Tour an Updated Georgia Farmhouse With Historic Charm

Designer Bradley Odom of Atlanta’s Dixon Rye — an immersive interior-goods purveyor that presents luxurious new pieces, curated antiques and custom-upholstered work by Bradley himself — specializes in developing spaces that are both fluent in design history and unmistakably unique.

This handsome, hand-me-down farmstead on Georgia's Lake Oconee is precisely that sort of space. “Our client is LA-based but grew up here in Georgia. He wanted to hold on to the family home and have it renovated [to be] a place where all his siblings and family could gather,” Bradley explains. Take a closer look at his stylish reinterpretation of this cottage retreat; updates like these can help make any home feel familiar and fresh all at once.

The massive, quarter-sawn oak table Bradley’s team commissioned for the dining room is both impressive — it can seat up to 14 people — and approachable, thanks to its unfussy silhouette. “You can have a quick breakfast with just two people or have a grand dinner with more and it feels the same,” he says.

The vintage factory fixtures he chose in lieu of chandeliers, in turn, are similarly grand and quirky all at once. They’re a favorite detail of Bradley’s: “The overscaled pendants in the dining room get me every time,” he says. “I love how industrial they are and how they juxtapose with the modern art and more rustic table.” As for that statement canvas, “our clients are avid art collectors and this was [a piece] they commissioned a while before this project,” he says. “We had it shipped in — we need something huge here! The art is a Lawrence Carroll, called ‘Away From the Noise.’”

Bradley used Benjamin Moore Espresso Bean to lend a luxe, rich look to the shelves flanking the mantel. He approached styling those spaces with an eye to creating an atmosphere of interest: “We started with symmetry and balance,” he says. “The framed arrowheads were the launching point for that, but we also took our cue from a ‘cabinet of curiosities,’ mixing in expected things like books with unique family treasures and oddities.”

Speaking of treasures, Bradley admits it took him a bit of time to warm to the eagle above the fireplace (which one of his colleagues discovered at an Atlanta vintage store). “I was a little reluctant in the beginning but he took it on approval and it worked perfectly so we said yes! It’s an antique polychrome from the 1870s. We felt it had just the right amount of Americana.”

Note the subtle-but-important difference between the hues Bradley chose for the ceiling and walls in this now-soaring main living area (where his team lifted the ceilings and stained the floors for crisp contrast). “The ceilings were so expansive and vast that we needed to keep them separate to bring in the volume some,” he says.” He made the most of the space’s airiness, in turn, by reaching for a MVP: “The walls are Cloud Cover from Benjamin Moore — a go-to on most all projects for us. It reflects light better than most any white I’ve used.”

It’s no coincidence that the Benjamin Moore Kensington Green paint backing the bar cabinet in the living room guides the eye into the hallway beyond it; the painting framed in the doorway is a piece from the client’s Los Angeles home that Bradley promised he would use in the cottage. “We actually pulled the blue color from the painting and used it in the cabinet,” he says. “It was important that that [theme] continued throughout other areas as well — even outside, with subtle hints of blue.”

This styled table performs the nifty trick of creating discrete regions within the cottage’s main living space. “It was important the room be divided into areas, all while remaining open to one another: for example, separate seating areas, foyer and dining,” Bradley says. “ We felt like the [basket] arrangement could provide a stopping point for your eye that created a foyer-like feel.”

A massive arrangement like this one might look costly or difficult to assemble at first glance; not so, Bradley says. “Forage, forage, forage — it’s the best way to create something organic,” he advises. “Use large branches, objects, and really anything that complements each other. Don’t be afraid to go big!”

In designing a kitchen that would reflect his clients’ heirloom-meets-modern-style, Bradley was careful to avoid pieces and patterns that might have felt too formal. That began with the butcher block countertops: “[W]e wanted to keep everything humble and butcher block did that,” he explains. “Marble would have been way too sophisticated for this space.” For the upholstered window seat, he chose Schumacher’s Ming Fret, a graphic pattern based on a Chinese architectural motif. “The fabric for the bench felt elevated but not too fussy.”

The magnificent piece at the center of the kitchen wasn’t built from scratch to suit it — quite the opposite, in fact. “The island was something we found on a buying trip to Belgium,” Bradley says. “It was originally used as a desk, but we modified it and loved having something old in this new space. We had it raised to be an appropriate counter height.” The pendant above it “needed to be something simple but eye catching. We liked that it was brass and had just a bit of modern style.”

Bradley’s team revitalized the primary bedroom by doubling down on a striking hue. The Schumacher wool satin he chose to upholster the bed’s channel-tufted headboard is a perennial favorite; to create tone-on-tone drama, “we color matched the paint to the fabric,” he explains. Pale linens, seating and artwork all contrast beautifully with the deep green of the walls, molding and bed. (To give your space an extra bit of contemporary edge, literally and figuratively, carry your walls’ paint color all the way to the ceiling, as Bradley did here.) The fabric he chose for the drapes and throw pillow, in turn, is Lee Jofa’s Jessup — “what I like to call ‘a subtle statement.’”

The furniture Bradley selected for this guest room could have presented a spatial challenge. On the twin beds he designed and made along with the matching armchair, “the headboards were taller than normal and placing art [above them] would have been too high for the eye,” he explains. That potential dilemma presented an opportunity to arrange four pieces between the beds in an unorthodox and utterly charming way: “we wanted an unexpected, sort of of-centered, unjustified placement.” The salon-style grouping he created gives the room a shot of charismatic coziness.