Heart pine salvaged from a former Atlanta barn that was spared during the Civil War has a new life in Sandy Springs. The wood creates soaring curves and posts for a staggering beam ceiling that spans from wall to wall in Ed and Lu Barber’s great room.
“Most of those beams, they came out of a building in downtown Atlanta where the Georgia Legislature used to keep their horses. Supposedly Sherman stabled his horses there,” Barber said.
The custom home, on 5 acres, was designed to look like a rambling house with a center core of dry stacked Tennessee fieldstone, which also is used for the four fireplaces. In the great room, where a floor-t0-ceiling fireplace is located, the ceiling’s modified hammer-truss design was created by Barber and Jason Newberry of Legacy Wood Products, who installed it over multiple weekends.
Using stone and wood for the interior and exterior connect with the couple’s upbringing in rural Kentucky and Georgia.
“I grew up down in south Georgia on a farm. My grandfather was in the timber business,” Barber said. “So I’ve just always loved heart pine.”
Snapshot
Residents: Ed and Lu Barber, son, Cole, and Duke, a yellow Labrador retriever. Ed works in private equity real estate; Lu is a pharmacist; and Cole is a student at Southern Methodist University.
Location: Smyrna
Size: 7,950 square feet, five bedrooms, seven full baths, three half-baths
Year built: 2008
Builder: Historic Designs, Jim Eigel
Architect: Norwood Architects, Woody Vaughan
Architectural Style: Rambling French Country
Favorite architectural elements: Steeply pitched roof, roof flares, stone corbeling, stone and shingle facade
Design consultants: Jason Newberry of Legacy Wood Products, Leslie Dean, Jane Hollman Kitchens, Design Lighting, Leigh Hattaway Interiors, Benny Hart of Hartwood Cabinet Shop, Vinings Landscape Group
Interior design style: Traditional
Favorite interior design features: Reclaimed materials, such as heart pine ceiling beams and floors in most of the home, brick floors in the entry halls, and a brick accent wall in basement.
Favorite furniture: A secretary from an estate in the Cotswolds in England.
Favorite outdoor features: Pool with stone walls and brick paver decking; outdoor shower
Favorite artwork: Portraits by Atlanta artist Nancy S. Shippen and Steven Jordan of South Carolina
Favorite collections: Bibles, a Lindeman piano and vintage piggy banks, which belonged to Ed Barber's family
Resources: A&S Marble and Granite, Scott Antique Market, Appliance Warehouse, Daltile
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