HOME FEATURE

happy for the HOLIDAYS

STORY TERRI GLAZER | PHOTOGRAPHY ANNABELLA CHARLES PHOTOGRAPHY

it was time for a change. Karen Garner decided 2022 was the year to go a new direction with the Christmas decorations in her Collierville home. “After the pandemic was the perfect time to get a whole new look,” she says. This was no random decision for Garner, president of Magnolia Homes. For the past two years her family’s holiday celebrations have been hindered due to serious health issues experienced by two close relatives, but now everyone is healthy and excited to be together again for Christmas. “I'm so thankful that God has blessed us to have such a wonderful Christmas this year because everybody's healthy. I'm so excited about it.”

Garner knew immediately just the designer who could capture her sense of excitement in her home’s holiday decorations—John Mark Sharpe, owner of John Mark Enterprises. Sharpe has been decorating the home of her daughter, Abby Miesse, for several years and provided the flowers for a wedding held at Garner’s house this fall. “I've always admired his talent. He's just a natural,” says Garner.

the centerpieces of Sharpe’s Christmas creation are twin trees that flank the limestone fireplace in the living room. Decorated in blues and greens, the trees reflect the palette that appears throughout the home. “Coming out of the pandemic, I was just ready for something whimsical that would make everyone who walked in happy,” says Garner. And Sharpe delivered in spades. The trees are decked out in luxe ribbon and dripping in jewel-toned ornaments including a few larger-than-life emerald-cut “jewels.” Brightly colored boughs that seem to mirror Garner’s excitement burst from the tops of the trees, adding an extra element of playfulness.

Sharpe carried the theme throughout the home’s main floor, decking out the kitchen and dining room in coordinating decor and adding embellished garland to the custom iron bannister on the staircase.

The colors of a peacock have been Garner’s inspiration since she first teamed with designer Steve Nabors in 2018 to plan her new home. She recalls, “When I originally decorated the house and made all my selections, the countertops, the paint colors, everything was done with the peacock in mind. I had peacock feathers that I would carry around with me. A lady who worked with me raised peacocks. She would bring me feathers every summer when they shed.” Garner still keeps a little “bouquet” of the inspirational feathers on her screen porch.

Another source of inspiration came from Garner’s hometown itself. “I love Memphis,” she explains. “My heart has Memphis; I grew up in Downtown Memphis during the day. My parents had a bakery on Beale Street. They opened it when I was three months old. Elvis used to come into our bakery and buy jelly donuts when he would go to Beale Street to shop at Lansky’s.”

that deep admiration for her city shows throughout the house, most boldly in the upstairs media room, or “Memphis room” as Garner and her husband Steve Davitt have nicknamed it. Its walls are lined with dimensional photos featuring iconic Bluff City sites as well as a full-length painting of the King of Rock n Roll Garner commissioned from local artist Jesse Nabors Alston. To Garner, incorporating traditional design aspects into her home is an homage to Memphis, as well as to the icons of Southern architecture found in Natchez, MS, and in the work of A. Hays Town in Louisiana. She incorporated that style not only into her own residence, but also into every home built in the six Magnolia Homes communities throughout the Mid South. “I always concentrate on timelessness,” she emphasizes, “with elements that are traditional, transitional and will stand that test of time.” That philosophy has served Garner well, as her company is marking 35 years in business. The firm’s success is marked by scores of repeat homebuyers as well as countless awards Magnolia and its owners have received. A personal highlight of her career came in 2000, when the next generation of the family, Karen’s son and partner, Reggie Garner, Jr., joined the company. Reggie now serves as vice president, working with his mom making sure that in every new Magnolia home the latest innovations stand alongside classic construction. That family connection is at the heart of Garner’s professional and personal life, and the reason she can’t wait to gather her children and grandchildren in her home on Christmas day after a two-year hiatus of their longstanding tradition. Looking around at her home dressed up so beautifully for the holidays, Garner admits the peacock-colored decor is a bit of a departure for her, but a very welcome one. “I always do the traditional Christmas [colors] so this was different for me, but I was ready for a change.” Asked if she misses her pre-pandemic holiday look, she answers confidently, “With my career, I have to always be looking forward. I have to always accept change, and not look back. And that's how I feel about this year. I feel like we've put the pandemic behind us. We're all moving forward. We all want a new look. We all want a new feeling. We want a feeling of just being excited about life and to continue our lives. We have been so blessed. Several of us have had Covid, and we've had friends who have left this world and I'm just so thankful that all of us are still here and healthy. That's what life's all about.”

ON THE

TALENT OF

JOHN MARK

SHARPE… “HE'S JUST A NATURAL. ONE THING ABOUT HIM, YOU CAN LOOK AT HIM AND YOU CAN SEE HE JUST FEELS IT. HE REALLY LOVES WHAT HE DOES— HE'S ALWAYS HAPPY AND I THINK HIS HAPPINESS SHOWS IN HIS WORK.”