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"Jim Thompson's new Atlanta showroom, the first dedicated North American outpost for the Thailand-based company, is a study in contrasts. Housed in a 7,000-square-foot industrial-looking space at ADAC (the Atlanta Decorative Arts Center), complete with honed-concrete floors and exposed ductwork, the trade-only venue offers arguably the most lavish and exuberant collection of Thai silks on earth, along with a wide range of other handsome fabrics and wall coverings. It's a bright, airy expanse that also contains cozy corners as sumptuous and enveloping as a well-appointed Park Avenue living room.\n\n\"This is the South, and there's a great tradition here of hospitality and welcoming people,\" says Chad Holman, managing director of Jim Thompson America. \"I wanted this showroom to feel appropriately inviting, while also expressing a sense of freshness.\"\n\nPinterestFacebook\n\nDesigned by New York's Rockwell Group, the space was conceived as a one-stop-shopping destination for home decor\u2014\"a high-end department store,\" as Holman puts it\u2014featuring boutique areas from select partners, among them Pierre Frey, Holly Hunt, Phillip Jeffries, Caperton Collection, and Remains Lighting.\n\nAlthough the look is unmistakably contemporary, it also references Jim Thompson's rich history, which is the stuff of legend. The eponymous founder, a former American intelligence officer, established the enterprise in 1948 after falling in love with Thai silk during a trip to Bangkok. The company flourished\u2014even after Thompson vanished while on vacation in Malaysia, never to be seen again\u2014and became a top resource for decorators. Thompson's Bangkok home is now a museum, its intricate woodwork serving as a model for a series of dark-stained oak screens that grace the Atlanta showroom.\n\nPinterestFacebook\n\nThe screens are one of several elements the designers added to warm up the crisp architecture. The ceiling at the entrance, for example, is lined with wood panels laser cut with bodhi-leaf shapes, resulting in a soft, dappled light. \"We wanted to layer a narrative and movement into the space,\" explains Rockwell Group principal David Rockwell. The overall effect, he says, is something \"like a modern, Thai-inspired loft.\" At 351 Peachtree Hills Ave. NE, Atlanta, GA; jimthompson.com\n\nPinterestFacebook"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/jim-thompson-silks-fabrics-showroom-atlanta-georgia>