Home & Garden
SOUTHERN COMFORT: Atlanta's Leah Atkins Welcomes Clients Home
Designing Woman Leak Atkins Charms the South with Style
In the South, “welcome” means more than just a mat on the front step. It’s a way of life, requiring an insider’s understanding to fully express. Interior designer Leah Atkins curates homes with deep roots in Southern hospitality and graciousness, elevating each space with an art-lover’s eye.
Doing business in what is now called the Hollywood of the South, Atkins’ cosmopolitan clients in Atlanta represent a unique sensibility: sophisticated, but sincere. From stately white pillars at the entrance to china cabinets packed with treasured family heirlooms, a Southern home contains an intensely personal heritage that typically reaches back two centuries.
Atkins approaches the legacy nature of Southern homes with a sense of daring as well as respect for the family narrative. “I do encourage my clients to step outside their comfort zone,” she says. Rich effects are achieved with a spirited mix of traditional pieces, made fresh by Atkins’ inspired combinations. “I typically use design elements which are already familiar to my clients,” she says, “except that I like to put them together in unexpected, surprising ways.” Deeply carved furniture, classical Greek and Roman statuary, gilt finishes, Persian rugs and jewel-toned velvet upholstery form a fresh equation with Atkins’ subtle use of asymmetry and contrast.
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Minimalism is not on the menu, further evidence that the Southern home is based on abundant warmth, ease and comfort. “Chic, bare walls and vast, empty surfaces strike Southerners as sad,” she says, “When my clients see photographs of those sorts of interiors, they may comment that the space looks like nobody lives there.” Atkins is married to a mental health professional, and she considers her craft of aligning lighting, color, proportion, scale, shape, arrangement, and negative space as a form of wellness therapy. “My specialty is the creation of spaces that invite closeness, and just make people happy.”
