the Museum of Design Atlanta. His work has received multiple recognitions and awards through ASID, including gold awards, and one of his designs has appeared on HGTV’s Design Wars. Dawen Huang, the firm’s senior designer, completed designs in New York City for high-end, residential properties, which remain his continued focus today. In the past, he worked on luxury private residences, offices, retail properties, boutiques, and even restaurants. He is NCIDQ certified from the Council for Interior Design Qualification and also a certified professional with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
The firm’s style has been described as atmospheric, luxurious, timeless yet modern, and filled with hints of Southern charm. The firm works on properties both commercial and residential, and has designed chic spas, fashionable restaurants, and glamorous nightclubs. Habachy Designs’ work was featured at the 44th Annual Atlanta Symphony Associates Decorator’s Show House and Gardens. Habachy designed the pool house, a project starting with a great deal of raw space, which enabled the firm to hand-pick and design the majority of the elements in the final product. These included water-jet cut, Chevron-tiled floors, and a custom-designed, built-in bar. To honor the house’s history — a 1920s Philip Schutze design — Habachy Designs worked to create a space that embodied both Miami-style Art Deco and glamorous, Hollywood-chic. The design’s focal piece was a chandelier sculpture made by Apparatus Studio. The piece utilizes mirrors in order to reflect imagery of the outdoors.
Peace Design
349 Peachtree Hills Avenue NE, C2, Atlanta, Georgia 30305
William Peace, founder of Peace Design, has 25 years of experience in the interior design world. Famous for his sophisticated and peaceful interiors, the firm creates detail-oriented designs whose every element — each color, texture, and type of light — is thoughtfully aligned into what becomes the backdrop to a given client’s lifestyle. Pulling inspiration from worldly and natural beauty, like Montana mountains, Parisian cafes, and Rothko’s works of art, the firm creates spaces that express clients’ tastes and make clients’ lives more comfortable. The firm has received several awards, including the National ASID Project award for residential interiors, City of Atlanta Urban Renewal, and Southeastern Designer of the Year. William Peace has been on the Board of Trustees of the Smithsonian-affiliated Museum of Design in Atlanta and a member of the Advisory Committee for the College of Design at the University of Kentucky, where he studied architecture, interior design and fine arts. The firm’s work has appeared in Architectural Digest, Veranda, Western Interiors, Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles and more.
Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles featured a project by Peace Design described as artful and elegant. A New York executive and his wife seeking a second home in Atlanta approached Peace Design for a design for their new high-rise condo. The goal was a space that would feel sophisticated, ideal for entertaining and socializing, and also comfortable for family. At the same time, the firm aimed to honor the art collection central to the residence without reducing the space’s overall warmth. Peace Design created windows with wide views that also act as frames for the family’s sculpture collection, and designed rooms modeled after galleries to house all of their paintings and photographs. Splashes of sophistication were placed throughout the home, including bronze, marble, onyx, leather, wood, silk, and mohair. The furnishings merge vintage with modern aesthetic, and all of the artwork was purchased at local, Atlanta galleries. Another talked-about project by Peace Design was for the Make a Room project through the American Craft Council. For this experiment, Atlanta designers were provided with a piece of art to use as inspiration for an original, 10 x 10 foot space. Peace Design chose a ceramic piece by artist Michael Schwegmann and a metal piece by Donna D’Aquino, which inspired a room with a clean and industrial interior design. Peace Design envisioned these works of art housed in a room with minimalist style, warm tones and subtle textures, so that the pieces would be enhanced rather than overshadowed.
VRA Interiors
4780 Ashford Dunwoody Road, Atlanta, GA 30338
Founded by Vanessa Mitchell and Reem Tomeh in Atlanta, VRA Interiors’ team has a combined 10 years of experience in interior design. The firm’s mission is to create places where clients love to live, and the team achieves this through listening to clients’ needs, expectations, and desires, then seeking entirely creative and new ideas to meet them. VRA Interiors sees any given client’s history, experiences, and lifestyle as the greatest resource to inspiration. The firm’s ultimate goal in its residential-focused interior design is to create not only visually appealing houses, but homes where family, friends, and loved ones come together and form memories that last. Key to VRA’s success is making sure each client maintains full ownership over his or her home, while at the same time exceeding all expectations and producing outstanding results. VRA Interiors’ website is full of five-star, detailed testimonials written by members of the Atlanta community, and the firm is listed as one of the 21 Best Atlanta Interior Designers of Expertise.
In 2016, VRA designed a two-bedroom condo in midtown Atlanta, whose renovation cost an estimated $100k. The new design features fresh paint, new floors, cabinets and countertops, brand-new accessories, and window treatments. The space is modern but clean, with glamorous touches of ash grays, burned orange, brass, navy blue, and rich browns. VRA Interiors also added new tiles and enhanced a decorative pillar with metal tiles to achieve a centerpiece, both artistic and modern. VRA’s 2016 extensive design project on a home in Wieuca Road in Buckhead cost around $100k and features a brand-new kitchen, living room, dining room, and home office. The space is designed to appear friendly but sophisticated, with both warm and cool colors, including passionate reds and bright teals on a primarily soft, gray palette. The kitchen boasts a gray stone subway backsplash as the centerpiece, and walls were broken down to create a more airy feeling to the cooking area. The kitchen also contains new cabinets, counters, furniture, light fixtures, window treatments, and decorative accessories.
Rooms Revamped Interior Design
134 Dickerson Road NE, Marietta, GA 30067
Rooms Revamped Interior Design is led by Robin LaMonte, known for creating spaces that are beautiful, comfortable, personal, and revealing of each client’s story. Selected for her wide range of high-end projects, which have been featured prominently in Atlanta’s design community, her clients have included young families, professional sports figures, busy single executives, professional couples, and baby boomers. For 15 years, she has designed homes, condos, vacation homes, kitchens, and bathrooms primarily in the Atlanta area, but also in Hilton Head, Florida, New Jersey, and New York. Her work was showcased in the 2015 Atlanta Symphony Decorator’s Showhouse, as well as in the 2012 Mansion in May and the 2013 and 2014 Christmas at Callanwolde. She has appeared on a decorating segment of Good Morning America, and one of her designs appeared in a segment on HGTV. Her work has also been featured in a number of magazines, including Atlanta Homes, Atlanta Home Improvement and Homes & Gardens. She is a member of ASID and the National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA).
Rooms Revamped assessed a decades-old kitchen to determine whether it needed a complete remodeling or could do with simply a facelift or “botox renovation.” To keep costs down, the firm kept the original cabinetry, repainting the wood in bright yellows and greens, and kept the dark-stained, base-level cabinets in order to maintain a level of warmth in the aesthetic. An iron pot rack was removed, and metal fret orange drum shades installed in its place. The kitchen now features large, sunlit windows, bright and bold splashes of color in the brand-new light fixtures and wall decor, a marble backsplash, and new faucets. The focal piece is a dramatic blue hood for the stove, painted to appear with a copper tint. The project cost around $25k. In a higher-end project, Rooms Revamped designed a modern Atlanta loft, whose estimated cost was around $200k. A complete renovation, this project involved a brand-new kitchen, three bathrooms, a retractable exterior awning, and custom outdoor furniture. This chic, brick-walled loft now features modern light fixtures and a more open floor plan; Rooms Revamped removed some of the walls between the bedroom and home office and installed sleek, sliding wall panels in their place.
Joel Kelly Design
425 Peachtree Hills Avenue, Suite 12B, Atlanta, GA 30305
Joel Kelly Design began with watercolor. His mother an artist, Joel Kelly was inspired by his early childhood experiences of observing beautiful things appear on paper. He learned to see, rather than look — to study the details, the textures, and the sounds. He learned “to inhabit the place in which you are.” Later, this translated into design. Joel Kelly studied at Georgia Tech, Ecole Des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and at Princeton, where he learned about the connection between architecture and story. An academic journey through Roman ruins and Greece helped him see how meaning gets attributed to spaces over time. Joel Kelly Design has earned several awards and recognition, including the Georgia Chapter 2016 ASID Best in Show (Residential) award, the 2016 ASID Gold Award for Interior Design for projects over 3,500 square feet, the 2016 ASID Gold Award for Interior Design for a Townhouse, Condo or Loft, and the 2016 ASID Gold Award for Interior Design for product design. In 2015, he was the Global 2nd Place winner in the Sub-Zero Wolf Kitchen Design Competition within the Transitional Kitchen Category. In 2015, he also won the ASID Georgia Chapter’s Best in Show (Residential) and the ASID Gold Award for Interior Design, all through the Georgia Chapter.
One of the firm’s projects appeared in Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles in an “Anything But Ordinary” feature. In collaboration with architect Peter Block, Joel Kelly created a Buckhead residence the magazine described as a “timeworn beauty.” The award-winning space was intended to be a sanctuary, a place suited to pets and children for generations to come. Still, the clients sought an eclectic, rather than ordinary, residence. The result, inspired by historical architecture, was a 7,000-square-foot house divided into unique wings where old meets new: although the house is functional in a modern world, its aesthetic is reminiscent of Old England, with steep roofs, lime-washed brick, and windows with multiple panels. Indoors, the building contains painted wood beams and thickly plastered walls. The library, the “most designed room in the house,” was inspired by an old map of London split into 24 different panels and is stocked with salvaged books. The room is filled with unexpected and quirky decorative pieces, creating a cozy, collector vibe. Intimate without being austere, the interior has a muted color palette with occasional dashes of bright orange.
Melissa Galt Interiors
3475 Oak Valley Rd NE Suite 1740, Atlanta, GA 30326
Selected for her fame, acclaim, and high-end design projects, Melissa Galt, great-granddaughter of legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, has 20 years of experience in Atlanta’s interior design business and community. Galt measures the success of her designs by positive changes taking place within her clients’ personal lives during, or following, her design projects: one client reached her goal weight during the firm’s design of her home, another got engaged just following the design process, and another retired in order to spend more time in the environment newly designed by Melissa Galt Interiors. Galt studied at Cornell and the Southern Institute and has traveled through Africa, Australia, India, and Spain, to name a few. While design may be in her genes, her designs are most inspired through her curiosity about other cultures, countries, and customs. Melissa Galt has also facilitated classes at Oglethorpe University, Emory, and Spruill Arts Center. Her work has been featured in Southern Living, Decorating Spaces, Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, The Atlanta Business Chronicle, Living in Atlanta, Atlanta Style & Design, Home Improvement, and more.
“I launched my interior design firm in 1994 when a couple of key design clients urged me to go out on my own. They knew that I felt limited where I was practicing and encouraged me to launch my own interiors practice.” – Melissa Galt
One of Melissa Galt’s high-end projects was designing the main level of a home for a pediatrician and family, who had an extensive wine collection in East Cobb. A couple years following the initial design, the client returned to the firm for a complete renovation of the basement, as well. The design relied heavily on strong, copper hues, aubergine, and amber, and one of the client’s goals was to have spaces appropriate for entertaining. The new space includes a movie room, a guest room and bath, a family room, a bar area, and a wine tasting room, ideal for socializing. The client called the new design a “place we look forward to escaping to at the end of the day” and says it is such a comfortable space that friends and neighborhoods never want to leave. The estimated project cost was $100k. Another design by the firm, this one a modern luxury project in Johns Creek, was inspired by a unique combination of influences: 1) high-end golf courses, and 2) the client’s pet, a gray-furred and green-eyed housecat. This 90-day renovation involved three stories and culminated in brand-new furniture, HVAC, window treatments, and floor coverings. The kitchen was merged with the dining area to allow a more spacious atmosphere. The firm added a careful balance of wood, stone, glass, metal, and textiles, and the new color palette featured dashes of the feline-inspired gray, silver, and green. A glass wall waterfall was specifically commissioned for the stairwell. The project cost around $300k.
“I’ve always seen one’s home as your external heart and as such it deserves to be handled with the utmost care, creativity, and respect. Design, when done well and right, has a profound positive transformative impact on the lives going on inside it. I’ve had the great fortune to witness clients improve their health, deepen relationships, increase financial fortune, and change their lives all by design.
It’s always an honor and privilege to be invited to work on a client’s home, and in several cases, they’ve hired me to redesign their offices as well. When you change your interiors, you truly change your life. Being able to see beyond where my client is now to where they want to be, enables me to create living and working environments that empower my clients to reach their full potential.” – Melissa Galt
