I met interior designer Bryan Kirkland working on a high-end interior design magazine and later did a story on his personal style and beautiful closet for a luxury men’s magazine. While his clothes range from colorful to preppy to avant-garde, Bryan Kirkland’s design aesthetic leans part Hollywood Regency and part hot Miami nights. The exquisite spaces he crafts range from clean all-white and neutral palettes to fantastic blasts of color.
Named one of the Top 25 Designers in Atlanta by Veranda Magazine, Bryan Kirkland has been the owner of Showroom 58 at ADAC since 2018, and before that owned BAK Designs for over a decade.
Bryan Kirkland has also got a Jonesboro drawl to die for and is a Southern dandy through and through.
He’s designed everything from high-end estate homes to luxury cosmetic surgery centers. But no matter how successful he becomes, and how many fancy clients he lands, he’s never lost that sweet Southern soul. With a touch of sass, of course.
What do you do for a living?
I am a lucky man. Every day I get to create beautiful homes for clients all over the world. Thankfully it is my passion in life. As an interior designer, I have worked for Bloomingdale’s; have had my own company in Miami, Florida; have had two companies in Atlanta—one retail showroom and now my beautiful showroom at ADAC. I also have an interior design firm. We decorate clients’ homes around the U.S. and in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico.
Did you always know what you wanted to be?
Back in the day, I had this innate sense to decorate. One time, my parents went on a European vacation. They left me food money, but instead I bought paint and repainted our living room. My mother, bless her heart, came back and freaked. But after a while came to maybe appreciate the look. It thankfully turned out that I had self-taught talent. I have never been schooled in design and barely graduated high school. I think my teachers passed me each year so I wouldn’t be in their class the next year.
Now my mom tells her friends that I am an interior designer, but I’m expensive. Not always the best way to introduce me.
Do you have to use your Southern charm at work?
Yes, I use my Southern charm, but I am also a fast talker and very pushy. It’s just because I know what’s best. I think being from the South sometimes gives me a leg up, like when I get my way in a Southern gentle manner… but I still know how to throw a good tantrum!
Where did you grow up?
I was born in Georgia Baptist Hospital in Atlanta. I grew up around Southwest Atlanta. My mom passed and when my father remarried my new mom, and we moved to Jonesboro where she lived.
A little story here. My new mom had no idea what she had gotten herself into when she married my father and took on two boys—me being the youngest.
I was a holy terror.
One of her first experiences with me was to take me to the doctor. While they gave me a shot, it took her and two nurses to hold me down. I was having a hissy fit. When we got home, she called my father and told him she would never take me to the doctor again. She actually never did. It was always my father. I was a daddy’s boy and I had him tied around my little finger.
Where do you live now?
I live in Brookhaven in LaVista Park. My husband and I just finished the renovation of a 1950s bungalow into a California contemporary bungalow. Our construction was slow as molasses. Eighteen months and we were ready to hang ourselves. Thankfully we finished and are livin’ the rich life.
What makes you Two-Sided Southern?
I grew up in the country, but I thought it was the big city. Even though I hated to get dirty, I was always playing outside and running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
That brings me to another story. My grandparents, on my mom’s side, lived in South Georgia on a farm. They had chickens, pigs, cows and grew tobacco. When I was about 7 or 8 years old we were visiting one time and my sister and I decided to ring a chicken’s neck. Actually, it was probably all my idea. I wanted to see it run around the barnyard. My grandmother was angry at us and made us eat fried chicken for the next three meals. I was suffering and I love fried chicken.
Are there any Southern interior designers you long admire?
My admiration has always been for one of my mentors, Wayne Breeden. He is probably the one that did the most for my career by showing me his own talent. He is still one of my best friends and a loved soul.
What about Southern fashion industry folks?
I don’t pay that much attention. I like nice things and I love to dress up, but I seem to have my own style. It’s a down-home, goin’-to-church attire.
Favorite high-end, hoity toity dish: Snails. Er, I know, escargot.
Favorite southern dish: Fried pork chops, mashed taters and gravy.
Favorite high-end, hoity toity dessert/sweet: LOL. Banana pudding
Favorite low-brow dessert/sweet: Banana pudding
Favorite high-brow restaurant: In New York City, it’s St. George. In Atlanta, it’s Umi.
Favorite low-brow restaurant: Girl please, Colonnade, where the gay and grey go.
High-end fashion store you love: Saks Fifth Avenue
Low-brow fashion store you love: I love grocery shopping. That is my fashion show sometimes.
Southern dish you always serve at dinner parties: Fried chicken. I must say I am a good cook. All my friends rave about it and sadly will never cook for me. I am always the mom.
High-brown dish you always serve at dinner parties: Fried lobster tail, lump crab cakes, and I make the best salads.
Do you believe in thank you notes as a rule?
It is always something I have wanted to do but my ADHD pulls me in a different direction.
If you bring someone a casserole who is sick, just had a baby, family member died, what is your tried-and-true casserole: Shepherd’s pie
Favorite sports teams: I love football. It’s exciting to see them swing their bats and try to make it go in the hoop mounted on that board.
Favorite drink at a tailgate: Tailgating is spent in my yard drinking a Cosmo with Chopin vodka.
Best high-brow entertainment: The theatre, darling
Best low-brow entertainment: Watchin’ crows fly
Most eccentric southern person you know?
David Widmer. He is another mentor from my early days in Atlanta. I met him when I was in my early twenties. He was the visual merchandise manager at Rich’s Lenox Square. I ended up working for him and he showed me a different way to be and act. Needless to say, we were a wild pair and I love him still today.
What are some misconceptions you’ve encountered about people from the south?
That we are slow, uncultured hicks with no taste. That we all have white tires cut in half in our front yard with a truck on bricks and toilets as flower pots. Our taste might not be Northern or West Coast, but we still have some. Just not theirs.
