Escaping the frenzy of city life for an elegant, antiques-filled home

If hourlong Atlanta commutes for work or play become too much, the highly aesthetic, sustainable and walkable planned community of Serenbe, located just south of Atlanta, offers a pastoral escape from the frenzied city grind.

“Since we moved to Serenbe we do a lot more entertaining,” said Clinton Rice, who moved there with his husband, Michael Mock, from Buckhead in 2021. “We have made a lot more friends here than we even ever did in Buckhead,” Rice added. “My blood pressure goes down when I get to that exit and you come through farm country and see cows and horses,” Mock said of the commute home from his work in town.

Serenbe is an anomaly, a place with an appealing, small-town vibe but also prosperous enough to feature a restaurant, the Hill, with a $42 pork chop on the menu and neighbors like former Oprah executive producer Sheri Salata, who is now the chair of Serenbe’s Art Farm Film Council. This experiment in new urbanism, created by Steve Nygren in 2004, is compressed enough to make socializing easy: Just hop in a golf cart or walk across the street for dinner or cocktails at a friend’s.

That ease of life is what has made the community so appealing to Rice and Mock, who both work in banking, and their feisty Frenchie Rose (“She’s going to bark at you” warned Rice). Their four-story townhouse-style home on Selborne Lane in Serenbe’s original hamlet is what Ralph Lauren might have dreamed up if he’d been raised in the Lowcountry instead of the Bronx.

Rice is originally from south of Athens, and Mock is from Savannah. Their expertly decorated home features enough equestrian motifs and foo dogs to please even the most die-hard preppie, but an infusion of seashells, palmetto fronds and paintings featuring Southern landscapes gives the house a regional flair too.

“Everything’s either bought from an auction or an estate sale or an antique store,” Rice said of a decorating style he characterizes as “transitional traditional.” His two deal-breakers when it comes to antiques are lighting and anything upholstered. “I don’t want anyone else’s fabric.”

“I like to mix traditional pieces with some modern things. And I like white walls. I think the items and the things we’ve found all over need to pop more than what’s on the wall,” Rice said of his preference for a pure white backdrop. Estatesales.net is one of Rice’s favorite sources for antiques though he’s not above a treasure hunt when he’s traveling, hitting up destinations like the sprawling Les Puces de Saint-Ouen flea market in Paris.

Rice has one piece of advice for anyone antiquing. “If you see it, like it — because it’s not going to be there again, someone else is going to buy it — if you can afford it, get it.”

Some of the couple’s design favorites, like Royal China Blue Willow china, are on full display in this elegant and quirky dining room still life above the sideboard. “She’s one of my favorite auction finds” Rice said of the shell-encrusted bust of a woman flanked by a palmetto leaf in the couple’s dining room. “I think shells are coming back huge right now. And I bought her when shells weren’t so huge, so I think she was a steal.”

Beyond the living room is a screened-in porch with a high ceiling decorated in shades of blue and white and an assortment of plants. The couple often host guests for cocktails on the bright and airy porch or in the seven Adirondack chairs in the courtyard beyond. “The courtyard reminds me of home in Savannah,” said Mock, who has a replica of the Bird Girl statue from his hometown featured there.

Mock and Rice are not huge cooks, but that hasn’t kept them from setting up a gorgeous kitchen filled with some of their design fixations and treasures from their travels, including blue and white porcelain and a collection of Rice’s British biscuit jars (the wooden and brass container seen on the upper shelf).

“The first thing we did was take out the front door” Rice said of replacing the solid wooden door with an iron and glass one at their Hedgewood Homes-built space. “I wanted as much light as possible.” The home’s glass front door gives a connection to the outside. When privacy is needed, a heavy velvet curtain can be drawn. Before moving in, the couple had all the home’s window frames painted with Sherwin Williams Iron Ore, repainted all the walls in a clean, bright white and changed out the toilets.

A Stroheim wallpaper Tian Chinoiserie in the ground floor powder room continues the Chinoiserie theme seen throughout the home. A bold gold-framed mirror and Greek key design linen window shade up the glam factor. Another Chinoiserie classic, Schumacher’s Chiang Mai pattern, is featured on pillows in the living room.

Both Rice and Mock have home offices, with Rice’s office on the ground floor in a cozy nook below the stairs where the walls are adorned with beloved objects, including a framed Gucci scarf, intaglios, photographs of jockeys and a collection of wax letter seals. “I call it the soccer mom cubby,” Rice joked. Mock’s office is on the third floor.

The couple rode out COVID at Serenbe, which at the time was their vacation home. In 2021 they made it their full-time home.

Part of the appeal of the home is the strong delineation between public and private spaces, Rice said. “The whole thing with our house on this first floor is, no one really has to go up to the other two floors,” he said, where their primary bedroom, guest rooms and TV room define the homes private quarters.

“This is where we chill,” Rice said of this comfortable, well-appointed TV room with a large Frame TV (Rice selected a frame for the TV that he said is more in line with their aesthetic than the ones offered by the manufacturer Samsung). The room serves as Rice and Mock’s private living space, a place to unwind and spend time together. The room features an oversize Oriental rug from Mock’s family. “Rugs are my thing,” Mock said. “I feel like it completes the room.” Mock said the couple spend a majority of their time at home on the second level.

They save trips downstairs to the kitchen with this handy wet bar, mini fridge, microwave and plenty of counter space, which is also an ideal place to feature some of their collection of original art displayed on brass stands sourced from Ballard Designs.

Dogs, horses, Chinoiserie, Blue Willow plates, artwork and animal prints are all represented throughout the home and in the couple’s primary bedroom, which features a sitting area, a large bathroom and two walk-in closets. The next big project is to redo the primary, bathroom which Rice said is too dark and out-of-date.

“Our old townhouse had a formal dining room” said Rice, who kept their previous home’s dining room table on the ground floor but turned the set’s china closet into a library and showcase for keepsakes, including hand-painted Herend porcelain in the small sitting room in the primary bedroom.

Serenbe resident and artist Morgan Boszilkov painted the botanical scene inside the home’s elevator, which Rice has transformed into a design moment, decorated with a deer skin rug and Greek column.

Classical motifs abound in the home, including Greek columns, urns and Greek key motifs. The second floor landing also features one of the couple’s favorite design touches — book stacks — a great way to maximize space, especially with a collection of oversized tomes. Rice said the couple had floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in their Buckhead home and have had to turn to the book stack to store their collection of coffee table books.

The couple keep a home computer on a small desk on the third floor landing to archive photos and other personal items. Many of the Oriental rugs in the home were sourced from antique stores or from family.

The home’s third floor features Mock’s office and two guest rooms to host friends and family. The wood floors are painted, which lends a rustic, distressed feel as a foil to the overall elegance that defines the home.

This bedroom features a king bed and faces Selborne Lane, and the curtains hung high on the wall add additional height and grandeur to the space.