A Chat with Jordan Chatham

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Jordan Chatham

I’m tickled to welcome my Insta Pal Jordan to the Chalet for a Chat. Hey Jordan so happy you’re here - please tell us about yourself - Hey there! I’m Jordan Chatham, a designer based in North Carolina and mother of three kids under four. I am a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill and proud Tar Heel. I began working first in advertising, marketing and IP law before I started my interior design career initially as an antique dealer, which was a side hustle. 

My design work is not only done locally as I have clients I work with virtually across the country. I love helping clients create timeless, meaningful spaces they can share with family. 

My husband and I spent many years in Chapel Hill, NC and Asheville, NC before we recently moved back to my hometown in the NC foothills. Here we’ve been renovating a local historic home that was slated to be torn down; The Brendle family homeplace. If you’re local to the south east you may remember the popular Brendle’s department stores that dotted the east coast thru the mid 1990s.

The Brendle Home Spring 1950

My husband and I have been working hard to restore this 1939 home to its former glory, which to me means keeping the old tile and reviving that old school charm thru wallpaper and chintz. 

Who or What has been the biggest influence on you? My biggest influences are probably the people and places that shaped my life. My mother went to school to be an architect before becoming a stay at home mom. My grandma owned and operated a small antique and gift shop for decades. Their style is timeless in my opinion - traditional, full of antiques and vintage pieces, and with a touch of whimsical charm. 

What’s your personal style? My style is a spin on classic. I always want spaces to feel timeless but also colorful and personal. I don’t like it when a space is too matchy matchy or overly organized. It feels too stiff and not collected and layered over time. My style is very classically Southern - traditional leaning towards English country, sentimental, with a touch of whimsy. I love mixing in heirloom pieces and bits of family history wherever possible. 

Jordan’s kids with her grandfather, Richard Thurmond “Dick” Chatham, jr. 1930’s portrait. It was exhibited by artist Harrington Mann in NYC and was also featured in Town & Country magazine after the art show. 

Your Happy place – where is it? At home - whether that means my house or my parents house, our family farm, or my college town. Home means a lot of different things to me, but always feels nostalgic and happy. 

One to the cool things about where you live Jordan is the link to your family history. The Chatham Manufacturing Company was founded in 1877 and is still in operation and last spring you partnered with Bachelor Hill a local antiques store and offered your services as an auction item for the Hugh Chatham Health Foundation Annual Auction & Gala. Yes, a distant cousin has revived Chatham Manufacturing and my great-great grandfather was a successful businessman and he donated the land so that the hospital could be built so it is Hugh Chatham Health. I really enjoyed partnering with David Evans of Bachelor Hill Antiques to offer that client experience. And yes, I am definitely very passionate about my family history and the history of my area.

What is your home aesthetic?  Colorful. Antique. Historic. Nostalgic. Cozy. Timeless. Wallpapered. :) A few before an afters.

What space are you most comfortable in? A cozy living room lit by a wood burning fireplace and warm lamp light. Preferably at Christmas when the house is all decorated. 

What is something you try and do every day? Get outside. That might mean piddling in the garden, going on a walk, shopping. Seeing sunshine and touching grass makes everything better. 

What’s your guilty pleasure? Trash TV - Vintage WWE, Netflix documentaries, The Simple Life are some of my current favorites. And Krispy Kreme doughnuts - warm right from the shop assembly line is always best.  

Jordan has been featured in several publications both on-line and in print.

JORDAN’S PLATE FLATLAY WAS FEATURED IN COUNTRY LIVING MAGAZINE

Jordan was featured in a Southern Living article about estate sale hunting:  How To Beat The Crowds At Estate Sales, According To The Experts

Jordan you are such an incredible designer. Your home and your client work is awe inspiring my dear. Many thanks for your time and I loved learning even more about you and sharing you with my readers.

Follow Jordan: @chathamcollection and her website: Jordan Chatham, LTK Threads: @chathamcollection and Facebook: The Chatham Collection

Til next time be well and I’ll see you over on the Gram!

Images Courtesy of: Jordan Chatham

Chalet Shelves • Reading Recs 10.14.26

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Today I’m sharing some titles I’ve really enjoyed over the last few months. Happy Reading friends!

I listened to many of these titles. I love to feel fully immersed with my air-pods in. I borrowed these titles through Hoopla and Libby and I purchased This Book Made Me Think of You through Chirp. I always try to borrow whenever I can and keep my purchasing of titles to a minimum. My Chirp library is predominately filled with classics.

  • This Book Made Me Think of You: Tilly Nightingale, a widowed publishing editor whose late husband, Joe, leaves her a year-long trail of books starting with her birthday a few months after he passes away. Each gift nudges her toward food, travel, friendship, family, courage, and love. The novel uses reading as a way back to the self. It is warm, hopeful, and honest about how mourning can sit beside new beginnings.

  • Heart the Lover: The book is tinged with so many emotions - I found it captivating. In the fall of her senior year of college, she starts a relationship with Sam a fellow student from her 17th Century Lit Class.  She is drawn into an easy friendship with his roommate Yash. She is nicknamed Jordan by them. There is a triangle to this relationship. Decades later we find her grappling with her own truth and how decisions she made impacted her life and others.

  • A Year in Provence: In this delightful tale, Peter Mayle shares what it’s like to realize your dream and move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron. He and his wife along with their two dogs learn the ways of the locals.

  • American Fantasy: What newly divorced 50 yr old empty-nester doesn’t want to join her younger sister on a four day cruise to nowhere? There’s a catch - the cruise is a vehicle for 2000 fans of the 90’s band - Boy Talk! That’s where Annie finds herself alone when Katherine breaks her leg and can’t take the trip. I felt the nostalgia for simpler times when swooning over a poster on your bedroom wall and knowing all the lyrics to your favorite album was all life was about.

  • More Than Enough: Polly Goodman is able to talk about anything - her struggles with IVF, her students at a private girls college prep school, her fraught relationship with her mother, with those closest to her - her husband, brother and her three friends who she is in a Book Club with - where they never read the book! But, when she receives an ancestry kit from those friends as a joke and then has a match - that she doesn’t want to talk about. Life changes are coming and the wonderful Anna Quindlen weaves a story about characters we care about. I found a lot to like about this book.

  • Whistler: The book opens with an encounter between Daphne and her former stepfather at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Eddie has been absent from her life for more than forty years but, as the two reconnect it becomes clear they each had a lasting impact on each other far outreaching the brief years they spent together. I read it in one sitting.

  • Songteller: My Life in Lyrics: Dolly Parton highlights 175 of her songs and brings readers behind the lyrics and shares the stories of each song. I listened to this book and loved hearing Dolly tell these stories and then hear a bit of each song…I do recommend it as a listen.

  • The Tenant of Windfell Hall: I watched a documentary about the Bronte sisters and it led me to look beyond Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre to this story published in 1848 by her sister. It is a romance that resonates today. A classic will they won’t they get together. I was very invested in Gilbert and Helen and I listened to the 16hrs and 25mins quickly. The old English is lovely to the ear.

  • Finding Grace: This book is written in such a unique way - I was immediately drawn into the story and I stayed up late listening with the anticipation of the symbolic “other shoe” dropping… when will Grace learn all about Honor and Henry. And even though Tom is doing what he thinks best for all… will his choices blow up in his face…again?1?

Til next time friends Happy Reading or Listening! I’ll see you on the Gram!

Chalet Shares • October Edit 2026

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Hi Friends if you’re like me… October means time spent snuggling up with a good book, with a yummy candle burning and a warm drink. Enjoy this month’s round - up!

Til next time friends be well and I’ll see you on the Gram!