Homeowners Dan Belman and Randy Korando prepare for an alfresco feast on their 120-acre weekend retreat in Madison, Georgia, an hour’s drive from Atlanta. The black standard poodle, Tuxedo, is Wesley the sheepdog’s special pet. “He doesn’t listen to us,” says Dan, “only to Wesley. When Wesley stands, Tuxedo stands.”

Interior design, contracting and landscape design: Randy Korando and Dan Belman, Boxwoods Gardens & Gifts, 100 East Andrews, Atlanta, GA 30305; 404/233-3400.

Photography: Colleen Duffley
Produced by Lisa Mowry

Camp Boxwoods’ Queen Anne Victorian style begins at the circular front porch—the first project pursued by the owners when the rest of the house remained bland, single-story 1979 ranch-style architecture. The porch throws curves to augment the original straight lines and packs in gingerbread trim to reinvent the house as Victorian.

The homeowners converted the garage into a camp-size living room. Their signature touch—antiques they’ve adapted or repurposed to paint their vision—is apparent at the room’s focal point, a massive chandelier that was one tier of a two-tier fixture from the St. Louis home of baseball star Stan “the Man” Musial.

One of the bonuses of remodeling is customization to fit any need, including the dog’s. In its transformation, the garage-turned-living room was redesigned with a windowseat that includes an architectural niche for the owners’ smallest dog, Muffy the mutt.

A pair of tufted club chairs flank a coffee table adapted from an old wooden ice chest in the living room.

An archway richly detailed with millwork delineates the new bumped-out entry—the only space that required venturing outside the house’s original 1970s’ footprint. Randy Korando handpainted the floor in a faux bois pattern. The entry’s chandelier is the other, smaller tier of the large fixture from Cardinal legend Stan Musial’s St. Louis mansion.

In the remodel, the original living room became the new dining room—large enough to accommodate a crowd for lodge-style sit-down dinners. The antique dining chairs are from a Victorian farmhouse in Missouri.

Also in the dining room: All of the low-slung ranch house’s ceilings were vaulted in the public rooms to create a sense of more space. Wainscoting, a transomed door, and an octagonal window were added to enhance the re-creation of the house to Victorian-style architecture.

Every home’s mudroom should look so good—or have a sheepdog like Wesley to sit as sentinel. A coffered ceiling creates architectural character overhead, where the previous ranch-style design was plain, while a panel of stained glass partitions the mudroom from the adjoining interior space in a kaleidoscope of color. Antique French dinnerware decorates the wall commanded by a step-back china cabinet.

An antique French candy counter was divided in half and repurposed as one-of-a-kind kitchen cabinets. The kitchen’s open feeling is indicative of the design goal in every public room.

Proving that no project is too large—or too small—Randy and Dan enlarged an antique twin-size bed for the master bedroom. All of the window cornices are antiques and near-perfect matches for those in the adjoining bath.

An antique perfume press used to crush flowers for fragrance graces the master bath’s table by the window. Drapery trim is Schumacher. Both the cornice and the French light fixture are Victorian. The marble-topped vanity table originally was a baker’s table.

Transformed into a guest room, the third-floor attic space is a celebration of nature and human creativity. Randy decorated the walls by appliquéing real pine cones, acorns, hickory nuts, sweet gumballs, and honeysuckle vines onto them. The lower walls resemble ornate paneling; the upper walls’ fluid floral designs suggests the patterns from crewelwork. The room is a favorite for the children of visiting families.

An eco-friendly old-fashioned-style front porch required almost no new materials. The owners found two old half-round choir lofts and pieced them together. The “witch’s hat” peaked ceiling is a characteristic of Queen Anne architecture, which the remodeled ranch house emulates.

A massive antique mirror from Cincinnati dominates one end of the sleeping porch, which is furnished in a mix of old wicker pieces.

As the owners of Atlanta’s popular Boxwoods Gardens & Gifts, Randy and Dan have groomed the grounds of their 120-acre weekend retreat with antique boxwoods imported from England and an assortment of hardscape elements including fountains and gates. This gate overlooks one of the property’s two ponds.

Even the vegetable garden appears preppy, showing no signs of a single shaggy edge.