Christine Eisner downsized from a 5,000-square-foot home built in the 1920s near one Atlanta attraction — the Atlanta History Center in Buckhead — to a 1,900-square-foot condo near another — the High Museum of Art.
“Loving the arts and being from New York, my idea was I wanted to live walking distance from Woodruff Arts Center,” said Eisner, a former public relations director for Ralph Lauren Corp. and owner of Comfort Living by Christine, a lifestyle design firm.
From the bedroom of her condo in Reid House on Peachtree Street she can see Alexander Calder’s distinctive mobile in front of the High. The black-and-white marble floors in Reid House also reminded her of the marble floors in the entryway to Swan Coach House, near her former home.
Reid House, designed by famed Atlanta architect Neel Reid on the edge of Ansley Park, presented too great of a connection to previous places Eisner has lived for her to resist. When Eisner, who has lived overseas, first entered the building, she thought, “This feels like New York meets Paris.”
Snapshot
Resident: Christine Eisner, a former public relations director for Ralph Lauren Corp. and owner of Comfort Living by Christine, a lifestyle design firm
Location: Reid House, Atlanta
Size: 1,900 square feet, two bedrooms, two baths
Year bought: 2012 (real estate agents Nan Haverty and Denise Miller of Beacham and Co. Realtors assisted her in the sale and purchase)
Year built: 1920s
Architectural style: Georgian Classical design. She describes it as a "beautiful, graceful building."
Favorite architectural feature: Vintage details such as moldings.
Interior design style: Midcentury modern. The style was influenced by her childhood home in New Canaan, Conn., which was designed by her father, Dolph Leuthold, and architect Allen Gelbin, an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright (the home was featured in the book "The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses").
Favorite interior design feature: Built-in shelves in the living room and dining room, which already existed in the condo when she bought it.
Favorite outdoor feature: The way the building is set back from the street, with grass and trees. "You've got this wonderful feeling of nature while being right in the heart of the arts for me," she said. "Yet there's this very gentle transition from Peachtree Street, the main artery of Atlanta, to the front door of the building."
Tip for downsizing: Streamline by choosing your most treasured items and using items in new ways (a purple sofa that was in the guest bedroom of her Buckhead home was placed at the dining table in her condo). "It's really sort of the greatest hits of what I love," she said.
Stores: Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, Ferguson, Savvy Snoot, Scott Antique Markets, Moattar Ltd., 14th Street Antiques Market and The Stalls — Bennett Street Antique Market and Cafe
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