Strolling around the grounds of the Georgia Governor's Mansion

I am back this week to continue the outside tour of Georgia's Governor's Mansion. The outside is lovely this time of year!

The Georgia Building Authority maintains the Governor's Mansion. Public tours are conducted throughout the year on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 10:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Reservations are needed for groups of 10 or more and can be made by calling 404-261-1776.

The Focklele Garden Company of Gainesville, Ga. has worked on the grounds.

click above to read about it.

This is the pool area. Look at that wisteria!

This is one of the prettiest areas on the grounds! A perfect place to hold a wedding.

Tennis Courts

These hydrangas should be beautiful when they are in full bloom!

The Garden Area

Click on the above to read more about the Mansion's vegetable garden.

This is a photo from the 2012 Easter Egg Hunt on the Governor's Mansion lawn.

Governor's Mansion Summer Peach Tea Punch

Here is a wonderful recipe I found and thought was appropriate to close our tour of the Georgia Governor's Mansion and Grounds (even though it came from the Austin Junior League)

3 family-size tea bags
2 cups loosely packed fresh mint leaves

1 (33.8-oz.) bottle peach nectar

1/2 (12-oz.) can frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed

1/2 cup Simple Sugar Syrup

1 (1-liter) bottle ginger ale, chilled

1 (1-liter) bottle club soda, chilled

Garnish: fresh peach wedges

Preparation

1. Bring 4 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan; add tea bags and mint leaves. Boil 1 minute; remove from heat. Cover and steep 10 minutes.
2.  Discard tea bags and mint. Pour into a 1-gal. container; add peach nectar, lemonade concentrate, and Simple Sugar Syrup. Cover and chill 8 to 24 hours.
3. Pour chilled tea mixture into a punch bowl or pitcher. Stir in ginger ale and club soda just before serving. Garnish, if desired.

Wouldn't this be nice to enjoy on the Mansion's front porch!

Design inside of Georgia's Executive Estate

I have been busy with my design jobs, but took a morning off last week, to see Georgia's own Governor's Mansion.  

As you enter the drive you begin to appreciate the grandeur of this estate.

The Governor's Mansion is the official home of Georgia's 82nd Governor, Nathan Deal, and his wife, Sandra. The Mansion, a three floor, 30-room, Greek Revival style home built in 1967, stands on approximately 18 acres in northeast Atlanta. It was designed by Georgia architect Thomas Bradbury and officially opened on January 1, 1968.

Lester Maddox was the first governor to live there, followed by Jimmy Carter, George Busbee, Joe Frank Harris, Zell Miller, Roy Barnes, Sonny Perdue, and now, Nathan Deal.

The house covers 24,000 square feet and has a total of 30 Doric columns around the porches. These columns are made from California redwoods and are each 24 feet high. They are hollowed out and specially treated on the inside to handle water drainage from the roof.

All of the rooms on the first floor are used for official entertaining. The second floor contains the Deal's private living quarters. All of the furnishings in the house are considered to be museum quality and make up one of the finest Federal Period collections in the United States. These furnishings were acquired by a 70-member fine arts committee while the Mansion was being constructed. It is a permanent collection and belongs to the state of Georgia. It does not change from one administration to the next.*

*To continue reading about the mansion click on this link

Our group did not get to see Governor Deal, but his lovely wife Sandra did walk with us on our inside tour.

The bronze state seal is embedded in the Tennessee marble floor at the entrance and also in the door knobs on the front door.

Didn't know it was so reflective!

On the table in the entrance hall is a Gorham sterling silver punch bowl presented by Gov. Joseph Terrell to President Theodore Roosevelt on June 10^th, 1907.

We were not allowed upstairs, but I am glad we got to see this beautiful stair runner.

This is the most magnificent room. The draperies, rug, furniture...so much to appreciate!

 

There is only one guest bedroom on the main floor and it has a day bed.

This is the library. The mansion has wonderful window treatments. You know me, I had to get some closeups on the details. Don't you love the twisted pole!

The next stop on our tour was the formal dining room.

More beautiful detail on the windows and the moldings.

One of Georgia's famous Cabbage Patch Children.

This is as close as we got to Governor Deal!

Downstairs Powder Room

This is the family sitting room or as Mrs. Deal referred to it "the Georgia Room."

In the sitting room is a signed first edition of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind.

One of the details of the Family Sitting Room is the butternut paneling (a type of Hickory.)

Shown here with the close up of the window treatment detail.

This is the family dining room. Don't miss that beautiful carving on the chairs!

All that lovely furniture in the Family Dining Room deserves a beautiful window treatment!

It was hard to get a good picture of the kitchen, so I thought I would show you Georgia's Executive Chef, Holly Chute. Holly has served six Governors and started work at the mansion in 1981. If you go to the website link Here you can get some of her recipes!

Well not to overdose you on all this historical beauty, I will have to stop now and save the gorgeous grounds for my next post. So as we say in the South....
........Ya'll come back now, Ya hear!

Interior Design Trends at the High Style High Rise Tour

The design tourist* and I headed out on a recent excursion to Atlanta to take in the Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles High Style High Rise Home Tour which took place at the Residences at the W downtown. This tour was to benefit the High Museum of Art.
*girls on an excursion or sightseeing tour

Trend forecaster, Anthony Hughes, defines a trend as the styling, colors, patterns, materials and shapes of a particular season that has a long-term influence on the market. A current trend can be derived from previous season’s trends and also current world affairs and events. 

High Rise High Style features Atlanta interior designers working with local furniture/design stores. The tour includes Kerry Howard (KMH Interiors) for Redefined Home Boutique, Barbara Westbrook (Westbrook Interiors) for Room & Board, William Peace (Peace Design) for Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, Susan Ferrier (McAlpine, Booth & Ferrier Interiors) for R Hughes Showroom, Julia Reed for The Mercantile and Michel Boyd (SmithBoyd Interiors) for Bradley Hughes.

All of the kitchens featured Gaggenau, the world's preeminent brand of restaurant-grade cooking technology for the modern home. A German base company, Gaggenau’s philosophy is guided by three simple principles: design, innovation and technology. The result being a collection of kitchen appliances which stand out in terms of their unique practical advantages, the quality of their materials and workmanship and primarily their simple beauty and functional design.

That is MOSS in all of the frames. It is on all four walls in this powder room.

...Margaret Mitchell is rolling in her grave!

I guess it is hard to compete with views like these!

After this tour the four design tourist are not to sure about the current trends.There were pieces in most of the rooms that I liked. I definitely saw some of the trends of the past making another go around. I will leave it up to you to study the pictures and you decide if these design ideas will perfectly fit your personality and your home décor. Are you ready to step outside the box?