Rom the first step through the double wood-and-glass doors into the foyer of this Buckhead home, it’s evident the space has classical leanings. A long, welcoming Southern porch is the first hint of the home’s style, with Tuscan columns reminiscent of those on antebellum mansions, a herringbone brickwork floor and a gas lantern. Once inside, the foyer’s checkerboard black-and-white marble floor announces that the traditional interiors will match the graciousness and attention to detail captured in the front entrance.
Bradford Custom Homes & Remodeling touched every room in this whole-home renovation, approaching it thoughtfully by implementing the changes in a series of projects constructed over a period of time. The builder led the charge to implement the vision outlined by the homeowners, along with a team that included architect Greg Harrell and consulting designer Stephen Barnwell. “We phased the project so the family could remain in the home while we completed the site work,” says Bradford Custom Homes founder and owner Brad Robinson. “It was so fun to see the couple’s young daughter watching us through the window as we worked.”
The couple had lived with their young family in the older 2,000-square-foot home in the Pine Hills neighborhood for several years. This desirable Buckhead community is an oasis of single-family homes in the surrounding urban environment, so it was a wonderful place for the family to remain even though they wanted a larger home. “The husband works in a related industry and was knowledgeable about the construction process. He already had developed a vision of what he wanted the exterior to look like and desired very large interior rooms,” says architect Greg Harrell. “He came to us with a rendering of the look he wanted. Because he already had the exterior look in mind, we worked in an atypical fashion—designing from the outside in—to achieve his envisioned final result.”
The team came alongside the homeowner to refine and construct his ideas, ultimately more than tripling the size of the original footprint. “While our client contributed heavily to the conversation, he relied on us as the experts,” says Robinson. “We gave him the opportunity to innovate, helping him along the way. The result is a home that is custom-fit like a glove. We are used to working in such a hyper-bespoke fashion to capture a homeowner’s vision and implement it in a totally unique way.”
Robinson has a deep history in the construction industry. An Atlanta native, he grew up riding alongside his father and serving clients of the family’s grading and hauling business. Robinson later opened a painting and home renovation company before selling it to work in the design industry and later launching Bradford Custom Homes in 2018. Drawn to the creativity and craftsmanship involved in custom homebuilding, Robinson’s company serves many Atlantans but also has expanded to the South Carolina Lowcountry and the North Carolina mountains. “Our company uses a full-service design-build approach,” he says. “Our in-house team of architects, interior designers and skilled craftsmen work collaboratively from start to finish; however, we also embrace working with other architects and designers, as we did on this project.”
Tripling the size of a home through expansion and renovation is not an easy feat, and the team faced challenges along the way. “The owner wanted a real Charleston-style double porch on the back of the home, so we began by demolishing the existing rickety deck and screened porch and then worked with the architect to figure out how to add such a huge addition on the back of the house to accommodate the homeowner’s wishes,” Robinson says. “Adding such a large structure required special planning to ensure it was stable and supported. The roof plan also required strategic thinking. The owner wanted large rooms and soaring ceilings; we had to scale and blend those with the existing home’s footprint that had 8-foot ceilings.”
In addition to structural challenges, the large windows required to achieve the proportions needed to blend the addition with the original building envelope took 50 weeks to arrive, mandating a need for creativity in scheduling. The team also had to flex its creative muscles to design and construct in accordance with prescribed lot setbacks.
Since the addition was on the back of the home, the renovation left the original front facade’s character intact, which only received a new, welcoming front porch. The back of the home, with a double porch, Tuscan columns on the upper veranda and arched glass doors on the lower porch, provides a sense of sophistication and formality with symmetry inspired by classical Roman design.
Inside, the team transformed the rooms in the original home into new uses: the former small living room and kitchen became the renovated foyer, dining room and a walk-through, built-in bar. They opened up the foyer, lofting the ceilings to 16 feet and adding a catwalk to enhance the feeling of grandness. They blended the foyer’s soaring ceiling with the original-height ceilings in the adjacent space, which became a spacious dining room. Attached to the dining room, the hallway bar with built-in cabinetry on both walls is located in a convenient spot for serving guests.
The additional 6,300 square feet added to the back of the house extended to two new wings to accommodate the extra-large rooms the homeowner requested to serve his family’s lifestyle. “The new 29-foot-wide kitchen, scullery and living room are all generously sized for family gatherings,” says Harrell. The kitchen features a 16-foot-long island that was specially requested by the homeowner. Harrell says it’s the longest island he has ever designed. It is built of custom-stained white oak and topped with Italian Carrara marble. An 8-foot bespoke plaster vent hood and large 60-inch range can handle the culinary feats required to host family gatherings in this impressive space. Meticulously handcrafted custom cabinetry by Scurfield Woodworks lines the walls.
The nearby living room features coffered ceilings and millwork, such as the fireplace surround, built by the talented in-house carpentry team at Bradford Custom Homes. “The openness and size are striking,” says Harrell.
The primary bedroom and bath also are expansive; the suite covers 1,300 square feet of the newly added space—an entire wing. It is a true retreat, with a freestanding tub and a large shower system that incorporates dual showerheads and five slabs of natural stone. The wellness experience continues with a dry sauna, cold plunge pool and gym on the lower level, as well as a full wine cellar.
“Sometimes homeowners don’t know what they want, and we have to do a lot of work to show them options to pull it out of them,” says Harrell. “But for this project, we had the finish line set by the owner; we just had to figure out how to get there.”
Robinson considers this project a perfect fit for Bradford Custom Homes. “We’re good at capturing a homeowner’s vision and implementing it, which is exactly what this project called for,” he says. “We allow discerning homeowners to truly make the design their own. Not all builders are agreeable to that, but we think the key to achieving a satisfied client is overcommunication so homeowners can always make the right decisions.”
These homeowners understood the value of the Bradford team approach, according to Robinson, who adds, “We were honored to build this complex project.” *
Dana W. Todd is a professional writer specializing in interior design, real estate, luxury homebuilding, landscape design, architecture and fine art.
The team came along-side the homeowner to refine and construct his ideas, ultimately more than tripling the size of the original footprint.
