Tour a Classic Dutch Colonial With a Seamless Addition

Decorating this 8,000-square-foot, Twenties-era Dutch Colonial in Atlanta held special signifiance for designer Carter Kay of Carter Kay Interiors, as the request came from her bookkeeper of 12 years. Together with partner Nancy Hooff, they created a continental and welcoming space for the five-bedroom, four-bath home. The homeowners' main goal? Maintaining the original Dutch Colonial feel in a home where extensive additions and renovations included a light-filled kitchen, a brick-walled wine cellar and a new entry. Along the way, Kay and Hooff were inspired by the client's unique fashion sense: classic, but with a twist.

By all appearances the entryway could be original to the home, but it's actually part of the updated additions. To create the effect, Kay and Hooff used the home's original wood boards, recovered from demolition, and added custom doors and a paneled coat closet. Some of the owner's favorite items personalize the space, like this antique child's chair, gallery artwork, Moattar rug and Formations lantern.

Kay and Hooff use foyers to create a great first impression, and here they conveyed the owners' preference for relaxed elegance and unusual combinations. They achieved this by angling a zebra rug on the dark oak floor, leaning a large painting on an antique chest, adding a French chair with an overstuffed cushion and choosing a sisal runner for the stairs. "A successful design depends on contrasts and textures while being adventurous in combination," Kay says.

At first glance this bronze sculpture looks like an antique, but it's really a contemporary bust of the owner's oldest daughter. The green ribbon can be changed thanks to a hidden hole in the sculpture.