Tour a Charming South Carolina Home Located on a Peach Farm

James Farmer is becoming synonymous with impeccably curated and joyfully more-is-more neo traditional interiors, and it’s easy to see why. As a designer, author and lifestyle expert, he combines fluency in design history and casually contemporary eclecticism to create homes that are both gorgeous and delightfully unfussy.

Case in point: This fresh and welcoming home in Aiken, South Carolina, where a young family puts their feet up after tending to their peach farm. “Though the house is an older home it wasn’t too old to be updated for today’s standard of living,” James says.

Don’t despair if you don’t have family-heirloom furniture or heavy-hitting antiques to display in your home. James’s favorite piece in this project? “A framed packing label reading Stately Oaks — the name of their peach farm. Sometime the little pieces like that mean more than a large antique.”

Striped wallpaper in the foyer highlights an architectural detail in the cased opening to the dining room. It’s also a thoughtful variation on the vertical floral paper in the room next to it.

Want to try a power pairing like the two types of seating in this dining room? The arrangement is simpler than you think: “Start with a host and hostess chair,” James advises of the chairs at the head and foot of the table. “That is the easiest way to mix in a style! Then fill in the others as a set.”

Choosing artwork to hang above the mantel in the dining room had less to do with design principles and more to do with the response it elicited. “It just felt right for the room!” James says. “My grandmother always said we feed people body and soul. I feel the comfort of this painting exemplifies that in the dining room.”

The pair of fanciful table lamps James arranged on this dresser are both effective uses of color and evocative symbols: lemons have been prized as decorative objects for thousands of years, and they’ve been associated with everything from wealth and longevity to love and friendship. They’re also a canny choice for a home that adjoins orchards, of course.

Fear not if you find yourself unable to source the perfect older lighting fixtures for your space (or don’t fancy paying for repairs or hunting for replacement crystals). The chandeliers James installed in the dining and living rooms complement antique and vintage pieces beautifully — and are brand new.

James divided this long, narrow room into two much more functional spaces: a bright, cozy sitting area in the foreground, and a sun-drenched breakfast area beside the windows behind it. He varied the horizon in both areas so that lower pieces sit in their centers and taller ones rest against the walls, offering an uninterrupted view of the trees beyond the windows.

James's clients are far from the only local family who share their harvest with their neighbors: as it happens, Aiken has the oldest farmer's market in South Carolina. It's held on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, if you're in town.

Foliage on a pair of oil paintings gives way to three-dimensional, look-at-me leaves on a pair of potted begonias. James chose a geometric fabric for the love seat between them, then let those repeating shapes guide him to a pair of intricate bentwood chairs.

Strategic munchies enhance the mood of casual welcome in the sitting area between the foyer and breakfast room — and why shouldn’t snacks be a decorative theme? “Sure they are beautiful and colorful props,” James says, “but it’s those touches that are true to the family that make it home.” (Bonus points for coffee table books that double down on the home’s botanical motif.)

Don’t be shy about mixing ostensibly formal pieces with more weathered ones: in this breakfast-room tableau, a pair of high-gloss bamboo candlesticks are right at home beside a gloriously weathered vase.

James used Peter Dunham’s iconic Fig Leaf fabric — inspired by its creator’s childhood summers spent in Spain — for Roman shades and pillows in the sitting area and breakfast room. Gingham, leopard and ikat fabrics in similar tones brighten a lampshade and upholstered dining chair seats.

James chose cheerful, heart-shaped green nephthytis topiaries to add color and height in the breakfast room. These vibrant, low-maintenance house plants love a bit of humidity and thrive in spaces like bathrooms and kitchens; in drier spots like this one, be sure to maintain a regular watering regimen.

Thoughtful design is a bit like being a clever host: develop a guest list for your spaces, if you will, by thinking about what the pieces you’re considering might have to say to one another. James selected a Spanish refectory table to extend a motif in the living room: “The trestle design reminded me of the wallpaper,” he explains.

Create a stunning, large-scale display like the one James installed here by searching sites like Etsy and 1stDibs for vintage botanical lithographs, then mounting them in uniform frames.

This custom channel-quilted velvet sofa's vivid tone recurs throughout the home in wall art, objects, floral arrangements and, of course, overflowing bowls of fragrant peaches and nectarines.

The Kammy & Company painting above the mantel feels far younger than much of the artwork in the home — and that’s by design. “It was intentional to add in some contemporary artwork,” James says. Contemporary art is often not thought of as pensive, however it really makes you think abstractly — thus the intention of placing such a piece here.”

A riot of zinnias, roses and dahlias hold pride of place in a crystal vase at the center of the family room coffee table. This arrangement's appeal lies in a profusion of blooms rather than meticulous placement: it's all about the maximalism.

This handsome buffet du corps is a French antique, but neither James nor his clients are precious about calling it into service. “It provides great storage for the family room,” he says. “Truly using an antique for its intended purpose!”

Don’t let the pro-level styling on these built-in shelves distract from how useful they are. “One of the joys of my job is to turn a house into a home,” James says. “What makes a home feel like a home is that ‘lived-in’ feel. By photographing a basket of peaches — after all, the owners are peach farmers and the home is located on their peach farm … and we shot this during peach season — that is showing how the family actually lives.”

“Naturally, as with many older homes, a new kitchen needed to be added which was the catalyst for the whole project," James Farmer says of this once-outdated South Carolina home redesign. "A new kitchen, entry and mudroom allowed for the traditional floor plan to flow into more contemporary needs.”

James designed this handsome custom piece to function as the kitchen’s heart. “I treat countertops for the task at hand and, like a wonderful wooden-top table, the island is a great place to sit, eat, work or gather,” he says.

The island’s gentle contrast with the rest of the kitchen is intentional: James used Benjamin Moore’s Nantucket Gray to offset the creamy Linen White he chose for the cabinets. “Islands are also a great accent,” he notes. “Just like changing the countertop material, it’s great to paint it a complementing color.”

James emphasized the kitchen’s airy new character by deploying casual open shelving with warm wood and white brackets on either side of the kitchen sink. A wicker-wrapped vase with a casual arrangement of dahlias and zinnias adds even more warmth to the space, while a diminutive Zanzibar Gem (also known as a ZZ plant) basks in the sunlight streaming through the window.

A variegated sedum in the center of the kitchen window functions as a nod to Aiken’s reputation for lush gardens — as do the drapes in a “lovely green colorway,” Schumacher’s Lotus Garden fabric, which recurs in the shades flanking the stove and the upholstered seats at the kitchen island. “The ways the fabrics were applied and utilized created a concerted effort,” James says.