The lifespan of any historic home depends on the fidelity of each owner’s vision, and Kim Noland understood her role in preserving her circa 1905 house in Athens’s prominent Five Points neighborhood.

A friend sought the advice of interior designer Gabriela Eisenhart because she thought her shower was rotting. “Sure enough, I told her she was about to fall through the floor,” says Gabriela, founder of Silo Studio Design, who was hired on the spot to revamp the dated 150-square-foot primary bath in Atlanta’s Lenox Park neighborhood.

With both kids off to college and beginning a new phase of life as empty nesters, Meredith Petty’s clients were looking for a project. Although they come from the world of commercial building, the couple quickly realized they needed the help of a residential designer to transform their new build in Peachtree City, an hour south of Atlanta, into the warm modern home of their dreams.