Sweet Sixteen: Antiques at The Gardens Never Goes Out of Style
By Donna Cornelius
From furniture built long ago to designers whose aesthetics are shaping modern sensibilities, Antiques at the Gardens is a showcase for timeless beauty.
The 16th annual event, hosted by the Friends of the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, kicks off Sept. 29 and runs through Oct. 2. It includes 12 speakers, 22 dealers and about 150 volunteers – all working together to support the Gardens and to educate and entertain those who attend.
First Horizon Bank is the presenting sponsor of this year’s show, which features textile sponsor Sister Parish Design as well as talks and book signings by nationally and internationally acclaimed interior designers, floral designers, architects, landscape architects and furniture designers.
Dealers will offer an array of tempting items: furniture, fine art, vintage and fine jewelry, silver, rugs and textiles, home decor and garden accessories.
This year’s lineup includes Antique Cupboard, Beth Poindexter Luxe, Black Sheep Antiques, Blackwell Botanicals, Brocante French Antiques, Dana Kelly Oriental Rugs, D.R. Grissom Collection Estate & Fine Jewelry, Edwin C. Skinner, Gum Tree Farm Designs, Hedgerow Antiques, Justin Westbrook, Madison James, Maison de France, McDonough Fine Art, Pennoyer Newman, Piggy Kitchen, Recreo Jewelry, Roger D. Winter, Ltd., Thomas M. Fortner Antiques, Very Vintage Villa, Well + Wonder Artist Collective and Whitehall Antiques.
Antiques at the Gardens draws visitors from all over Alabama and the Southeast. Proceeds benefit the ongoing stewardship and enhancement of the Gardens, educational programs and outreach activities.
Antiques at the Gardens gets off to a festive start Sept. 29 with Gala in the Gardens, a glittering party honoring longtime BBG supporters Maggie and Will Brooke. Guests will enter through a special garden entrance created by Millhouse Howell as they prepare to dance, sip cocktails and carry on conversations under the stars.
Speakers at the Show
Here’s the schedule for the rest of the event:
Friday, Sept. 30 Show hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Shop the Show with Show Ambassador Richard Keith Langham, 9:30 a.m.
Born in Alabama and based in Manhattan, Langham, above, has been a force in the decorating world for more than 30 years. After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and studying at the Study Center for the History of Fine and Decorative Arts in London, he then apprenticed with design legend Mark Hampton. Langham spent 10 years with Irvine & Fleming before founding his own firm in 1990. His signature rooms speak to the past in a fresh way with luscious color, pattern and couture detailing. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis once proclaimed him to have “a sorcerer’s eye.”
Red Diamond Lecture Series: Ken Fulk, 11 a.m. (followed by a book signing)
For more than 30 years, interior designer Ken Fulk, below, has crafted enchanting spaces around the world. He’s been named to the Architectural Digest AD100 and Elle Decor A-List and has been twice nominated for a James Beard Award for his hospitality projects. He’s known for his blend of cinematic flair and layered spaces that pay homage to the traditional influences of his Virginia upbringing. His book, “The Movie in My Mind,” takes readers behind the scenes of some of his most extravagant endeavors. Fulk has won international acclaim with widely published residential and hospitality projects. In 2018, he founded Saint Joseph’s Arts Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting local artists at revitalized historic landmarks in San Francisco and Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Red Diamond Lecture Series: Lewis Miller, 2 p.m. (followed by a book signing)
Lewis Miller, above, was born and raised in California farm country, where he developed a respect for nature at a very young age. Miller, above, is the founder of LMD New York, Lewis Miller Design, one of the premier floral design houses in New York City, with a new second office in West Palm Beach, Florida. Miller’s clients include leading industry professionals in fashion, design, photography, art direction and architecture. He is the author of “Styling Nature: A Masterful Approach to Floral Arrangement” and “Flower Flash.” Miller is known for his Flower Flashes, street art floral installations repurposed from events to create pop-up street installations. He focuses on flowers and fantasy, transforming key life moments in his clients’ lives into magical, everlasting memories. His goal is to continue this work and bring joy and surprise to urban neighborhoods and city dwellers.
Saturday, Oct. 1
Show hours 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Veranda panel: Brandon Ingram, Janice Parker, Stephen Sills and Summer Thornton; Editor-in-Chief Brandon Ingram, 11 a.m. (followed by book signings)
Brandon Ingram
This Georgia native’s C. Brandon Ingram Design is an Atlanta-based residential design firm with major concentration on custom homes, historic renovations and architectural interiors. A Georgia Tech alumnus and four-time winner of the prestigious Philip Trammell Shutze Award for excellence in Classical Design from the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art, Ingram, above, has designed classic, traditional homes across the country.
Janice Parker
Born and raised in New York City, Janice Parker, next page top, studied at Parsons School of Design and then with John Brookes at the Clock House School of Garden Design in England, during which time she also worked in the floral business, designing for events and spaces. Her firm, Janice Parker Landscape Architects, has conceptualized and directed innovative landscape architecture for private and public clients globally. The firm has won multiple awards, including the Veranda Best in Outdoor Living Awards in 2020 and 2022; its work has been featured in Architectural Digest, The New York Times, Veranda and other publications.
Stephen Sills
Stephen Sills, below, is renowned for his ability not only to design innovative and beautiful rooms but also to establish an atmosphere of luxury and calm. With a fresh approach to classicism, Sills brings together furnishings that span four centuries and innovative choices of surfaces, textures and colors. His work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, Town and Country, Vogue, Veranda, W, New York Magazine and Harper’s Bazaar. He is a member of Architectural Digest’s AD100 and is one of its 30 Deans of American Design. Sills’ third monograph, “Stephen Sills – A Vision for Design,” will be available this fall.
Summer Thornton
Summer Thornton, above, is known for decorating with the wildest abandon to create bold and colorful interiors that give homes life. Her first book, “Wonderland: Adventures in Decorating,” debuted in March. Her work has been featured in AD, Veranda, Elle Décor, House Beautiful, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and other publications. She is regularly named to exclusive lists, including Sotheby’s list of the top 20 Designers to Watch. Her style inspires more than 100,000 followers on Instagram.
Moderator: Steele Marcoux
Marcoux is the editor-in-chief at Veranda magazine. She leads editorial initiatives and covers design trends, architecture and travel.
Alex Papachristidis, presented by Flower magazine, 2 p.m. (followed by a book signing)
Papachristidis’ work has been published in Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, House Beautiful, House and Garden, Southern Accents, InStyle and the New York Times, and he has been named to the 2016 AD 100 List, Elle Décor’s A-List of 25 Interior Designers and, several times, to the New York Spaces’ Top 50 Designer List.
The designer is the author of “The Age of Elegance: Interiors by Alex Papachristidis” and a new book, “The Elegant Life: Rooms That Welcome and Inspire.” He also has a tabletop business called Everyday Elegance on Instagram. (See story on page 18.)
Sunday, Oct. 2 Show hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Hosted by James Farmer
Making a return appearance at the show is James Farmer a Southern author, interior designer and speaker known for his ability to create beautifully familiar and welcoming homes. Farmer, above, is the author of numerous best-selling books. His most recent publication, “Arriving Home,” features design projects from the farmlands of Georgia to the Connecticut countryside. His work also has been published in Southern Living, House Beautiful, Traditional Home, Southern Home, Flower and other magazines.
Sunday with Kreis Beall, 11:30 a.m. (followed by a book signing)
Kreis Beall, below, is co-founder of Blackberry Farm, an award-winning, 70-room resort in the Smoky Mountains of east Tennessee and one of the country’s premier destinations. This Tennessee native weaves together varied experiences – hotel proprietor, cook, photographer, interior designer, traveler – all sharing common threads: Beall’s passion for the art of living, her love of beauty and her knack for transforming big dreams into real, uncontrived elegance. She is a fixture in the travel and entertaining world and frequently appears in popular home and design magazines.
House Beautiful panel: Betsy Brown, Jeffrey Dungan and Grant Trick; moderator: Carisha Swanson, House Beautiful magazine director of editorial special projects. 2 p.m. (followed by book signings)
Betsy Brown
Betsy Brown, below, was raised in Birmingham by a wildly creative Southern mother – an antiques dealer who was obsessed with design. Her namesake firm, Betsy Brown Inc., specializes in comfortable, collected spaces where modernist sensibilities form the foundation and antiquities create exquisite tension and balance. Her work has been featured in publications worldwide, and she’s won awards that include Southeastern Designer of the Year by Veranda magazine and the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center and Top 125 Designers by House Beautiful magazine.
Jeffrey Dungan
Jeffrey Dungan is principal of Alabama-based Jeffrey Dungan Architects. His creative work can be seen in his native South and throughout North and Central America. Dungan has been honored with the 2017 Southeast Architect of the Year award by Veranda magazine and the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center as well as numerous awards from the American Institute of Architects. In 2018 and 2019, he received the prestigious Palladio Award, the only national award for classical architecture. Dungan, above, is the author of “The Nature of Home: Creating Timeless Houses.”
Grant Trick
Furniture maker and artisan Grant Trick, below, is the founder of his namesake furniture upholstery workroom in Birmingham. Trick began his career as a sportswear designer in New York. Creative stints as a showroom designer and propmaker for various fashion brands allowed him to master the manufacturing art of custom upholstery and soft furnishings. He has since returned to his Southern roots in Alabama, where he hand-tailors, hand-tufts and hand-sews custom pieces for the design industry.
Moderator: Carisha Swanson
Panel moderator Carisha Swanson is director of editorial special projects at House Beautiful magazine. She works with brands and partners to create innovative editorial initiatives in the digital, video and print spaces.
Books will be available to buy at Leaf & Petal’s shop at The Gardens.
Some events have limited seating and require additional tickets. For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.bbgardens.org/antiques. Follow the show on Facebook and Instagram @antiquesgardensbham.
