Walking through Mallory Mathison's historic Buckhead condo is a lesson in how deeply personal style comes to life. The 29-year-old interior designer describes her aesthetic as "young traditional" — a blend of polished classics with updated pieces and cozy flair.

Her decidedly Southern appeal is garnering national attention. Mathison is featured in the April issue of "Domino" magazine as one of the nation's 10 up-and-coming decorators.

Sara Hopkins / Special (ENLARGE)

Inspiration in Mallory Mathison's Buckhead condo comes from various places she has visited. A bust of a Greek goddess makes this vignette in Mathison's living room.

Sara Hopkins / Special (ENLARGE)

Mathison is a 29-year-old interior designer who is being recognized as one of 'Domino' magazine's up-and-coming designers.

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Her own 900 square-foot, two-bedroom condo and home office (that she shares with Henry, a Shih Tzu puppy) encompasses her signature style — a mix of heirloom furniture, collections of framed maps, antique engraved silver and monograms galore.

"Monograms are big in the South," says the Alabama-born designer, whose linens bear her initials. Antique silver matchboxes, pitchers and platters she's picked up over the years bear a mix of etched monograms — few her own.

"As long as the engraving is pretty, it doesn't have to be mine," she said.

She comes by the trait honestly. Pointing to china dishes with a single initial, she adds, "Those plates were my grandmother's, but nobody is an 'A' in my family."

After purchasing the space for $180K in 2005, Mathison immediately painted over its former sunflower yellow walls, designed new window treatments, repainted the kitchen cabinets eggshell blue and replaced light and bath fixtures. She's planning a kitchen redesign to replace her tiled countertops with classic Carrera marble and a mirrored backsplash.

Much of Mathison's furniture and lighting fixtures (she owns five chandeliers) come from estate sales and antique store finds.

"I'm a scavenger," she said. "I love digging around."

Mathison, who once apprenticed with such Atlanta designers as Dan Carithers and Judy Bentley, uses her home as an experiment. Take, for instance, her bedroom walls, painted a rich, glossy brown ("Mahogany" by Farrow & Ball).

"I would never paint a client's bedroom this color," she confesses. "(But) I wanted to see how the lacquered look would be. It's like a little cave — you could sleep in there for days."

She softened the deep espresso walls with white linens and silvery-blue floral Scalamandré fabric on her bed, nightstands and chairs. Paintings and photographs (much of it provided by her mother) hung salon style on the opposite wall give the feminine room grown-up appeal and reflect Mathison's artistic upbringing.

"(My parents' home) was very traditional, but very elegant and quirky," she said. "I grew up around a lot of things — a lot of art, a lot of antiques, but never things I wasn't allowed to touch."

Plush fabrics abound in her abode, like the custom velvet sofas in her living room that echo her bedroom's walls. A bust of a Greek goddess rests on a side table, complemented by a classic Greek key trim on the sofa skirt and throw pillows.

In this public space, Mathison paired the chocolate sofas with a mix of lively reds and blues, including an Oriental rug given by her mother and ivory, taupe and slate blue striped silk curtains. Antique chairs recovered in a zebra-pattern Brunschwhig & Fils fabric provide a pop of eclecticism, matched by her mother's oil paintings throughout the home, including the large piece above her sofa.

Flanking the dining table (given by her grandmother) is a settee and Chinese Chippendale chairs she recovered in soft aqua-toned linen. Framed maps of her favorite cities (Atlanta, New York and Paris among them) are hung in this space — a theme repeated in her living room, bedroom and office. Mathison also uses antique plates on her walls for a traditional touch.

"I have plates in every single room — it's sort of my thing," she jokes.

Her office is brimming with fabrics, sketches and magazine tear-outs — pieces of inspiration that she uses to help clients realize their design goals.

"I don't have any clients who want steel and chrome. Everybody wants a cozy, inviting interior," she said. "I think people here, for the most part, want something rooted in tradition with an updated look."

Mathison said being selected by a national publication just two and a half years after beginning her own design firm is affirming, but while the attention may grow her business, she has no plans to leave her Buckhead condo any time soon.

"I love living here ... it's very eclectic and it's a very layered look," she said. "It's definitely little, but it's got character."