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!