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Above: The airy living room is the home’s central anchor, surrounded by the dining room, kitchen, foyer and bedrooms. Below: Entrepreneur Blair Cohen, pictured in his basement office.
HIDDEN JEWEL An enchanting Peachtree Hills cottage mixes salvaged materials, modern industrial flair and romantic European touches STORY:
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Giannina S. Bedford PHOTOS: David Parham
ince Michigan native Blair Cohen moved to Atlanta in 1985, he’s lived in a variety of different homes, from a contemporary Morningside bungalow to a sprawling estate on Tuxedo Road. But his current Peachtree Hills dwelling might be his favorite yet. “I just fell in love when I first saw it and ended up paying full price,” says Cohen, a technology entrepreneur who purchased his 2,291-square-foot home near the Duck Pond in 2016. “I’ve had bigger homes and didn’t utilize a lot of them, and I utilize 100% of this house.” Built in the 1930s, the three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath cottage has gone through various transformations, including the previous owners’ outfitting it in salvaged materials—many of the items sourced by Wyatt “Bo” Childs of Childs Millwork in Barnesville, Georgia. Beneath its soaring 22-foot ceilings, it showcases oak beams from barns in Ohio, antique limestone floors in the entry
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and handmade iron and glass French doors. When Cohen moved in, he enlisted designer and friend Edwin Rabine to decorate and make minor aesthetic changes. He refinished the wood floors, added some wallpaper and stained the yellowish oak in the bathrooms and on the living room mantle. Many of Cohen’s furnishings brought from his previous home fit right in, from the large custom coffee table made of two bookmatched slabs of old walnut to a 19th century Italian giltwood and iron chandelier. The living room also features a Verellan sofa and club chairs slipcovered in Belgian linen, a Dennis & Leen Italian credenza and intriguing decor objects—vintage white opium pipes from Vietnam, ivory clamshell bangles used as currency in Papua New Guinea and a large tridacna shell. The art on the walls ranges from a triptych horse portrait and a shadow boxframed, traditional Tahitian wedding skirt to
