Provincial Pairing

Designer Stan Topol infused the living room of this Newnan farmhouse with a multitude of lounging options, including a club chair and sofa from Cameron Collection.

The home’s foyer features a mix of old and new, including an antique Queen Anne oak chest from William Word Antiques and a Chinese ceramic lamp by Rose Tarlow Melrose House.

A designer known for his expressive statements, Topol believes that “comfort is the ultimate luxury,” an opinion that influenced his work on this home.

In the living room, a loveseat and club chair, both covered in Manuel Canovas’ Nevada chenille, provide fireside seating, while a colorful patchwork Oriental rug by Asia Minor grounds the space.

One of Topol’s favorite pieces in the foyer is a reproduction secretary cabinet from Grizzel & Mann. “I love pieces with scale that are intriguing,” he says.

“I took a beautiful Joye Hirsch project and embellished it,” says Topol, who was responsible for the bedroom’s Stark Carpet rug and the bedding, including the coverlet by Léron. The curtains, furniture and accessories were originally selected by Hirsch.

“I took a beautiful Joye Hirsch project and embellished it,” says Topol, who was responsible for the bedroom’s Stark Carpet rug and the bedding, including the coverlet by Léron. The curtains, furniture and accessories were originally selected by Hirsch.

In the powder room, a collection of vintage Gill Evans lithographs, found at Peachtree Battle Antiques, is a testament to the homeowner’s love of dogs.

The bay window is dressed in both black and cream versions of Cowtan & Tout’s “Snow Tree” fabric. “Nothing is prettier, when you look out the window and see flowers blooming, than to see flowers inside, too,” says Topol.

For the study, Topol reupholstered an existing pair of club chairs in “Stratford” by Cowtan & Tout. When describing his affinity for neutral-colored upholstery fabrics, the designer points out, “My furniture is underplayed colorwise so that you can relax your eye.”

It’s rare to find a home that boasts the work of two designers, much less one where the work has been successfully blended. One such example is this sophisticated Newnan, Georgia, farmhouse, which was first decorated by the late Joye Hirsch nearly a decade ago.

Recently, when the husband-and-wife owners decided that the time had come to refresh their home’s interiors, they enlisted the help of an equally talented designer, Stan Topol, who is also their neighbor. An admirer of Hirsch, Topol left much of her work, including the home’s interior finishes, intact, choosing instead to embellish the existing design.

“When a designer is good, you leave things,” says Topol. “I was lucky that someone talented had worked in this house before me.” Referring to his work here as “old-fashioned decorating,” Topol focused his efforts on selecting furniture and accessories that reflected his clients’ easygoing personalities. “Everything has to follow the way the homeowners are,” he says. “If they’re relaxed, everything has to flow the same way.”

This design philosophy is especially evident in the sizable living room, which Topol lavished with comfortable, intimate seating arrangements that allow for both easy conversation and television viewing. “I’m really sensitive about people sitting near each other and being able to talk,” says the designer. And because the couple’s grandchildren are frequent visitors, Topol considered their comfort, too, by giving them their own proper perches: pint-sized versions of a Windsor chair.

Like the children’s chairs, classic American pieces accent the home’s interiors, from provincial art to Nantucket baskets, which the designer admires for the “softness and gentleness” they bring to their surroundings. Perhaps unexpected, though hardly out of place, are more luxurious furnishings from the likes of Rose Tarlow and George Cameron Nash, which coexist alongside the traditional Americana. “I don’t think that because you’re living on a farm that you have to feel like you’re living on a farm,” Topol explains.

Indeed, it’s well-appointed comfort rather than rusticity that defines this farmhouse, which benefited from two designers’ expertise. Topol’s delight in enhancing Hirsch’s work was reaffirmed when the owners’ longtime housekeeper remarked, “You added all this furniture but made the room bigger.” Continuing Hirsch’s legacy, he says, was an opportunity to relish. 

Stan Topol, Stan Topol & Associates. (404) 885-9889; stantopol.com.