The House
Florals can make a room feel warm and inviting…or stuffy and outdated. Overdoing them can be especially hard to resist if you happen to grow flowers for a living, as Leah and Ken James do: They own a greenhouse business in Georgia. “We gravitate toward nature-inspired design elements anywhere we can find them — in wallpaper, art, furniture, even light fixtures,” says Leah. The couple and their teen daughter, Amelia, used to live in a house on the grounds of their company, but in 2016 they moved to Athens, choosing a Craftsman-style home built in 2002.
They worked with local designer Jade Joyner on several major updates — replacing the cold terra-cotta-tile floors on the first story with heart pine, renovating the kitchen and a bathroom and painting all the rooms. Then came the fun part: choosing wallpaper and art. The result — a mix of cool floral patterns, warm wood and modern metallics — makes their take on cozy totally fresh.