Keeping Up with Barry Dixon

Written by Kaitlin Hill

We caught up with Hunt Country-based and internationally renowned designer Barry Dixon, between his many domestic and global projects, to chat about what’s new with his collections, what he draws inspiration from, and how he would advise those just starting to find their own interior aesthetic. Over the course of the conversation, he reveals an unsurprising but serious love for his craft, his favorite projects, and his plans for the future. Read our conversation with Dixon below and visit MiddleburgLife.com for more photos of his stunning work.

ML: How did you end up working as a designer?

BD: My father worked for a foreign corporation and we moved all over the globe. These internationally celebrated designers, they’d send their decorators to do our new home in India, or New Caledonia, or South Africa. I think that living in these world-class residences all over the world… shaped my aesthetic brain.

A peek inside the music room at Elway Hall featuring a metal table, pendant light, and mesh pedestal designed by Dixon for Iatesta Studio. Photo courtesy of Barry Dixon.

I got bitten by the bug seeing these homes be put together as I grew up, mixed with my own innate Southern sensibilities of entertaining and hospitality that I was raised with.

ML: How would you describe your style?

BD: My style is a distillation of different cultural influences intermixed with a love for classic and timeless design. There’s a way to put that all together. I think it’s important to remember that we live in the 21st century, and we don’t want to live in a museum or stage set. Nor do we want to live in the past. We want to live a modern life, surrounded by the most beautiful things that we can collect through history. A blend of modern functionality and comfort and style, but also history.

ML: What inspired you to create the Barry Dixon Collection?

BD: It’s funny, I never set out to design a collection for anyone, and now I have all these different collections for everything. In each case, I was called by the manufacturer. They would see our magazine covers, our books, or they’d see me. Or the [manufacturers] would walk other designers through their factory, and the designers would say, “We love these frames over here.” For example, Tomlinson decided to ask me if I would just have a very distinct collection. Now it’s something like 60 different upholstery frames — sofas, lounge chairs, beds, sectionals, dining chairs, occasional chairs — old and new. Some of them are contemporary and some of them are traditional.

Sofa and lounge chairs from Dixon’s collection for Tomlinson. Photo courtesy of Barry Dixon.

ML: Do you have a favorite piece of furniture, textile, or wallpaper you have designed?

BD: I have a favorite in each collection, but one of my favorite pieces is the Magnolia Pod Pendant from the new collection with Iatesta Studio. It’s inspired by the pod of a magnolia after the big petal blossoms fall off that center core.

One of my favorite things from Arteriors is definitely our Aramis Sconce. We have 61 pieces in the next collection, but I’ve designed hundreds of pieces for them over the years.

My new favorite is a fabric I just launched for Clarence House called “Bird and Bitter Vine” — inspired by Fauquier County. I have seven of my favorite songbirds in that fabric. I’ve got Warrenton toiles, and Elway Hall, my house, is in the toile fabric. All of the color collections I do for C2 are also inspired by the colors of Fauquier County: “Approaching Storms,” “Snow Sky,” “Barn Roof,” and “Pond Ripple” are all drawn from colors that I saw in nature here.

Dixon’s elegant “Magnolia Pod” dining table is the centerpiece of this chic dining room in Atlanta. Photo courtesy of Barry Dixon.

ML: How has the reception to the newest pieces of the Barry Dixon Collection been so far?

BD: They debuted in Paris at the Paris Déco Off in January, and many are already sold out. New batches are already reordered. Next we debuted in London. All of these projects and products are sold internationally, not just domestically.

We’ve won international awards for designs in each collection. We get editor’s picks, editor’s choice awards. If it is not well received, you don’t get to do the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh collections, and … I am up to 14 different collections with Tomlinson alone. Our designs have been well received, they’ve sold, and that’s why we’re still working.

ML: What advice would you give to someone who is just starting to develop their own interior design aesthetic?

BD: Look around and see what’s out there, but don’t emulate it. Do what really excites you, even if it doesn’t seem like something you see everywhere. Don’t copy things that are out there, but be aware of what’s out there and know the history of design and ornament. Make something that is reverent to the history of art and design and ornament and decoration, and relevant to the time you’re living in and to the place you live.

The library at Elway Hall with Dixon’s “Spore” mirror, designed for his Arteriors collection. Photo courtesy of Barry Dixon.

ML: Do you have any exciting projects coming up that you can share with us?

BD: It seems like whatever project [I’m] working on right at that moment is the new favorite. I’m very excited right now about an incredible home that we’re about to install on Nantucket Island for the summer. Yesterday, I was in upstate New York, and I’m all excited about this new home in Bedford, New York.

We’re working on some beautiful historic properties. I always love doing that. And a contemporary house on Kiawah Island, right on the sand. We can’t wait to get that one installed. There’s always something new. We’re working in Texas — that’s just going to be so spectacular. It’s one of the larger homes we’ve ever done, and it’s much more modern, but it has tempered, traditional overtures played within a modern context. I’m really excited about that. And our work at Blackberry Farm just outside of Knoxville, Tennessee. We love all those projects and are excited about our body of work.

ML: Now 31 years on from launching your firm, what has been the most rewarding part of your work?

BD: The most rewarding aspect of being a designer is turning the project over to the client and seeing how excited the family is. Every home we do is designed as a couture fit for the family. When you turn that house over and you see how it’s going to change someone’s life, to have the perfect home built for them in that place and in the style that they love, that’s the most rewarding thing.

The rewarding thing about doing collections is that I continue my education as a designer. I sharpen my designer skill set, and I become a better designer for the next client that hires me.

A carnelian-toned guest room at Elway Hall featuring fabrics from Dixon’s collection for Vervain Fabrics via Fabricut. Photo courtesy of Barry Dixon.

ML: Open mic! What do you want our readers to know about you, your work, or the Barry Dixon Collection?

BD: Though we’ve installed projects in China, Russia, Italy, the Caribbean — all over — all of our favorite projects are the ones that we can drive to that are right here in our backyard. The projects I’ve done in Loudoun, Fauquier, Fairfax, Albemarle, and Bath counties, in Maryland and D.C., up at The Homestead, and up at The Greenbriar in White Sulfur Springs, all these are things I drive to. … I especially love the regional work and historic properties, and giving them a new life.

What I love about design, in general, is that it doesn’t feel like work to me. I love it so much. It’s a passion. I don’t want to retire. I will work until I can’t work, if that’s 85 or 90. I don’t plan on ever retiring because I would be bored in retirement. ML

Featured photo by Michael Butcher.

Published in the June 2025 issue of Middleburg Life.