HOMEOWNER AND DESIGNER PACITA WILSON IS UNABASHEDLY IN love with antiques. She is the founder and principal designer at Pineapple Park, a full-service interior design firm and 15,000-square-foot showroom in Woodstock, Georgia, where she curates furniture and accessory vignettes. So it was a natural extension of her professional work to include her favorite found items and family heirlooms in a new house she built and designed for herself in collaboration with architect William T. Baker and builder Jason Cole of Cole Construction.
She decided the perfect place to house her old-world antiques was in a home that includes both transitional and rustic elements while overall embracing the design of a European manor. “My husband and I found the sweetest spot to build on five-and-a-half acres in Milton that was heavily wooded and surrounded by equestrian properties,” Wilson says. “I can see the beauty of the forest and my neighbors’ horses grazing. The property sits off the road and is so quiet.”
She chose her architect and builder after establishing a trusted relationship with them over the years as they worked together on many other residential projects. “I collaborated with the best duo ever; it was seamless working with them,” Wilson says. “My architect stayed involved throughout the entire process; William takes everything to heart as if he is building for himself. He is really all about the details and has a methodical approach to design.”
While the architect knew Wilson wanted a family-friendly and casual home, he also wanted to provide a platform for her design. “We took inspiration from English Cotswolds architecture,” Baker says about the rural region “across the pond” that is known for its picturesque countryside and stone cottages. Heavy timber ceiling beams and Venetian plaster walls echo the European theme. On the exterior, he designed flush eaves on steeply pitched gables with limestone blocks at the corners, specified shed roof dormers and used casement windows to give an English feel. Wilson requested that he add copper lanterns, copper detailing on the chimneys and traditional cedar shake shingles, which all quickly patina for an enduring aesthetic. Baker added further interest in the interiors.
With an asymmetrical design, which also provided a solution for the L-shaped buildable envelope available on the property. “The unusual floor plan features the staircase at the end of the foyer,” he explains. “We did not center the front door in the entry hall but instead let the staircase be the feature.”
The welcome hall, as Wilson calls the foyer, is the first chance to see one of the specimens in her collection. “I have antiques in every room,” she says. “Many of them were in storage, just waiting on a home. The welcome hall features an English table my husband bought while we were on a trip during our 25th wedding anniversary.”
Off the foyer, visitors enter the living room, which has a 12-foot vaulted, beamed ceiling that speaks of bygone days. The room is adorned with Wilson’s collected antiques at every turn. A Balinese ladder leans against the fireplace wall next to a vintage vase. The fireplace hearth holds a piece of Louis Vuitton steamer luggage from the early 1900s that is still in mint condition. Wilson also purchased an 18-foot-long table especially for this room while the land was still being graded; she topped it with a found horse sculpture as a nod to the equestrian surroundings.
The home features tall, customized French glass doors and transoms across the back of the residence that allow plentiful natural daylight into the rooms and ensure garden views are on full display. Although wide expanses of glass often can read as modern, the architect approached the design in such a way that the result is traditional. “Having those iron and glass doors makes a huge difference in the look, rather than resorting to sliders or windows,” Wilson says.
While the floor plan is open concept, the architect defined spaces by changing the ceiling heights or details in each room.
The home features tall, customized French glass doors and transoms across the back of the residence that allow plentiful natural daylight into the rooms and ensure garden views are on full display.
A former hairdresser, Wilson added a full salon in the terrace level and flowed black-and-white details throughout its design.
He lowered the doorway opening to 10 feet in the formal parlor, for example, while maintaining the same 12-foot ceiling height as in the living room. “Originally, I fought him on that design, but now it’s one of my favorite parts of the home. You feel like you’re entering into a private space when you go into the parlor,” Wilson says. “You can’t see in there from the other rooms, so it feels special and intimate. Since its windows look out to the pool and pavilion, it has its own unique views.” An original Ernest Hemingway high-top writing desk, gifted to Wilson by her mother-in-law, is the conversation starter in the room (the novelist was known to write while standing).
Her absolute favorite room is what she calls her dream kitchen, since she loves to cook and host dinner parties. The team spent a lot of time planning and constructing this space to impart the aura of a time-honored kitchen from the old country, albeit with an elevated style. “We raised the ceilings to 14 feet and installed a 14-foot-wide traditional lime plaster vent hood that reaches to the ceiling and sits over two side-by-side La Cornue ranges,” Wilson says. “The room is large but feels intimate.” A raised fireplace and reclaimed timbers on the ceiling nod to a European manor, as does the in-kitchen dining table Wilson chose in lieu of a typical island. She decided against upper cabinetry, instead reserving it for the butler’s pantry, where stemware and dinnerware sit ready for the next party. She chose a massive glass-fronted French antique cabinet that doubles as tableware storage and a bar, also located in the butler’s pantry, which is tucked behind the kitchen fireplace. A wine fridge and icemaker complete the ensemble. “It’s a true professional chef’s kitchen, with two arched openings that lead to full-size commercial refrigerator and freezer units and a coffee bar,” Wilson elaborates.
Thoughtful touches conceived by her team make the kitchen even more special for Wilson. For instance, the builder reworked the position of some air-conditioning vents so that she was not freezing while prepping or cooking meals. He also ensured switch plates were not in obvious locations, such as the middle of a wall. “He made sure I had plenty of electrical outlets; they all pop up when in use, but otherwise you can’t see them,” Wilson explains.
A muted palette of rust, gold, black and white runs throughout the home, including the terrace level that has a full hairdresser’s salon.
Like other rooms, the kitchen features one of Wilson’s wildlife wall mounts. She has 13 mounts throughout the home; six of those are courtesy of her husband’s hunts in Texas. They represent species from as far away as Africa, from gazelles to Spanish bucks to water buffalo. “I love mounts and sell a lot of them in the showroom,” she says. “They can always be counted on to lend a European manor feeling to a room.”
A muted palette of rust, gold, black and white runs throughout the home, including the terrace level that has a full hairdresser’s salon. As a former hairdresser, Wilson knows the value of a professional setup and says with a laugh, “I make sure to get my hair done every week!”
As much thought and time was put into the private terrace level’s design as was spent on the public spaces. The lower level features dramatic black-painted moldings, walls and ceiling, with vintage rugs and four mounts on the walls. White and terra-cotta sofas continue the muted palette begun upstairs.
For a final flourish, the architect designed a garden shed that replicates the look of the main house. “I outfitted it with Thibaut wallpaper, window treatments, hanging lights and sconces,” Wilson says. “I included an antique potting table from Paris made from a gate and marble. Nestled beside my raised garden beds, it is both pretty and functional.”
The shed is tucked into a landscape designed by landscape architecture firm Land Plus Associates and includes a backyard pool, elevated cabana with pizza oven and a putting green. The landscape architect worked closely with Baker to help him appropriately site the house on the lot so they could refrain from sinking money into retaining walls. “When designing, we start with the land first; it will tell you what and where the house wants to be,” Baker says. For this site, they identified the best location for the garage and then designed the home from that point. “This method allowed us to preserve the views of the wooded acreage in the front and rear of the homesite and leave space for a pool,” Baker adds. “We also were able to use the garage to screen views from the neighbor’s house and add a level of privacy.”
The architect feels the home’s final resting place ended up just where it was supposed to be. “As you approach the home on the meandering driveway, the home sits nicely on the property,” he says. “It doesn’t look like a huge house but has lots of charm.”
Wilson loves the end result and has decided this is her forever home. She proclaims, “I plan on going from here straight to heaven!” *
Dana W. Todd is a professional writer specializing in interior design, real estate, luxury homebuilding, landscape design, architecture and fine art.
