Merry & Bright
Designer Beth Ervin trims her colonial revival-style Buckhead home for the holidays, calling on classic flourishes for an effect that’s elegant and inviting.
Aglow from the light of the Christmas tree, the family room offers a warm welcome thanks to Ervin’s dog, Bunny, and festive touches of red and green.
Festooned with evergreen trimmings, Ervin’s Haynes Manor home, including a handcrafted birdhouse, exudes holiday curb appeal at every turn.
Color and pattern are at play in Ervin’s Provincial-style kitchen and adjacent dining niche, with large-scale diamond-painted floors and a collection of green-glazed French pottery filling a 19th-century French vasselier.
Color and pattern are at play in Ervin’s Provincial-style kitchen and adjacent dining niche, with large-scale diamond-painted floors and a collection of green-glazed French pottery filling a 19th-century French vasselier.
Sumptuous silk curtains and grey linen-velvet chairs give the dining room Old World appeal.
The master bedroom is cloaked in Colefax And Fowler fabric; monogrammed Leontine Linens dress the bed.
Sophisticated yet unpretentious interiors are the wheelhouse of interior designer Beth Ervin, so it comes as no surprise that her own home evokes a warm welcome during the holiday season.
Built in 1937, the stately colonial revival house she shares with husband Jeff, German shepherd, Rosie, and rescue dog, Bunny, is tucked in the Haynes Manor neighborhood and possesses the hallmarks of early 20th century architecture, from clapboard siding to columned porches—an ideal backdrop for an equally classic ode to Christmas.
“On the first of December, I turn the Christmas music on and the decorations begin going up,” says Ervin. Also a priority: making sure the house is decorated before her adolescent children, Jeffrey and Barrett, come home. Fresh balsam wreaths tied with scarlet ribbon hang from the shuttered windows along Ervin’s stately home.
“We like traditional style, but it’s never stuffy,” says Ervin, who creates a sense of occasion with a range of subtle—yet festive—flourishes. Natural elements often play the starring role: An evergreen garland festooned with gold burlap ribbon cascades down the entry stairwell, and white hydrangeas and green apples fill heirloom silver vessels as centerpieces in the dining room. “I like simplicity, and I love that fresh greenery smell,” she says.
The family room, which spills into an outdoor patio, is devoted to holiday cheer. A Christmas tree is adorned in collected ornaments, and evergreen and holly trimmings fill the mantel. “I prefer the classic Christmas reds and greens; I even wrap my presents in red and green—and a little touch of gold.”
Not only is Ervin’s approachable-meets-elegant vision rendered in time-honored hues and freshly plucked greenery, but it’s also saturated in the wafting scent of home cooking. Whether she’s whipping up homemade eggnog, her childrens’ favorite walnut snowball cookies or an annual New Year’s day dinner for fifty or more people, Ervin is assuredly greeting guests with a generous dose of holiday style.