Home design highlights art of female form

There are men who love women, and then there’s Joe Best, who sees art in the form of women and women in the form of art.

Throughout the extensive art collection in his 6,000-square-foot Peachtree Battle home, recurring images display the glory of the female: the majestic sweep of her hair, the slope of her shape, the glittering gown meant for her.

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Sean Drakes/Special

Joe Best, president and CEO of Quality Wine & Spirits, has a cavernous wine cellar that can accommodate 3,500 bottles.

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Sean Drakes/Special

The sculpture ‘Dance of Life’ by D.E. McDermott is displayed in the living room. Joe Best built this home to showcase his art collection, especially those pieces inspired by the female form.

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Sean Drakes/Special

‘We are very European in the way we shop and eat,’ Joe Best says. ‘We typically buy what we’re going to cook that evening, and our meals are centered around the wine.’

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Best built this home specifically to showcase a mix of paintings and sculpture from every vantage point. But the women command center stage. That’s why he bordered the foyer’s Brazilian cherry floors with an inlay whose lines function like arrows, drawing the eye of one entering the home to the hall’s end. Here, a mesh of red wire lit from above throws against the far wall the shadow of a sculpted female torso.

Why the emphasis on women? “I was a bachelor” when designing the residence, said Best, president and CEO of Quality Wine & Spirits, who now shares his home with his girlfriend, Luz Penner.

And why so much art? “Because art gives me joy,” he said. “It’s alive.”

The instinctive, deliberate way Best approaches his artwork — he’ll be drawn to a piece in a magazine, for example, and hunt for it — extends to his design choices. When an idea strikes him, he’ll engineer its precise execution. For starters, he tried to renovate the original home on the property, but decided its structure wouldn’t suit his artwork. So he bulldozed the house and created one according to his “Best” standards.

“I created the backyard as a gallery of plants and stones” to blend with the artwork inside, he said.

For the sake of the view out back, he angled the vent system on its side to avoid the unseemliness of pipes jutting through the roof.

A high-tech audiovisual system powers the home. Via a touch-screen panel, Best controls the sound system throughout the home and its 320 lights, including those specially configured for entertaining and viewing artwork by day or evening.

But these days, it seems his focus on artwork has taken a back seat to a greater love. He said that as a bachelor, he placed a painting of a woman dancing opposite his bedroom door so he could start the day in delight at the image of a beautiful woman. “Now,” he said, “I just roll over.”

Coolest feature

Inspired by Best and built by Steve Graff, the wine cellar fits 3,500 bottles and feels like the adult version of a secret clubhouse. Inside the cavelike structure “you can’t hear anything,” Best said. The couple heads down there about once a week and, “after a tough day,” selects a bottle to enjoy.

Favorite piece of art

The vision of a luminous gown captivates Best. He was seeking a Todd Murphy painting when he fortuitously met the local artist four years ago at Two Urban Licks. Murphy invited Best to see one of his pieces at the studio. On arriving, Best fell for this one. “I said, ‘I don’t care what you want to show me. That’s what I want,’ and he said that’s what he wanted to show me,” Best said. “It was meant to be.”

Next project

The couple plans to convert the upstairs into an art gallery and a nursery for each of their granddaughters. “We’re hoping there will be more,” Best said.

Home style

From the Italian-inspired foyer ceiling, sponge painted in a golden hue, to the furniture’s dark woods and plush leathers, the home has a traditional European feel, with what Best calls a “great entertaining flow.”

Tips for good living

In Best’s case, lifestyle matches home style. “We are very European in the way we shop and eat. We typically buy what we’re going to cook that evening, and our meals are centered around the wine.”