How To Master Classic Georgian Style

Nashville decorator Sarah Bartholomew studied the works of some of the finest designers—teaching herself to spin traditional interiors like these in her own home. Five years ago, when Sarah Bartholomew got the inside scoop that a certain Georgian house in Nashville was about to hit the market, the then-34-year-old decorator sensed that the search for her family's dream home might be over. But at the moment she got word, she was visiting family in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her husband, Bo, and their four young children. "We bought it sight unseen," she says with a laugh. Such seat-of-the-pants maneuvering wasn't as impulsive as it seems. In fact, Bartholomew had been preparing all her life to leap at such a well-proportioned house. The Georgian home's good bones were exactly what she was looking for. After a renovation that included complete overhauls of the kitchen and baths, Bartholomew decorated room after room for family life without skimping on glamour. She's a devout decorating classicist, and her clean version of traditional style achieves effervescence with its crisp, clear colors and graphic vignettes.