Among the many common interests interior designer Beth Webb shares with her husband, Chuck Hanavich, is a love of design and antiques. So, even though she finds designing for herself to be the ultimate challenge, when the two purchased a dated pied-à-terre in the Buckhead district of Atlanta a couple of years ago, they managed to transform it into a posh retreat with relative ease by working closely together.

“It’s like our alter ego,” Webb says of the two-bedroom dwelling, which is situated in a coveted boutique condominium building known as 31 Muscogee, a residential structure that was designed by a protégé of Atlanta’s prominent Jazz Age architect Philip Trammell Shutze and built in 1962. “The building has an old world sensibility with classical scale and proportions. It contains only sixteen units, and our apartment is reminiscent of an English flat,” says Webb. “It’s a complete departure from our 5,500-square-foot modern glass house set amid the marsh ponds of Brays Island, a Low Country community on a former plantation in South Carolina. The two homes are like yin and yang.”

Indeed, in contrast to the couple’s country house, which Hanavich constructed before he and Webb married—both for the second time—almost five years ago, they intentionally set out to fashion their urban getaway as a traditionally inspired counterpoint to their expansive, modern domain. “We enjoy all different worlds,” says Webb. “The only common denominator is comfort.” Inveterate travelers both, the pair also agreed that their city residence should feel like the interiors of the Lowell Hotel in New York, where they often stay during their jaunts to Manhattan. “We wanted the rooms to feel like a five-star hotel with all the luxuries and amenities, except a butler or maid,” says the designer.

This story appeared in the Summer 2021 issue of MILIEU. To read the complete story or to see all photos, visit the MILIEU Newsstand to purchase this issue in print or visit Zinio.com to purchase this issue in digital format.  

INTERIOR DESIGN BY BETH WEBB

STYLING BY ELEANOR ROPER

WRITTEN BY JEAN NAYAR

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LISA ROMEREIN