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Joanna Avant (left) and Lesley Glotzl (right) have been fast friends since meeting at church in 2009. Their friendship and shared sense of humor informs the design of the Avant home, where you’ll find plenty of color and graphic prints.
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A sunny family eating area features kid-friendly ghost chairs, a beaded chandelier and cheery art from Minted.
Certain elements shape every interior design: color, contrast, texture, balance. There’s one more that’s often overlooked: trust.
Does the homeowner trust the designer to interpret the dream? Can the designer trust the homeowner to commit to the plan?
Joanna Avant and Lesley Glotzl can say yes and yes. But that’s no surprise: the two met at River Road Presbyterian Church in 2009 and have been fast friends since.
Joanna, a personal stylist, specializes in “wardrobe revival”: helping women edit their closets and add pieces to freshen their looks. When it comes to her own wardrobe and home, “there’s very little minimal about me,” Joanna says. She likes styles that stand the test of time, enlivened by “a little bit of quirk, a little bit of edge, and lots of color.”
Interior decorator Glotzl’s talent is working with clients who know what they like, but who need help pulling it together in a polished way. “I try to take what they have and make it the best version of their style,” she says. “I want everyone to feel happy in their house.” (Glotzl’s house was featured in R•Home in 2013.)
So when Joanna found the perfect house for her family of four, she knew immediately that Glotzl would be the one to decorate it.
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The Avants’ dining room features wallpaper from Thibaut, a Worlds Away chandelier and chairs inherited from Joanna’s mother-in-law, a designer in Nashville. The original fabric didn’t work in the Avants’ new space, so they were re-covered in a rubbed-black cotton velvet from Osborne & Little. The abstract art is by Carson Price.
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The skylit kitchen has space for Joanna’s desk as well as a cozy chair for planning and reflection. A generous island provides another spot for a quick meal or cup of tea.
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The Avants had attended a party at the house the year before, and they admired its bright, airy feeling. “We need something like this. The flow of this house is just perfect,” Joanna’s husband, Phillip, said. When it came on the market in 2015, they snapped it up.
The house itself, a Dutch Colonial built in the mid-1980s, was in perfect condition — no renovations needed — but the traditional decor wasn’t quite to Joanna’s taste. So Glotzl and Joanna embarked on a nearly three-year joint endeavor to make it feel like home.
“It’s as though I did it myself — except it’s just way better.” —Joanna Avant
From the very beginning, Glotzl advised Joanna not to bring anything into the house that wasn’t going to stay. So the Avants sat on folding chairs until they found the tailored brown sofas for the family room and a curvy leather armchair by CR Laine.
The challenge throughout was finding ways to incorporate antique heirlooms, family-friendly furnishings and colorful, graphic artwork, such as a Pop Art-style Chanel No. 5 print and Hatch Show prints picked up in Nashville.
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One of the first steps in designing the living room was painting the fireplace to brighten the space. A reproduction of a Paule Marrot butterfly from Natural Curiosities pulls in bold tones of the rug from Amir’s Rug Exchange. The sofa was inherited from Joanna’s grandmother and updated with new upholstery. Treasures fill acrylic shelves in the living room, including some of Joanna’s favorite fashion books featuring Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Diane von Furstenberg.
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Thibaut wallpaper on the powder room ceiling was “a must,” according to Glotzl.
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The Avants brought the Chanel print from their previous home; it was a find during a trip to Atlanta. To hang it in the family room, they removed the chair rail, creating the perfect space for the oversized art.
The elegant yet inviting front room is perhaps the best example of their collaboration. Joanna wanted to place a piano in the room, but Glotzl put her foot down: “A piano is a room wrecker, every time,” she maintains. Instead, a vivid butterfly print and a bold Persian rug draw the eye. Joanna’s grandmother’s demure sofa, once covered in pink velvet, was updated with a crisp diamond-print fabric; a pair of armchairs, bestowed by Joanna’s mother-in-law, were re-covered in deep navy velvet with subtle grooves. “This room, for me, is all about the rug, and then the fabrics, and the color — the play of everything against each other,” Glotzl says.
Across the hall is the “not-so-formal formal dining room,” as Joanna calls it. The sunburst wallpaper, Green Front sideboard and gold chandelier came first. Then Glotzl placed the round table and bold monochrome artwork.
Glotzl kept the existing pale-green damask wallpaper and plantation shutters in the family’s main dining space, where Joanna wanted to showcase two inherited pieces, a table and a Victorian secretary. Glotzl steered the room in a more contemporary direction by adding Lucite chairs, a bright print of oranges, and a chandelier hung with wooden beads.
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The Avants’ covered porch is party-ready for family and friends.
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Comfort meets style in the Avants’ family room. Art above the CR Laine sofa is the perfect expression of Joanna’s career as a personal stylist, and art by children Elise (12) and Brooks (10) lines the mantel.
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This cheery drop zone in the entry features peasant paintings Joanna’s mother brought back from a trip to China.
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The guest room features David Hicks for Groundworks wallpaper, a Lulu and Georgia pillow, and crisp white bedding from Target.
Because Glotzl knows Joanna has her own, defined sense of style, often she will present her with a wider array of fabric or wallpaper possibilities than she would another client. In turn, Joanna trusts Glotzl’s vision. “I love knowing somebody so well that I can trust them with those things,” she says.
When Joanna found out the powder room wallpaper was intended to cover the ceiling as well as the walls, she hesitated. With the paperhanger waiting, she called Glotzl. “Are you sure that’s going to look good?” she asked. “It’s a must,” Glotzl reassured her. And so it was. The result is somehow both serene and exuberant, like a kaleidoscope view of white clouds.
Joanna never wanted a house that felt impersonal, like a stranger had decorated it. “I come in here, and it’s as though I did it myself — except it’s just way better than I could have done it.” The two women erupt in laughter.
