HOW SUSIE PRINCE HELPED A BROOKHAVEN RESIDENT REFLECT HER PERSONAL CONFIDENCE AT HOME.
Homeowner Jacqueline Garner has often been asked if she’s an interior designer, thanks to her vibrant personality and love of fashion. However, the Georgia Tech professor of finance is the first to admit that she couldn’t translate her innate sunniness into her Brookhaven home. For that, she called in Susie Prince of Susie Mae Design.
The two originally met through a shared real estate agent, Patty Keller, in 2017. Garner had moved to Atlanta for her job the previous year and found her Lenox Park home with Keller’s guidance. “Our Realtor knew I was an interior designer and that Jacqueline really loved color and that the home she had sold her was very beige. She is not beige,” Prince says.
Keller brought Prince to meet Garner before the sale closed to see if they were a good fit, which created a somewhat awkward moment in front of the seller. However, Garner says that Prince impressed her with how she handled him. “Susie said, ‘I think you can understand her wanting to put her own flair on it,’” Garner recalls. “That softened him and made me like her immediately. She’s one of the most gracious people, and she handles others well.” The duo began simply with a paint consultation, and the relationship, much like the home, has evolved over time.
“We’ve been slowly working on one room at a time. That’s how design should be: an evolved space,” Prince says. “I like to ask her to live with the space for a minute because we can always come back and add more. We always add more.” The home needed lightening up. It was built in the mid 90s and was dark and masculine so Prince set about creating a bright and open space, starting in the dining room.
The first order of business was to change the color and add prints. Garner loves saturated colors and geometry, which became a launching point for the home. “She’s very analytical and is drawn to geometry by nature,” Prince says. “We found moments of painterly florals and animal prints with natural shapes, alongside items like handblown glass, to incorporate a human touch to balance the angles.”
The contrasting red and blue color palette was inspired by a few of Garner’s life touchpoints, namely a vase and flower combo and a necklace, as well as an existing rug that is now displayed in the dining room. Prince was tasked with juxtaposing the bold with places for the eye to rest, as well as the masculine and feminine. For example, the Greek key dining room wallpaper and red lacquered china cabinets from Etsy are balanced by the painterly flora and fauna wallpapers in the powder room and butler’s pantry. Teal and blue terrazzo countertops in the kitchen find a counterpoint in white cabinetry, and the focal fireplace wall in the living room, done in Benjamin Moore’s Venezuelan Sea, finds visual relief via bright white Visual Comfort sconces. Asian influences, such as bamboo and rattan, help bring a softness.
Besides her love of color, Garner’s 11-year-old German Shorthaired Pointer, Miles, was a big factor in everything from artwork to fabric selection. He is such a part of Garner’s life that she brings him everywhere. “They get upset at the Container Store if I don’t bring him with me,” the Alabama native says. Performance fabrics, such as the woodland print on the curved couch and teal fabric on the swivel chairs in the living room, were chosen, and everything, including rugs and drapes, was treated by fabric protection company Fiber-Seal of Atlanta as an insurance policy against Miles’ muddy paws. An oil portrait of the pup by Canadian artist John Dykes was put into a floating frame and hangs above the dog crate in the living room, and German Shorthaired Pointer wallpaper from Spoonflower hangs in the laundry room as an ode to him.
“Her home is hyper-personalized, and she loves her dog,” says Prince, who didn’t want the representation of the dog to be an afterthought. “We’ve even talked about adding a dog wash station to the garage with turquoise-colored paw tiles. We wanted to display her love proudly.”
While many of the furnishings are new, Prince was able to reimagine pieces that meant a lot to Garner. For example, her grandmother’s cedar chest in the bedroom was updated with a swipe of Benjamin Moore’s Venezuelan Sea with a lacquer finish, and a photo of her mother eating watermelon hangs in the kitchen.
Lighting choices were also important as a throughline of Garner’s personality and balance. “Jacqueline loves fun stuff, and so do I, so the light fixtures are playful and feminine, and don’t take themselves too seriously,” Prince says. So a clear acrylic spherical light fixture replaced a beige ceiling fan in the living room, instantly bringing in personality and functional lighting, and a blown glass turquoise balloon pendant hangs above the breakfast nook. “There’s not a room in her house that’s not exciting,” Prince says.
That includes the screened-in patio, where Garner spends a lot of time. She is the lead on Georgia Tech’s VIP Sports Valuation & Analytics program, and she can often be found watching games out there. She particularly loves the peacock chairs Prince found her, and says she and Miles love to while away the afternoon together. “The chairs are so me,” Garner says. “Susie didn’t even have to ask.”
Prince says that during the eightyear process of working on Garner’s home, they have only had one real struggle: They’re both “more is more” people, she says. “The only real challenge was dialing it back a bit and making sure we have places for the eye to rest.”
Garner says Prince has helped her finesse her style overall and reflect her personal confidence in her home. “I knew the house would be too clown-like and circus-y if I did it myself,” says Garner, who praises her designer for always knowing exactly what she likes. “I run everything by Susie, like when I’m standing at HomeGoods contemplating something. My house is so amazing now; I don’t want to mess it up.”
IN THE DETAILS
Prince shares some of her favorite style moments in Garner’s home.
1. The burlwood etagere in the living room adds warmth and texture and showcases Garner’s favorite symbol, the elephant. It offsets the drapery, made from Fabricut material. “Jacqueline loves this pattern; it was a great place to pull color from and add interest to make it feel more layered and beautiful,” says Prince.
2. Garner had the existing German Shorthaired Pointer pillow in her office, but Prince added the green chair. “It holds its own in the space,” she says.
3. Asian influences dot the home, including this bar cart that Prince sourced. “The lamp is an antique reproduction by a local company called Avala International in Peachtree Corners,” she says.
