COTSWOLDS CROSSOVER
By Maria Masters; Photography by Dustin & Susie Peck
This article appeared in the September/October 2025 issue of Home Design & Decor’s Charlotte edition.
Architect Paul Geary and designer Amy Adams realize a forever home rooted in both traditional and contemporary.
The “rule of three” in writing and rhetoric is that things grouped in threes feel satisfying or impactful. Turns out, this also applies to homeowner and interior designer Amy Adams. After collaborating with Florida-based architect Paul Geary on two previous homes, Adams got the opportunity to work with him once again when she razed a property she purchased in Eastover and built a new one from scratch.
Adams had a specific vision in mind: she needed the home to match the neighborhood’s Old World–aesthetic, but she also wanted it to stand out. “We didn’t want it to look like the new house on the block,” she says, “but it didn’t need to be exactly like everything else.”
Geary set to work designing a traditional English Manor–style home, complete with a Dutch gable and cedar-shake roof complemented by contemporary elements in the form of steel French doors and windows. “If you were to drive through the Cotswolds or somewhere in England, you would see similar architectural details,” says Geary. “At the same time, there are features that have a different format than what you would see on a traditional home.”
Whereas Geary took the lead on the exterior of the home, the duo collaborated closely on the interiors, with Adams leading the design and functionality of each room. With two builds already under her belt, she knew what worked for her family and what didn’t. All of her previous homes, for example, had formal living rooms—“basically to house the piano that my kids took lessons on,” she says—but the family hardly ever used them. So this time, Adams designed a large family room off the kitchen as well as a separate game room, where her three children could gather, play pool, and watch TV with their friends. “We wanted to make the space more functional and usable,” she says.
As for the piano, it now takes center stage in a bay off the formal dining room (which the family still uses for entertaining and holidays). It’s used a little less these days, she admits, but there are times when, during dinner, her children will reminisce about an old recital song and try to play it from memory.
Though the house is grounded in practicality and timelessness, it also exudes playfulness and charm. In the billiards room, moody blue walls give way to a TV nook clad in pecky cypress wood, while an upstairs playroom is drenched in coastal-inspired blues and pops of neon oranges and pinks. Adams even let her daughter take the design reins of her bedroom, which boasts a soothing palette of lilacs and blues.
“Nothing was too precious,” says Adams of the home. “It was built and designed so that every inch was comfortable for us. I wanted everybody to feel good everywhere.”