Jason Oliver Nixon

What have the silver linings been during this pandemic?

John and I reorganized our business and really rethought our strategy for the future. We also cleaned out our office and got it hyper organized. We bought a gas-powered chainsaw and took down 39 trees in the overgrown woodlands at our 1930s-era Regency-style High Point home. Oh, and we did loads of road trips to the likes of Savannah, Charleston, The Greenbrier, West Palm Beach, and Highlands, North Carolina. And we lost weight, too!

Who is the one person, living or dead, you would want to have lunch with?

John: Elsie de Wolfe or Nancy Lancaster. Oh, the madcap stories these design icons could tell. While doing handstands!

Jason: I am intrigued by Caligula as I like a man who peels a grape while Rome burns. Or maybe Cecil Beaton.

Do you go out of your way to support small business?

Absolutely, we are a small business so we put a premium on helping others like us. It’s really tough as getting loans and such in the past decade has become really difficult, so you have to work around and figure things out. We don’t buy anything from Amazon except videos, and we love our local, old school hardware store.

Do you have a weekend house?

We had a vest pocket-sized escape when we lived in New York—an 1840s-era former schoolhouse near Bovina in the Catskills—but we sold it last year. Too far and too much upkeep. Who wants to deal with a leaking roof or weeding the garden? Although we wouldn’t mind getting a small Mediterranean cottage in an up-and-coming neighborhood in West Palm Beach, Florida and spend a good part of the year there. We are mad for South Dixie Highway and love the tropical landscape.

What’s your favorite weekend getaway?

We have three acres at our High Point, North Carolina home, the House of Bedlam, complete with woodlands and a stream, so we love to stay home and sit outside with a stack of magazines and a pitcher of some libidinous cocktail. The dogs scamper about, and everyone blisses out.

Do you garden?

We are mad gardeners and have an English-style garden going at the Madcap headquarters just down the road in Thomasville, North Carolina. The House of Bedlam will have a very Capability Brown aesthetic once we get the underpinnings in place and can start filling in with plant materials. Nothing makes us happier than plants. We like plants and dogs fare more than we like people, truth be told.