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Barnaby, J.P. Horton’s Cavalier King Charles spaniel, is at home in the living room on the green French toile slipcovered sofa found at Circa. The sconces are vintage, and the paintings are by Horton’s father and grandfather.
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The border on the sofa apron is Passion Flower Vine from Horton’s bespoke fabric collection. He discovered the rare piece of green-and-white Jemez pottery while on a family trip to the Grand Canyon. The Medusa head is from the Getty Museum gift shop in Los Angeles, and the pillow is crafted from Fortuny silk damask.
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Horton discovered the architectural fragments of horsehair plaster Ionic column capitals at Black Dog Salvage in Roanoke. He says the block print of a Madagascar tree (resting on the chair at bottom left), which he made while in college, inspired his interest in pattern making.
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The living room window treatments were repurposed. Here Horton married Colefax & Fowler ticking stripe drapes with silk valances that hung in his Charleston, South Carolina, bedroom.
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Horton inserted a Wedgwood medallion at the top of the gold rococo-style mirror. He found the antique demilune table in Charleston, and the dotted pot is by Jake Johnson of Make Waynesboro Clay Studio.
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Vintage Wedgwood trays and family photos frame the views into the pantry where Horton displays his collection of Le Creuset Palm cookware.
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Wedgwood jardinieres on vintage library steps frame the French doors leading to a balcony with views of the horse paddocks and woodlands; Horton says it was a wonderful place to share a casual lunch or dinner with friends.
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The bedside lamps once belonged to Horton’s great-grandmother. The nightstands are by Phillips Scott in a French gray painted finish, the mirrors are by Pottery Barn, and the faux bois rug, which fits the whole room, is by Jaipur.
Interior designer J.P. Horton has trained with and worked for several leading designers, including the long-running Virginia firm Stedman House and Los Angeles-based Michael S. Smith, where Horton completed projects for entertainment bigwigs George Lucas and Tyler Perry. Along the way, he developed a design approach that marries Southern tradition and modern styling and gives equal attention to function and story.
“I’ve incorporated elements from these bigger designers and made an aesthetic of my own,” he says. “I use modern elements, but I very much like things to be rooted in history or precedent.”
Two years ago, after leaving California and returning to his hometown of Charlottesville, Horton had a chance to bring that layered approach to his own residence. At the same time, he relaunched his interior design company and began working with his longtime mentor, well-known designer and Richmond native Charlotte Moss.
During his first year back in Virginia, he lived 20 minutes south of Charlottesville in a converted hayloft above a horse stable.
“Coming from LA, I had this romanticized fantasy of moving back and living in the countryside,” says Horton, who now lives in a condominium in downtown Charlottesville. “It was very bucolic and relaxing, and it was a nice apartment to experiment with.”
The owners had recently listed the space as an Airbnb before looking for a long-term tenant instead. The apartment was a “blank slate,” Horton says, with gray paint and gray vinyl tile flooring, “which, of course, I wasn’t allowed to change.”
One selling point, however, was the expansive 20-by-20-foot living room. Horton started by entirely covering the basic flooring with an oversized rug made of woven water hyacinth grass that he created in collaboration with global rug purveyors Rush House. He then subdivided the room into two areas: one for reading and one for watching TV. A center table provided a focal point to delineate the two regions and could expand into a banquet table for larger gatherings. At one end of the room, French doors opened to a balcony.
Horton says the space lacked architectural details such as molding and window casements, but he introduced visual interest and structure by applying grosgrain ribbon along the wall and ceiling edges. Curtains and valances softened the room while drawing the eye to the surrounding pastoral views.
Artwork was equally vital in bringing warmth and personality to the empty gray walls. Horton has amassed a wide-ranging collection, with paintings by family members and antique decorative objects from places he has lived and traveled. Above a green toile sofa, he placed an oil painting by his grandfather depicting the marshes of South Carolina. A watercolor painting of Maine by his father hung nearby. Other pieces on display included a watercolor from a local shop in Charlottesville, a scenic wallpaper sample hand-painted by Staunton painter and wallcovering designer Paul Montgomery that Horton received as a gift from Stedman House, and palm tree decor that evokes Horton’s time living in Charleston, South Carolina.
“I have a collection from everywhere I’ve lived, from Roanoke to Charleston to LA and back,” he says. “Art is so personal. If it speaks to me, I buy it and eventually find a place for it.”
Another feature of the apartment was its walk-in pantry, which Horton used to display his collection of teapots, serving dishes, Le Creuset cookware and pieces from his vast collection of Wedgwood green Jasperware.
“Some of them [Wedgwood Jasperware pieces] are from the 1700s, some from the 1800s and on,” he says. “They’re so well made and beautiful, and I use them in a modern way.”
He estimates his collection includes as many as 1,000 pieces, many of which he used as artwork throughout the apartment. He mounted ashtrays and trinket trays above the doorways to the pantry and his bedroom, creating pediment archways. A hutch held even more.
The Wedgwood pieces inspired the home’s green color palette, which included shades of deep hunter, soft sage and a pop of chartreuse. The undercurrent of green also served to bridge objects and patterns from various times and places. A modern chair in bright yellow-green that recalls Horton’s time in LA sat next to a sofa featuring a French toile in soft green. A tablecloth on the center table featured a block print from Iran — which he reproduced for his custom fabric and wallpaper line — while a handmade quilt from a consignment shop in Charlottesville rested on his bed.
Horton says the variety is in keeping with his Southern traditional style, which leans heavily into heirloom pieces with history, meaning and craftsmanship.
“Southern tradition is about incorporating pieces you’ve collected and inherited,” he says. “That’s very much my sensibility. I don’t like everything to match; I want it to look collected. Everything has a story, and it all works together.”
