2020 Kitchen of the Year
Delicate Balance
Jessica Bradley Interiors
Seamlessly connecting a historic structure with new construction is a delicate undertaking. The secret recipe is making it indecipherable where the original home ends and the addition begins, a feat masterfully achieved by architect Frank Neely and designer Jessica Bradley in this Brookwood Hills renovation.
The adjoining kitchen and dining room is the home’s main artery, as well as the connective tissue between the old house and new construction. Neely said it was important to connect the addition visually, so white cabinets, trim work and molding were "packaged” together, functioning as a whole rather than as individual parts so it appears to be original to the house.
The thoughtful, highly functional layout allows the homeowner to cook and gather with ease—especially with three young children underfoot—while still feeling like a distinctive living space and not too, as Bradley says, "kitcheny.”
"It doesn’t feel like a kitchen—it feels like a large, warm and welcoming space that can accommodate a lot of people and yet be very functional at the same time,” Bradley explains.
The primarily creamy room is anchored with a warm walnut island, which feels more like a large dining table. Bradley selected a lighter breakfast room table and chairs so the island would feel like the central gathering spot. The marble perimeter countertop boasts blue-green details that complement the tiled backsplash, as well as the striking pantry painted Farrow & Ball Oval Room Blue, which contrasts with the creamy room beautifully. "This anchor of color that Jessica selected really helps to ground the white kitchen,” Neely shares.
In the end, Neely notes that the kitchen addition is the hardest working room of the house, and takes on the responsibility with effortless grace. "It handles the circulation of the home, accommodates large numbers of people without getting in the way of the cook and is a joy to be around, as it’s easy on the eyes,” Neely notes. "It is genuinely a nice space to spend time in.”
ARCHITECT Frank Neely, Christian Reed, Neely Design Associates; (404) 817-0807; neelydesign.com INTERIOR DESIGNER Jessica Bradley, Jessica Bradley Interiors; (404) 846-3220; jessicabradleyinteriors.com CONTRACTOR Patrick Davey, Davey Construction LLC; (404) 256-1436
CABINET & WALL COLOR Sherwin-Williams Creamy PANTRY COLOR Farrow & Ball Oval Room Blue PENDANTS Circa Lighting COUNTERTOPS Marmi Natural Stone ISLAND SEATING Beau Studio with back covered in Fermoie Hamble and seat in leather DINING TABLE AND CHAIRS Tritter Feefer custom Rita table in Seaside, Bungalow 5 Monaco in Natural with Kravet Slate faux leather LIGHTING Circa Lighting RANGE Wolf REFRIGERATOR Sub-Zero Wolf Cove
WARM WELCOME
Longstanding Atlanta talent Jessica Bradley tailors a Buckhead house to the tastes of a convivial family of four
Jessica Bradley Interiors
When a pair of homeowners happened upon a turnkey, six-bedroom Buckhead new-build by Siegel Construction & Design, they were immediately struck by its open, airy floorplan and flowing natural light. Even the front door—typically a mode of passage rendered in wood or in metal—was remarkably absent, replaced by one of the steel-and-glass variety.
Suddenly, the couple's comparatively tame Brookhaven abode, with its compartmentalized floor plans and dimmer rooms, appeared in stark contrast. Seeking a space that would capitalize on their desire for happy, light-filled spaces, the couple purchased the home before it was completed.
Siegel Construction embraced the opportunity to work with clients to tweak the design. As firm co-owner Kathy Siegel sat down with the family to complete their dream home, she took note of their aesthetic preferences: timeless and traditional, but with a modern farmhouse twist. Siegel ascertained that Jessica Bradley, an established Atlanta designer with whom she'd collaborated in the past, would make an ideal addition to the project team.
With Siegel having already selected most of the home's finishes—shiplap, painted brick, subway tile, stainless steel, aged brass—Bradley's task was twofold: to both subdue and enhance, adding her signature stamp with custom furnishings, fabrics, light fixtures, paint and other finishing touches intended to amplify the home's attractive architecture while softening its starker lines.
Ultimately, Siegel had provided the perfect canvas, so Bradley, a forward-thinking traditionalist, sought to warm up the residence with a predominantly neutral palette—but one splashed with carefully chosen accent colors (apricot, lavender, sage) that allow the clients' impressive art collection to shine.
To wit, natural textures—seagrass, rope, walnut—complement components like the cypress ceiling beams and bleached white-oak kitchen island without detracting from them.
"With this house, I think it was about bringing a level of softness to it," Bradley explains. "It's full of iron and metal and a lot of wood textures and stone. The central challenge was to soften it." It's a bit edgy, yes, but still rooted in the classic concepts Bradley has championed throughout her career. And that aforementioned front door? Bradley chose to treat it like any French version, cleverly framing it with draperies.
"The front door is large, but this allows them to have the ability to close it off easily for privacy if needed at night," the designer notes. "I love the way [the fabric] brings elegance and beauty to that metal."
At every turn, textiles were key to infusing the home's contemporary lines with subtle character. Even the family room's curvaceous white upholstery is covered in a stain-treated fabric, which comes in handy when the couple's two teens—and their friends—are piling in. Plus, with a Purdue alum in the house, the room also revolves around hosting football watch parties throughout the fall.
"It was important for them to have a home they could open up to others, and to really live in it," Bradley explains. "They eat spaghetti in the living room while watching TV. He drinks red wine on the sofa," Bradley notes, also pointing out the spacious wine cellar Siegel placed at one end of the butler's pantry. "It's a blood pressure-reducing home—even with the sense of exposure that could come from so much glass. It's hospitable. It's comfortable. It's a place for happy memories."
Would You Live in This
Hotel Condo?
We Sure Would!
Imagine waking up every day as if you're on vacation at a fabulous city hotel. That's what life is like for this Atlanta couple, who live at one of the residences in the Mandarin Oriental.
Down below is one of Atlanta's most luxurious hotels, with impressive views of the Buckhead skyline, easy access to top restaurants and stores, a charming English-style garden tucked into the grounds and a superb pool and spa. On the building's upper levels, private residences offer the benefits of owning a home with day-to-day charms of a 24-hour-a-day staff. It's no wonder designer Jessica Bradley's clients left their single-family house nearby for this new lifestyle.
"We schemed the living room around the idea of natural colors that will blend the inside with the sky outside during any time of day and season, using creams, blues and grays," says designer Jessica Bradley. "One of the prettiest moments I saw was the room during a very stormy morning — it had a wonderful, unexpected glow to it." Sofa and hexagon side tables are from Mrs. Howard and Max & Company.
"It's a dream to live there,” says Jessica. "The Mandarin has such an easy-in, easy-out parking system for residents and those hotel amenities downstairs.” Wanting an opportunity to connect with the city, her clients decided to start life fresh with new furniture and accessories, so they left behind the more traditional furniture in their previous house. "When they moved in, they only brought clothes, china and groceries,” says the designer.
The spacious unit was already finished, so Jessica was able to start in on decorative features: wallpaper, window treatments, lighting and furniture. "Most of the furniture was custom-built to work around the architecture — such as the kitchen banquette built into a curved wall and window benches in both the living room and master bedroom,” she says. "We added wallpaper in these niches and upholstered cushions to give it a cozy feeling.”
JESSICA BRADLEY
INTERIORS
Based in Atlanta, Jessica Bradley is an interior designer who enjoys working closely with clients and showing them how fun the interior design process can be. Always looking for that ‘wow-factor’, Jessica tries to put herself in her clients’ shoes during each project. This means the design of each home nicely reflects how the occupants live their everyday lives. Jessica Bradley’s designs, though playful, always stick to two main foundations: durability and beauty. Jessica’s client-focused approach has seen her work recognized in Atlanta Homes, Elegant Homes and Design Chic on numerous occasions.
FRESH + FABULOUS
Subtle glamour meets relaxed refinement
Jessica Bradley,
Jessica Bradley Interiors
When designer Jessica Bradley set out to design this playful yet livable children's room, she
kept her daughter Abigail in mind for inspiration, selecting fun additions such as a swing, tepee
and desk—perfect spots for a little girl to read, play and work on art projects. Because the room
receives plenty of natural light, Bradley kept the color scheme bright and airy, with pops of pink.
To add interest, she covered the far wall's niche in Clay McLaurin's Rope wallpaper and
upholstered the headboard, as well as a pillow and pair of ottomans, in a lively fabric by Lisa
Fine Textiles. "I really wanted something pink and pretty but also soft and elegant,"
she says. "It was easy to accomplish this with Lisa Fine's textiles paired with Clay McLaurin's
wallcovering. It's the perfect marriage."
ONES TO WATCH: 15 UNDER 40
Atlanta's rising design talents haven't just paid their dues—they've
created platforms, introduced products and adopted philosophies that
are changing the way
we live today.
Jessica Bradley,
Jessica Bradley Interiors
Interior designer Jessica Bradley could be the poster
child for the fresh face of traditional design. Her recent
projects, ranging from a new-build in Brookhaven to
a Buckhead renovation with residential designer
William T. Baker, reveal the Jackye Lanham protégé's
penchant for creating fresh but functional, character-
rich but comfortable interiors that shine in their
gracious subtleties. Look no further, in fact, than the
interior designer's Galleries of Peachtree Hills office,
for the ultimate personification of her polished-to-
perfection taste. A University of Georgia grad who
married her high-school sweetheart (it's her dream
that at least one of their two daughters will join the
family business), Bradley maintains that cultivating
client relationships is one of the most valuable lessons
learned during her tenure with Lanham. Equally as
adept in the commercial arena—Bradley will redesign
the main bar and two dining rooms at Druid Hills Golf
Club later this year—the interior designer says she is
drawn to traditional clubs in the South that embrace a
"homey" feel. –Elizabeth Ralls
DESIGN SUPREMACY
At the 2015 Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles Home for the Holidays
Showhouse, the region's top interior designers put their stylish stamp
on a sprawling European manor-style home designed by William
H. Harrison and Frank Heery of Harrison Design.
The resulting marriage of classical design principals with cutting-
edge interior selections is nothing short of a visual feast.
Easy elegance. Jessica Bradley, Jessica Bradley Interiors
Though spacious, this formal powder room reads far from cavernous and cold. "I knew I had to
have something grand on the walls to warm the space into feeling more intimate and inviting,"
says designer Jessica Bradley. She found her solution in Lewis & Wood's ornate wallpaper in "
Bacchus," which made its U.S. debut at the 2015 Home for the Holidays showhouse. The
pattern, derived from Elizabethan wall painting, is complemented by an equally old-world Italian
gilt mirror and an antique tufted chair. For artwork, she created a wall of charcoal vases on
antique wood brackets, adding modern elements such as a lamb's-wool ottoman and sleek
sconces for balance and continuing this harmony into the adjoining hallway via gilded sculptures
and a distressed chest.
COMPLIMENTARY IDEAS
To honor family antiques, interior designer Jessica Bradley incorporated
them throughout the house but
often gave them
an updated twist.
BOLD & BRIGHT
At the 45th annual Atlanta Symphony Decorators'
Show House & Gardens, the city's top talents melded traditional
and contemporary design with striking global influences.
Jessica Bradley breathed new life into the dated laundry room, where a rustic table served as a folding table or catch-all between laundry cycles. A linen curtain adds softness to the space but could also serve as a clever disguise for dirty laundry.
JESSICA BRADLEY
ELEVATOR HALL & POWDER
Jessica Bradley Interiors | jessicabradleyinteriors.com
Jessica Bradley Interiors works with clients to create fresh, inviting interiors around a very simple premise: Your home is your haven from today's non-stop outside world. A place that comforts the moment you step in. Where elegant always feels at home with everyday and how you live becomes the most important accent of all. A native of Atlanta, Jessica Bradley Interiors has been in business for 15 years. The firm's team of five enjoys all ranges of projects across the Southeast, from new residential construction and country clubs to renovations and small commercial offices. Recent accolades include participation in the 2015 Atlanta Symphony Associates' Show House & Gardens, being selected as one of Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles' 15 Under 40 and a feature in the fall/winter issue of Elegant Homes.
A SNEAK PEEK INTO THE
2015 DECORATORS' SHOW
& GARDENS
...This year's event features 28 returning and first-time
show house designers from around the Southeast,
including students from The Art Institute of Atlanta.
...things to learn from the show house...
...you can mix styles.
...The designers are mixing styles and bringing in
items that are old and new, to freshen up the decor.
For the laundry room, designer Jessica Bradley
wanted to transform what was a dreaded work space
into a happy place. She repainted the white cabinets
with dark gray and green tones and replaced the blue
laminate countertops with quartz. A blue and white
backsplash with a rooster motif was replaced with
Waterworks' Grove Brickworks in blue. The blue and
white wallpaper was replaced with grass cloth wall-
paper, said Bradley, owner of Jessica Bradley Interiors.
decoratorsshowhouse.org
IN GOOD TASTE:
JESSICA BRADLEY.
"Any good designer know how to make a house look great...
but some recognize that it's not just what you see...it's what you feel."
– Jessica Bradley
Jessica, we couldn't agree any more. Looking good is good. It's nice. It's functional.
It's
important.But it isn't a drop in the bucket compared to how a space makes you feel. It's kind of
like a fantastic relationship in that way. And maybe that's why Jessica Bradley's work pulled us
in so completely. Her clean-yet-warm aesthetic makes us feel right at home. Like, right here, in
our very own four walls, is what we've
been waiting for. A mix of modern
elegance with hints
of traditional
charm, the perfect fun touches to
make the
ordinary moments in life feel
extraordinary. And spaces to get your creative juices flowing…or simply unwind after a long day.
As Jessica puts it, her spaces are places "where elegant always feels at home with everyday…"
"And how you live becomes the most important accent of all." Three cheers to that! Thanks for
joining us today for the fabulously good taste of Jessica Bradley. And, thanks, Jessica, for
inspiring us with your work and your words!
THIS SOUTHERN HOME
INSPIRES WITH ITS
NEUTRAL PALETTE
Sometimes having a starting point, such as a client's fantastic art
collection,
gives a designer a wonderful foundation from which to begin. Such was the
case with this stately Atlanta home in the gorgeous Tuxedo Park neighborhood.
Interior
designer Jessica Bradley, of Jessica Bradley Interiors, had the pleasure of working with a client who loves to
collect art and other items of beauty, so Jessica had a jumping off point in each room.
"She enjoys finding treasures at Scott Antique Markets and estate sales," says Jessica, "so we kept the color palette neutral and light, so all the little collections and art would be the star."
While entry to the living room is regal with symmetrical antique art on either side of the opening, an acrylic coffee table was added to the seating arrangement for a modern touch.
The homeowner gravitates towards
blues, grays, greens and other cool
colors, Jessica says, so they
maintained a consistent look in each
room. "We kept things light throughout
the house, but made sure it had
layering and texture for interest," adds
the designer.
For this house, Jessica set the tone for
quiet elegance in the foyer, with the
homeowner's collection of framed
intaglios providing art along the
staircase. "She also wanted a skirted
table with a big glass vase for cutting
big branches and dramatic floral
arrangements."
Mirrors are a motif throughout the house, providing continuity on every floor. Jessica sees it as a handy decorating feature, in fact. "Every room needs a mirror," she says. "It is always an easy way to bring extra light and glam to a room, and this homeowner loves starbursts and antique mirrors, so we never think we have too many mirrors!"
An armoire has an antique mirror in the back, so it reflects the garden opposite it. A collection of little starburst mirrors on antique wood stands lines the shelves.
The homeowner's love of mirrors continues in the master bath, cleverly outfitted with a built-in makeup area.
The entry to the bathroom features a starburst mirror, a "glam" factor that is continued throughout the home.
The designer chose a Mitchell Gold sectional for the family room and filled it with pretty pillows. "The homeowner wanted a piece she and her son and husband could really use and cuddle up in," says Jessica. "It can be changed around because it's so versatile. Her son has even had sleepovers on it."
2015 ASO DECORATOR
SHOW HOUSE
It's my favorite time of year! Yep...the Atlanta Decorator Show House opens April 18th and I couldn't be more excited.
I'm sure all the designers are knee-deep in it about now trying to juggle their own
design work
plus meet the show house deadline!
Chateau Soleil, a french style estate designed by architect William T. Baker, was built in 1998.
It has 14,000 square feet with 6 bedrooms, 7 baths and 4 1/2 powder baths.
I looked over the list of designers participating this year and thought I would highlight a few.
First up is Jessica Bradley. Jessica is doing the laundry room and pantry. I wasn't familiar with
her work so I visited her website. Her traditional style is clean and polished. Beautiful!
JESSICA BRADLEY
INTERIORS
Recent Turquoise finds:
Atlanta-based interior designer Jessica Bradley is known for creating fresh, inviting interiors with the simple premise that your home is your haven. All of the lovely images from her portfolio are elegant but livable, with pretty color sprinkled throughout to keep things feeling fresh! You know I'm all about the twin bedroom...love those turquoise headboards! There's lots more where this came from, go here to see the rest of her beautiful portfolio!
A Beautiful, Shared Journey
in Decorating the Home!
JESSICA BRADLEY
INTERIORS
I have a great appreciation for interiors that are classic,
clean and executed to perfection. Jessica Bradley Interiors
designs spaces that are all of those things and then some.
Jessica Bradley has been a part of the interior design world for awhile now and each room reflects the attention to detail and care that is put into it. There is a relaxed elegance to each interior paired with a timeless aesthetic. I love her website too! There is a little Q&A on her RE: page, which I love!
Love the pops of orange!
The mirrored doors add an oh-so-fabulous touch.
Love the chandelier.
Beautifully layered.
Neutral and lovely.
Simple and fabulous outdoor spot.
Love the glass accessories!
JESSICA BRADLEY
INTERIORS
Ceiling beams tie the different areas within the open space together, while lighting and the area rug provide delineation.
The designers at Jessica Bradley Interiors mixed tongue-and-groove paneling, beams, rough-hewn wooden doors and an engineered wood floor to create a comfortably rustic vibe in this Atlanta basement. Houzzers were also drawn to the pops of blue and orange in the otherwise neutral color palette.
JESSICA BRADLEY
INTERIORS
Buckhead Residence
Client Review
"Jessica was here to help me pick out our exterior colors and she did an awesome job with it. She had access to my Pinterest board ahead of time and she definitely did her homework picking colors that I liked. She was very reasonable and worked by the hour. She was also able to walk through the house and made a few other design suggestions. I will be hiring her services again to help me decorate my home!"