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.”