Natural Beauty 2012

The home’s facade blends into the surrounding countryside.

“The concept was to create a lowered ceiling above kitchen to keep it from being too volumetric,” Harrison says of the decision to add the landing above the cooking space. “It makes the kitchen more intimate, but allows for a more sculptural space that continues up the staircase into the second-story area.”

With plans to host friends and family at their second home, the homeowners requested comfortable seating for entertaining. The custom dining table is made of wood from a South American tree. The concrete console is from Bradley Hughes.

Floating beside the staircase in the adjacent breakfast area is a dazzling Alison Berger fixture from Holly Hunt. Howard chose to combine glass, stainless steel, stone, iron and suede in the area to balance the wood walls and floors. Chairs are by Donghia; range is by Viking.

With elegant fixtures and an expansive walk-in shower, the master bath proves that ‘rustic’ and ‘refined’ aren’t mutually exclusive.

A 24-foot-tall window allows morning sunlight to flood the living room.

With hand-hewn logs enveloping the space, the living room features a “less-is-more” approach with the furnishings. Sculptural upholstery and lighting, and textural rattan chairs, complete the room. The chandelier is by Artemide.

With a wall that stops short of the vaulted ceiling, the master bedroom evokes a space that appears to have been added on to over the years.

With elegant fixtures and an expansive walk-in shower, the master bath proves that ‘rustic’ and ‘refined’ aren’t mutually exclusive.

All too often, a project gets caught in the crosshairs between architecture and design. But for West and Katie Johnson’s modern take on an Amish-style cabin in the rolling hills of north Georgia, the collaboration of the two came together flawlessly to form the dream project for all those on board.

With the architecture by William H. Harrison of Harrison Design Associates and interior design by Barbara Howard of Marshall Howard Interior Design, the second home operates under the concept of what Harrison describes as “refined rustic.”

“It’s using natural and honest materials throughout the project, but put together in a very light and modern aesthetic,” the Atlanta architect says of the project. “We started with the concept of these two log buildings connected by a central space—a generational concept with a put-together feel.”

Those natural materials—such as the 12-inch thick, hand-hewn, native white pine logs found throughout the home—form the shining backdrop to the understated elegance of Howard’s signature interior design. “What I love most is that it’s a beautiful space on its own,” says the designer.

The homeowners, personal friends of Harrison and his wife, bought into an idyllic conservancy located in Batesville with the idea of a safe house open to the surrounding countryside. “They wanted to feel safe and secure from the wilderness when they were in the  home’s private spaces, but they wanted the main living space to be transparent to the environment,” Harrison says. “There was a lot of care and effort put into respecting the natural beauty of the property and transferring that into the natural materials of the home that are indigenous to that area.”

The main challenge each member of the team faced was balancing the scale of the home with the comfortable lifestyle the homeowners were looking to achieve. “They have a fairly traditional home here in Atlanta, and were ready for cleaner lines and an easier style of living,” Howard says.

Harrison adds, “The cabin comes off as warm, cozy and comfortable, but the scale in the main space is pretty large. Mixing a lot of different elements in a manner that works proportionally with the scale was a challenge, keeping it an exciting, open and volumetric space.”

In each room of the design, Howard says the entire team was on the same page. One of the more important elements throughout the space, the subtle finish on the walls, was perhaps the most difficult to get right. “The artisans that were on the project all cared about it equally,” she notes. “There were so many hours spent getting everything just right.”