European-influenced style fills ‘Frog Hollow’

Like a well-appointed country inn, Jennifer and Travis Williams’ Sandy Springs home is a study in quaint, upscale décor.

That’s no big surprise if you know the owners. With her exotic features and nonchalant, sun-kissed elegance, Jennifer Williams, 37, looks like she just walked off a cruise liner in St. Tropez. She owned Couture Home in Buckhead for four years. The home she shares with Travis, also 37, and their three kids — Emily, 8, Bennett, 7, Maya, 2 — boasts beautiful examples of the furnishings she sold.

Enlarge this image

Sean Drakes/Special

The European-influenced home decor reflects Jennifer’s childhood spent traveling the world.

Enlarge this image

Sean Drakes/Special

Travis and Jennifer Williams traded interior space for the great outdoors when they moved to their Sandy Springs home.

RELATED LINKS
• Photos: See more of the Williams home
• Private Quarters Classic archive
• See our luxury homes channel!
• Home & Garden
• ajchomefinder.com
• NEW! Home Sales Report

---

Step back in time
Search our historic archives for stories on historic homes and more about the Atlanta environs from 1868 through 1939.

The master bed, for example, is dressed in linens by Yves DeLorme, a Matouk mattelasse and shams monogrammed in serene blue. Like the personalized bedding, many of the pieces are tailored to Jennifer’s eye. A pair of foyer chairs, for example, was found at The Stalls on Bennett Street, but Jennifer swapped the muslin seat cushion for a plaid one to complement the floral print of the back cushion. The look carries interest, depth and dimension.

The couple added drama to the kitchen’s wood floors with a checkerboard finish, which “gives it more personality,” she says.

The kitchen table was a custom work by The Bowback Chair Co., Inc. It was crafted to a scale that would suit Travis, who is 6-foot-7.

The look of the home can be attributed to Jennifer’s upbringing. She was born in Brazil to an Austrian father and Filipino mother. She lived in Mexico and Germany before moving to Atlanta as a preteen for her dad’s job at Coca-Cola. Still, they vacationed at a family home in the south of France, where the Williams continue to spend at least a month each summer.

But as lovely as it is, the European-influenced home decor seems to only enhance the real showstopper — a grand lakeside view.

They moved here from a larger home near Chastain Park, trading interior space for the great outdoors, not to mention the neighborhood. “It’s very family-oriented,” she says. They’re near friends and the Cherokee Town & Country Club (both are avid golfers).

The setting has got to be pretty much paradise for the kids, who can bounce high above the lake by way of a mammoth, screened-in trampoline and can frolic with the children who live next door.

Jennifer and Travis also are taking full advantage. They expanded their deck, where they grill out nearly every weekend. And they fish almost daily in the summer. Apparently there’s plenty more wildlife around. The Williams’ name for their home: “Frog Hollow.”

Tips for good living: “I just think small living is so much better than large living” when space goes unused, Jennifer says. “I just think less is more,” calling it easier, less stressful and “more intimate.” Even if your outdoor space is small, try to use it, she adds. “Everybody needs to have outdoors space — it’s good for the soul.”

Most innovative custom design: The lamps topping the nightstands in the master bedroom. The bases are vases Jennifer found on a New York shopping trip for her store. One of her New York-based vendors hand-painted the polka-dotted shades and papered the interior with gold leaf.

What makes it theirs: All the personal touches. Plus the art, most of which comes from the south of France. And lots of the knick-knacks on the back patio — like a vintage Coke placard and a window that’s finger-painted with all the family members’ names.