You know how little birds weave things from nature to make a nest? That’s how we think of this house. This is my nest,” says Claudia Stimmel, interior designer and founder of Simplicity A Southern Lifestyle. She is walking through the rooms of the 4,600-square-foot French Provincial-style home she shares with her husband and three (now grown) sons. Everything she points to, from the lamps to the antique bookcases, has a story.

In a bigger-is-better world that seems to be increasingly allergic to the charm of antiques and brocante, Stimmel is a rebel. Her first rule is: Don’t expand. “I believe you should work within the walls of your house,” she says. “I’ve not added any square footage to this house. I tell my clients, ‘Let’s not blow it up and get bigger. Let’s see how we can love and use the existing spaces; otherwise, you take away the form of what the architect wanted the home to be.’”

Stimmel’s bold and unapologetic choices, such as turning the six-bedroom house into a four-bedroom and turning a home office into a butler’s pantry, might give some real estate professionals the vapors. However, as the designer and her family move into a new phase of life, she recently listed the home for sale. It sold the same day.

Twenty years ago, Stimmel and her husband moved in with their 3-year-old and newborn twin sons. “It was a simple, plain Georgian that needed some love and attention,” she says. “It was a blank canvas to me, and I knew it would be a great transformation over the years.” The house didn’t just have good bones; it sits on 1.75 wooded acres in Buckhead across from the Chattahoochee Nature Reserve, which feeds the family’s love of nature.

The exterior is stacked stone and brick covered in ivy that the designer and her husband planted when they first moved in. The floor plan has three levels: the terrace level, the main level for public spaces and the third for bedrooms. Through the massive arched glass and wood double doors, we enter a bright two-story foyer wrapped in shiplap.

From the first moment, it’s clear everything is collected and every detail has been lovingly thought through. From the primitive antiques and massive twig light fixture overhead to the custom iron stair rail that incorporates horse bridle bits, there’s a sense of adventure. “I love that our home is very masculine,” Stimmel says. “I have three boys, and we all love farm, equestrian and hunting themes.”

To the right of the foyer is a sitting room with a large square antique table in the middle, flanked by two symmetrical vignettes made up of French daybeds and tall console tables. Everything in the room is at least a hundred years old. This is where Stimmel teaches mah-jongg, her favorite hobby, and where her boys used to lounge.

To the left of the foyer, we find a quaint dining room. An antique bookcase makes a clever home for Stimmel’s china, and custom antler sconces on the wall add to the hunting lodge vibe. The antique dining table has an animal motif that complements a collection of antlers on the opposite wall.

Down the hallway, we find the family room. This room used to have one small side door, but Stimmel wanted large doors that opened to the pool (which she designed). While most people place their pools away from the house, the designer wanted hers three steps away from the threshold. “You can hear the pool’s old French fountains from this room, and the doors are always open,” Stimmel says. The fireplace has a Francois gothic mantel, which the designer knows is oversized but loves anyway, flanked by two built-in cabinets. The cabinets were existing, but the designer blended them into the home’s aesthetic by adding doors with mesh inserts and antique hardware.

Stimmel avoids synthetics, so all rugs are wool, and most textiles are either linen, mohair or hide. In the family room, the vintage Alka chairs are upholstered in white hide with horn legs, the French daybed is upholstered in mohair, and the ottoman (which Stimmel also designed) is covered with Schumacher fabric. “I love textures and dark elements but wanted to lighten this room. When the doors are open, you can see the old stacking stones, so I wanted that contrast and balance,” she says. The designer is a stickler for symmetry, so this long asymmetrical room was her most significant challenge.

The galley kitchen is where Stimmel’s commitment to working with what the architect gave you pays off and the influence of her old-world sensibilities shine. Formerly, the kitchen had a standard peninsula, which was removed so the family room could merge with the cooking space. Stimmel added a worktable with unique triangular stools on either end. “We’ve been to France a million times,” she says. “They don’t have islands; they have worktables for food prep. We all cook, and we have lots of gatherings with friends and family. Everything happens around this table.”

The handmade subway tile from Waterworks is nearly the same color as the wall. “This is a beautiful tile that wraps all the walls and adds texture. I didn’t want any plain walls,” Stimmel says. “Every window frame, and the entrance to the butler’s pantry, is wrapped in this tile.” The designer painted the cabinets Pratt & Lambert “Shadow Beige,” which also matches the walls. “I didn’t want the family room to look into a wall of boring cabinets,” she adds. “I wanted them to blend in and look like a piece of furniture.” The marble countertops, Calacatta Gold, were chosen for their earthy brown elements.

At the end of the kitchen, the banquet area is where family life has taken place for more than two decades. Stimmel replaced the existing windows with floor-to-ceiling metal windows that crank outward so you can hear the birds and pool fountains. Custom drapes and a custom banquet make this an especially cozy space. The antique American farm table, the only American antique in the home, bears the scars of a happy life. “Everything in our life has taken place around this table,” she says. “When they were little, the kids did their homework here, and we had trivia nights while we cooked. We’ve squeezed 13 people around it; people have carved their names in it; it has wine stains, crayon marks, glue, paint, glitter, you name it. It is so loved. Every mark tells the story of our family.” Opposite the banquet, an antique bookcase with a verdigris finish holds the designer’s collection of dishes collected from her travels.

The room off the banquet area used to be the laundry, but Stimmel opened the space, installed shelving with mesh doors and pullout draws, and turned it into a hardworking walk-in pantry. The party platters, baskets, cutting boards and serving ware aren’t just for show; every year, the couple throws a massive Christmas party, hosting up to 350 people.

Also off the kitchen is the butler’s pantry, carved from a tiny builder-basic reach-in pantry and a small office. Stimmel reconfigured the space to be a walk-through bar and pantry that leads to the speakeasy. In the butler’s pantry, a serve-yourself bar is situated on an old French credenza flanked by wine storage cabinets with mesh doors and brass door knockers that look like foxes. This room also has a wine cooler and refrigerator. Off this room is a small lounge with an antique round table featuring wood carvings of deer and boar. The bench, a Suzanne Kasler, was bright white, but Stimmel stripped it, waxed the wood to make it look old and added mohair upholstery. Custom cabinets display her collection of Italian, French and English pewter.

Everyone’s favorite room in the house is the speakeasy, formerly a guest room. On the far wall, a painting of pheasants was the inspiration for the design. Dark Phillip Jeffries grasscloth on the walls is the perfect backdrop for Stimmel’s collections and art. “This is where I do my morning meditations and prayers. And this is where we have cocktails,” she says. Her office is a small nook carved into the wall. Lighted bookshelves hold family treasures, including her husband’s collection of pewter figurines that he’s collected since he was a child.

The powder room used to serve the guest bedroom, so it’s actually a full bath. Stimmel wanted a proper powder room, so she enclosed the freestanding tub with doors with mesh and fabric on the outside for privacy. When the doors are closed, you can’t tell the room is a full bath.

Upstairs, the primary bedroom is elegant and peaceful. Since this home has small rooms, Stimmel removed the walk-in closets and put in European-style wardrobes to create more living space. The bathroom is an oasis with cool limestone floors in a herringbone pattern, an oversize steam shower and French Jado faucets mounted on the wall. Nearby is an elegant European-style closet with cabinet doors made from antique mirrors.

In one of her many labors of love, Stimmel had all of the home’s solid wood doors stained and stripped three times, then pickled, sanded and re-stained. “I wanted them to look extremely old, uneven and inconsistent,” she says. “It took about six weeks, but it was worth it.”

This level also holds the guest bedrooms and her twins’ room, which has remained the same since they were little. “This is the biggest room in the house; it used to be a media room,” she says. “My twins have shared this room for 20 years; everything is custom, from the beds and canopies to the desk. One of my sons is 6-foot-3, and the other is 6-foot-2, and they still sleep in those beds when they come home. They’ve always respected the interior design of the house and have never asked to change it.” A bathroom serves the room with two micro sinks and a shower created by claiming the walk-in closet for the guest bedroom.

In the guest room, Stimmel created a cedar-lined European wardrobe that houses all of their travel attire. “We’ve used every square inch of this house,” she says. The hallway bathroom has a massive glassed-in double shower with marble floors and wall tiles.

On the terrace level, Stimmel designed a playroom for her three sons. This large, open space has two sets of built-in bunk beds made from old barnwood and a trundle bed. All of the rails on the beds are made from twigs gathered from her woods. There are metal lockers and a full bathroom adjacent to the garage. “This is where the kids spent hours and hours with their friends. When they came home from football practice, they could shower before they went upstairs. It’s a human mudroom,” she says.

Also on the terrace level is the laundry room with a large worktable and a washer and dryer behind sliding doors. Stimmel uses this room to spread out materials and make mood boards and can shut the sliding doors to hide the washer and dryer when clients are over.

Though the home is in the city, Stimmel says it feels like they’re miles away. “This was never just a house to us. From the moment we walked in with newborn twins and a 3-year-old, this has been our nest, and we’ve made many memories here,” she says. “The new owner is also a designer with a young son, and I couldn’t be happier to pass it on to her.” *

Robin Howard is a freelance writer in Charleston. See more of her work at robinhowardwrites.com.