Text by Kate Abney
Through tireless renovation efforts, Beth and husband Jeff have turned their home into one of the most charming dwellings on the block—right down to its winsome white-picket fence.
Beth Ervin knows that a house should be much more than pretty; a truly well-considered residence is versatile, too. And for the people who inhabit it, a home should include familiar comforts, sounds, smells, and feelings. It’s precisely that je ne sais quoi that clients of the longstanding Atlanta designer rely upon so implicitly.
In 1996, Beth and her husband, Jeff, got wind of a charming 1937 Colonial Revival, situated on a sidewalk-framed corner lot just a stone’s throw from Buckhead’s famed Bobby Jones Golf Course. Beth took a brief tour, and Jeff agreed to the purchase sight unseen. “The neighbors couldn’t believe it,” Beth recalls. “They said, ‘Oh my gosh, Beth, he trusted you enough to buy a house without seeing it?’ ” It seems his wife’s impeccable taste was plenty to assuage any reservations Jeff had.
The designer spent the next two decades gradually renovating the two-story white clapboard residence via a constant procession of projects large (a family-room expansion and a rebuilt garage with office area) and small (a shiplap-clad bar and a custom gate on the white picket fence) with the help of her friend, Atlanta architect Jack Davis.
