You Have to See This House!

If you have read my blog at all, you've read that my favorite store in all of Atlanta is Boxwoods Gardens and Gifts.  It is a delightful place with items of many price points but all tasteful and unique.  The owners, Randy Korando and Dan Belman own a weekend house in Madison, Georgia, about an hour east of Atlanta, called Camp Boxwoods.  I have been in their Atlanta residence, but have been looking forward to seeing their Madison house.  Well, it was on the Madison Morgan Cultural Center's Spring House and Garden Tour this weekend, and I nearly skipped down their long, beautiful driveway, eager to soak in every incredible detail.

photo from the house tour promotional material

Can you believe that this was a 1979 ranch which they have reinvented into a soaring Queen Anne Victorian complete with bell tower?  It sits on 120 acres, with two ponds and extensive gardens filled with antique boxwoods from England.   

This entry space is the only bump out beyond the original footprint of the ranch. 

photo from Traditional Home

Here's the inside of this entry. This beautiful stenciled floor was done by Randy himself.  Isn't it beautiful?  See the oakleaves he put in as center medallions?  Don't miss the wainscotting treatment.  I just love it!

Keep in mind that they added all of this millwork!  This unique chandelier is the top part of one that came from St. Louis.  It hung in the home of Cardinal baseball great, Stan "the Man" Musial.

And in the living room, the larger, bottom half hangs.

Look at the carving over the fireplace.  I don't know that I would have had the nerve to paint it white, but that's exactly what it should be.  Aren't the doors perfect? 

photo from Traditional Home

How beautiful is this?  This room was the garage.  They vaulted many of the low-slung ceilings and that, of course, changed the space dramatically.  Look carefully under the windowseat.  They made a little home for Muffy, the mutt, their smallest dog.  The others, Wesley the sheepdog, and Tuxedo, the standard black poodle are much too large to poach on her special space.

Every single inch has the most special items.  Randy and I both have a special affinity for oak leaves and acorns, and you'll find them many places throughout the home.  I thought this black forest carved wooden box with a fern on it and a fern in it was so fine.

Their majolica collection should be a post by itself!

Here's another item that I love and would love to collect.  It's a faux bois terranium.  I know that they have a collection of these in their in-town home and they are remarkable.

I'm still drooling over this powder room chandelier.

There were a pair of these brackets with black forest birds and queen's ware plates in this powder room.

The kitchen was warm and homey.  The cupboards here are an antique French candy counter cut in half.

A vignette in another powder room.

This photo is very poor quality, but I wanted you to see the way they turned the living room into the dining room.  This window obviously wasn't in the original ranch, but isn't it perfect?

Have you any idea how I covet these lamps on that console?  I love everything about it....black forest and dogs!

And in the center, this silver set has acorns and oak leaves.  Perfect!  Disregard the reflection of the photographer.  I tried every angle, but had to go with this.

I took this picture standing on the steps to the upstairs.  See how this beautiful space opens onto that great wrap around porch?

This is the other side of the room.  Note the way they vaulted this room and the incredible mantle display.  It is perfection the way all the cream color shows up on the stonework.

photo from Traditional Home

Every inch of the master bedroom is genius.  This imposing bed is actually a Victorian twin bed in it's first life. These antique window cornices are soooo fabulous.  I can't imagine how hard it must have been to find the right fit or maybe to even reconfigure them!

More acorns, oak leaves, and black forest carving!

Here's another incredible piece of furniture with the perfect vignette and the perfect wall grouping.

The flowers were simple, but perfect.

And this bust of a woman with a nest of baby birds is just so sweet.

Also in this hallway is this niche with this lovely pot un fleur, which is the specialty at Boxwoods.  Their potting work is so wonderful that you can recognize it in all the finest homes in Atlanta.

On an upstairs porch, I spied this little house.

photo from Traditional Home

Now....for a room that will take your breath away.....the third floor guest bedroom.  Do you recognize the materials that Randy has used to "panel" the lower walls and create the crewel work on the upper half?  They are pinecones, sweetgum balls, honeysuckle vine, hickory nuts, and of course, acorns hats!!!! They are!!!! I promise!!!!

Look carefully.

Are you blown away yet?

How about now?

Sigh!!!

 

Back downstairs, sits the perfect mudroom.  This color combination is just dreamy.  This antique French dinnerware is all in lavender and the old glassware has also taken on a lavender cast.  I love this so much, I might want to turn it into a little bedroom and sleep there.

The other wall in this room, graced with this lovely dog portrait hung over a stained glass partition which they added.  More Boxwoods signature flowers.

Now, this is a porch that I could spends days on.  This witches' hat treatment makes it the perfect focal point for this special home.  I think that sometimes adding these features to a house seem sort of contrived, but in this case, it is nothing short of perfect.

Here's a tease for my next post.....the gardens and outbuildings of Camp Boxwoods.  You won't want to miss it.

To contact :

Randy Korando - interior design

Dal Belman - landscape design

Boxwoods Garden and Gifts

100 East Andrews

Atlanta, Ga. 30305

404-233-3400

Fall Pheasant Dinner Party

We had the most lovely people for dinner Saturday night.  In keeping with the fall season, I used a reproduction  Black Forest carved pheasant as part of the centerpiece, and a theme for the table.  It is made from a resin composite, but it has a rustic, unrefined quality that keeps this tablescape from being too stuffy. 

I started with a cream and taupe damask tablecloth that I got from Pottery Barn last year.  Note the oak leaves and acorns!!!!  Love it!!!  These colors keep the tablescape cooler than most fall collections.

Since I only had six taupe straw ruffled placemats, I used cream linen under the placesettings at the ends of the table.  The cream plates from Crate and Barrel are embossed with oak leaves and acorns.  They don't carry them anymore, unfortunately, because I would love to replace the one I broke.  I topped them with these dark brown pottery salad plates from Target.

Tennille and Company carries these etched glasses that I used for water.  Acorns, again!  Then I used plain stemmed glasses from Tiffany's for wine.

I've also used these dark brown linen napkins quite a few times, but this time I put these carved bone napkin rings at some placesettings and celluloid rings with others.

I love the detail on these painted metal placecard holders.  The bittersweet makes them wonderful on a fall table.  This is one guest who couldn't make it, but I really, really wish she could have.  Maybe soon!

Here's the centerpiece.  I sat it in the center of an oasis ring. 

Most of these flowers are real, but I added some artificial items like the bittersweet, acorns, velvet leaves, wheat, and velvet seed pods.

I tried to restrain the color palate to keep the tones pale and subdued, but I wasn't able to find the exact flowers I was looking for. 

This is a close up of this same "scape" I did last year, and I was more successful in limiting my colors and tones in this arrangement.  I like it much better.

These old wooden candlesticks are filled with faux bois candles.  They are actually dark brown, but look a little striped in this afternoon sunlight.

                                     

 These woven straw wine coasters are hard workers, too.

Here's the whole table.  We actually had too many guests to fit at one table, so we used the one in the breakfast room for four more.  We teased that group that they were at the "kid's table".  I'll post about that table soon.  It was another green and brown arrangement.  I promise I'm about done with those colors.  I'm afraid you don't think I can do anything other than green and brown.  I'm about ready to move on!  

I almost never use paper products, but these cocktail napkins were just too perfect to pass up. 

Here's the coffee tray.  Since we were split up for dinner, the whole group got back together in the living room for coffee.

This teapot was a hostess gift a year or so ago.  Sometimes people really hit the nail on the head.  I absolutely love it!

 

With the leftover flowers, I made a small arrangement for in one of the guest bathrooms.  Doesn't that wallpaper look like the dining room tablecloth?  It's my very favorite wallpaper pattern.  It's a classic Osborne and Little design and I've had it in three houses and in two colorways.

This black tole display piece holds more gourds and mini pumpkins in the living room.

This little arrangement went into the other guest bath. 

Menu:

Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates

Topped with Walnuts

Roasted Pear Salad with Saga Blue Cheese

Pork Tenderloin Stuffed with Fall Fruits

Rosemary Oven Roasted Heirloom Potatoes

Carrot Souffle

Pumpkin Bread Pudding with

Caramel Sauce

I'm linking up with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for her Tablescape Thursday blog party, and the Style Sisters' Centerpiece Wednesday party.  Be sure to visit them and you'll be amazed at the creativity you'll see.