PHOTOS BY ELLIOT FUERNISS
PUBLISHED: JUN 25, 2024
Sometimes, an interior designer and client find each other via Instagram DM; other times, their meeting feels like kismet. The latter was certainly the case for Atlanta-based interior designer Jessica Davis, who first heard from her future client, art collector and adviser Courtney Bombeck, via a more unlikely connection: their husbands’ jobs.
In the breakfast area, Knoll dining chairs that Bombeck purchased at a basement sale take center stage-the orange hue pairs with the Ebony G. Patterson artwork above the credenza, which is by BD Barcelona. The dining table is custom, and the pendant is by Moooi.
Bombeck was flipping through the New York Times when she came across an article on Davis’s home in Atlanta, where the designer had recently relocated with her husband, Scott, who works as a consultant. Bombeck, whose husband also works in consulting, wondered if they might have a mutual business-world connection. “I thought, Okay, what are the odds? There are a zillion consultants in Atlanta,” Bombeck tells ELLE DECOR.
Turns out, it was a smaller world than she thought: the two spouses worked at the same firm. "I was like, 'I need to meet his wife! We're going to be best friends!'" Bombeck recalls.
The rest, as they say, is history. Bombeck lived in a traditional home in Atlanta and wanted to infuse it with pieces from local artists she worked with via her business, Co-op Art. In that sense, the home represented not just a place to lounge on the sofa and fire off emails, but also a fully realized showroom. Davis and Bombeck discovered they shared a similar design ethos: That a traditional building can be paired with colorful artwork to create a beautiful, one-of-a-kind mix.
"She loved the idea of a modern foil to a traditional interior," says the ELLE DECOR A-List designer. "Almost like a French aerie where you have these heavy moldings... but then you insert a really contemporary Italian kitchen into that."
Perhaps the best example of that approach is in the dining room, which seamlessly blends color and pattern with old and new.
The rug, a vintage Chinese piece that Davis found locally, brings a splash of blue into the space, which is anchored by a Technicolor painting by Karen Davie on one side and an all-black work by Tania Candiani on the other.
A custom chandelier by designer Brent Warr was commissioned for the dining room. The Chinese Art Deco rug is vintage, the curtains are by Kelly Wearstler for Lee Jofa, and the chairs are from Artifort (blue) and Edra. The artwork on the left above the credenza is by Karen Davie, and the large artwork opposite is by Tania Candiani.