Casual living with elegance

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Casual living with elegance

Mary and Robert Bairstow downsized from a 4,500 sq. ft. house to their 2,500 sq. ft. 3-bedroom 2 1/2-bath home on Northside Drive. "Everything was a whole lot smaller than what we had before, which was the part that was interesting to me because we wanted to live in every spot in the house - which we do, " adds Mary.

Mary Bairstow's design style is distinguished by her use of novel and rare items such as lentil grain sacks which she restructures into pillows and uses on chairs, as illustrated in her home-office. She applied a natural fine linen on the seats of these chairs.

A Mexico City art tour inspired Mary. "Mexico City is one of the chicest and most sophisticated cities, this burnt orange color, which you see in Tuscany and France, has an earthiness to it. In some ways it becomes a neutral when you put other colors against it," she says. "It's one of those colors that you wonder if you could deal with, then you put it in there and you go, 'Wow! that looks good.'" For their 8th wedding anniversary Robert gave Mary this wedding bench from Portugal.

Mary, an interior designer, says her design style sets a neutral palette and incorporates color only in accent pieces. "I could change the focus of this room by just changing the accessories. I use a lot of black and white photography." Any home she designs will have: "Great lamps, a big comfortable feeling, and always be very sophisticated."

This guitar fabricated from vintage license plates rests by the entry to the library which has weathered doors sourced from St. Remy in the South of France.

Mary Bairstow likens her design style to the "casual living" aesthetic seen across the southern coast of France. Repurposing is a big trend there which she embraces. "The shutters in the kitchen are from the Old Edwards Inn in Highlands, North Carolina. [They] were mirrored and electro-fitted to hide the pantry."

"I wanted the kitchen to be like a true Provence house, but they don't have islands, they have furniture," explains Mary. "I found this wonderful piece of furniture and had the stove dropped in, put an apron around it, and ran the electrical and gas through the floor up its leg, so when you look at it you really can't see how it's working." She says of her clever stove: "It feels very much in line with the style of the house." The light fixtures are old industrial lights sourced in France.

This table with a natural weathered patina was found at a garage sale and was destined for the porch, but Mary appointed it to a corner in the office. It's flanked by "Fire Escape" (left) by Jeff Jones, and a silhouette by Rob Brinson. The lamp is made from a vine found in Vietnam - while the vine is green it is sculpted. "I take the sculpted pieces and design the lamp with a shade I design with vintage linen," explains Mary. "You'll see this same sculpted lamp at the new St. Regis Hotel."

Robert gets to exercise his design sensibilities in the spare room on the lower level of the home. He has draped one wall of this guest room with his collection of album covers that span roughly four decades and several genres, including disco, rock 'n roll and Broadway musical.

This shade on a lamp in the library is one of Mary's custom creations. Clients can have whatever they desire inscribed on the "fairly new coffee bean bag" she uses as a canvas.

"We totally redesigned the front of the house," shares Mary. "We added window boxes, brought all the pots in and did all the landscaping. We have ferns, windmill palms, impatiens, boxwoods and the vines growing in the courtyard are Virginia Creeper and trumpet vine."

Mary and Robert Bairstow downsized from a 4,500 sq. ft. house to their 2,500 sq. ft. 3-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath home on Northside Drive. "Everything was a whole lot smaller than what we had before, which was the part that was interesting to me because we wanted to live in every spot in the house - which we do," adds Mary.

The courtyard set near the living room and within sight of the cozy kitchen is the most popular space for entertaining.

The headboard in the guest suite is crafted from an old fence and the lamps are industrial drill heads sourced at the Scott Antique Market.

Mary redesigned the master bath with Carrera marble, a driftwood mirror and a European-style shower door.

"Our home is like going to another country, it's like being in Tuscany or Provence; [guests] get the flavor of being in an environment that's different from being on Northside Drive in Atlanta," shares interior designer Mary Bairstow. She says this library exemplifies that French flavor.

The light fixture in this perspective of the foyer was sourced in France.

Mary dates the door on the window in the kitchen as being from the 1400s. "One of my contractors said it would make a great shutter. My style is about taking pieces, and not knowing at the time I'm buying them what I'm going to do with them, but I figure that out later with the help of a little imagination."

"My kitchen is my favorite room," declares Mary Bairstow. "First of all, because I like to entertain ... I love cooking, one of the things the house didn't have when we moved in was [it's airiness] the kitchen was closed-off. By opening the kitchen up I get to experience the courtyard [while in the kitchen] and now everybody tends to hang on this side of the house."

Mary and Robert Bairstow are longtime Buckhead residents. "My husband lived his whole life in one zip code, I've lived in 20." "We bought [this house] in November 2005," shares Mary, "coming up to the house, seeing these courtyards I was like, okay, this is it! It was the first house I looked at."

Mary designed the console in the dining room by using an old barn door. The lamps are repurposed wine vats and the light fixture was once used to catch chickens. The wall displays the "Sunflower Series" by photographer Jeff Jones.

The wet bar tucked in a nook in the living room is one of Robert's favorite pieces. Throughout the home Mary uses linen grain sacks sourced from Germany, France and South America to make toss pillows.

Renovations over the years have resulted in: new fireplaces, updated landscaping, updated electrical fittings, new floors and hardwood floors in the kitchen. The main courtyard is framed on three sides by large French doors that lead to the office, living room and library.

A collection of magnifying lenses found at various garage sales rests on a night stand in the master suite.

Palladium windows provide a graphic architectural element to the master suite. Another one of Mary's vintage linen grain sacks adds textural contrast to the bedding.

Two hefty doors sourced in Morocco frame the doorway to the home-office. "I tried to sell them twice, then I thought: Why am I selling these?" They butt a surround she sourced in France that trims the doorway between the foyer and living room.

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Mary Bairstow's design style is distinguished by her use of novel and rare items such as lentil grain sacks which she restructures into pillows and uses on chairs, as illustrated in her home-office. She applied a natural fine linen on the seats of these chairs.

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