Nashville WINTER 2019
Interiors
DOWNTOWN LIVING 505 OFFERS A NEW LIFESTYLE FOR NASHVILLE ONE THAT’S WALKABLE, PACKED WITH AMENITIES AND SHOWCASES THE CITY LIKE NO OTHER
SCAN FOR MORE
• M U LT I P L E M O D E S • I N T E G R AT E D A U D I O • L E D L I G H T I N G • W I F I , B L U E T O O T H , A U X I N / O U T, U S B • M U LT I S Y N C • P I L O T A N D I G N I T I O N • I O S / A N D R O I D A P P * • TO U C H PA N E L D I S P L AY • U S E R C U S TO M I Z AT I O N AND MORE 866.615.6232 • WWW.MUSICCITYFIRECOMPANY.COM • NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE • INFO@MCFIRECO.COM
A R R I V E D
SOUND REACTIVE FIRE SYSTEMS NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 1
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Franklin, TN 37064
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GUY LAND DESIGNER
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a passion for
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FA I T H H I L L
with R AY B O O T H and B O B B Y M C A L P I N E moderated by L E S L I E N E W S O M R A S C O E •
K A T I E R I D D E R and P E T E R P E N N O Y E R moderated by S U S A N N A S A L K C A R O LY N E R O E H M
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G A R D E N D I S T R I C T and E L I Z A B E T H H E I S K E L L •
G I L S C H A F E R, Honorary Chair
P U R C H A S E T I C K ET S AT
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beau studio • Cowtan & Tout • Delinah Simmons • Design Galleria Kitchen and Bath Studio • German Kitchen Center • Jerry Pair • Jim Thompson • Kravet Inc Kolo Collection • Logan Gardens • Made Goods • Moattar, Ltd • Peacock Alley • Perennials & Sutherland • Phillip Jeffries • R HUGHES • Scalamandré Schumacher • The Shade Store SHOWROOM 58 • STARK • Travis & Company • Wood-Mode
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Since 1969, Decorating Den Interiors has been creating beautiful rooms that are a reflection of their owners. Our team of designers will come to you, saving you valuable time and money. We have ideas to suit every room in your home! We pride ourselves on working collaboratively to find the perfect products and design solutions for your lifestyle and budget. Call today to schedule your complimentary design consultation! 615.469.7334 | bohnne@decoratingden.com www.bohnne.decoratingden.com ww 1101 Menzler Road, Suite B, Nashville, TN
BOHNNE JONES
NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 5
Welcome Giarratana. He also is the man behind 505, Nashville’s first high-rise residential building. It’s a vision he’s had for a long time — to create a walkable downtown — and when I interviewed him more than a decade ago about the Encore project in SoBro, it was something he spoke passionately about. It stuck with me, because it seemed like Nashville was so far from that reality. But now, it is here. Of course a slower pace in life is what some people prefer, like Samantha and Eric Coghlan. The two met at gemology school in San Diego 14 years ago and eventually moved to Santa Barbara, where they opened a jewelry store inside a wine tasting room. But after Samantha’s mother passed away they decided to move somewhere new. They landed on Leiper’s Fork, buying property within weeks of visiting. Now they own a collection of cottages that is walking distance to the town center, and they share their love for the area with every visitor who stays with them.
Pamela Monaghan
Artisans and makers are also finding space to grow and create as Nashville’s previously industrial neighborhoods are transforming into spaces that foster creativity. In a piece by writer Nicole Keiper, we get to know three of the businesses belonging to the Hill collective: Southern Lights Electric, Oil + Lumber and Grand Palace. For all of them the focus is design, the work is done by hand and the support they give each other is real.
I
t’s hard not to come off sounding like a broken record when talking about Nashville’s rapid growth, but Nashville is changing. Fast. People want options to accommodate their housing needs, which range from a sprawling ranch in Williamson County to a Craftsman in East Nashville to a condo in the heart of downtown. Finally, they can have it all. After I joined the staff of All The Rage in 2005, one of the first assignments given to me by founder Pat Embry was to profile people living downtown. Still only a few years into my move from Chicago, I thought I would have hundreds of people to choose from, dozens of properties to email.
And in February, Antiques and Garden Show keynote speaker Ray Booth will be discussing with Faith Hill and partner Bobby McAlpine the challenges they managed while constructing her island home. But here you can read about a Belle Meade project featured in his book Evocative Interiors (Rizzoli, 2018), where he worked with longtime clients to transition into a new home that fit their evolving life as their kids went off to college. There are many different ways to live in Middle Tennessee, and sometimes what we need changes as our lives do. From suburbs to city, small-space to large lot, the options are endless.
There were two. The Cumberland and Bennie Dillon Lofts were the two places I could find catering to those wanting to live downtown, and both were projects of developer Tony
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Hollie Deese Publisher
O M A N 21 Luxury Lots
C O M I N G
S O O N
P R E S E N T E D B Y:
BRANDON JENKINS OWNER/MASTERBUILDER
www.groveparkconstruction.com (615) 642-9992
The finest gated community in Brentwood. interst
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Site Location 900 Franklin Rd.
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Vicinity Map
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Visit
NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM
Nashville
Interiors WINTER 2019
Visit the online edition of Nashville Interiors regularly for fresh content between issues, profiles, photos we couldn’t fit on our pages, style tips and trends, and a headsVendome press
up about events and happenings for the designminded in town, like photographer William Abranowicz’ recent trip to Design Within Reach in The Gulch to talk about his new book, American Originals. SOCIAL Follow Nashville Interiors on social media for updates when new content is posted online, behind-the-scenes peeks from photo shoots and parties, and design stuff we love.
PUBLISHER | SENIOR EDITOR Hollie Deese SALES DIRECTOR Pam Harper ART DIRECTOR Karen Cronin, Cronin Creative ADVERTISING DESIGN Jennifer Rapp COPY EDITOR Jennifer Goode Stevens, GoodeEdits.com CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Connie Chornuk Daniel Meigs Pamela Monaghan Kiki Morton Sanford Myers Eric Piasecki Anthony Scarlati Julia Steele Jay Winter PRINTING Jostens Inc., Clarksville, TN INTERNS Zoe Hendrick Emily Griffin
Daniel Meigs
Nashville Interiors is the premier interior design and lifestyle showcase of Middle Tennessee. We feature regional master artisans, designers, architects, builders, artists, collectors and retailers, and we bring you news of the area’s trends in building, design and development. We also showcase the inspiring spaces of our area’s eclectic group of residents.
ON THE COVER Downtown, high-rise living is drawing all kinds of Nashvillians to condos in the sky at 505. Read our feature on page 58 to learn the stories Sanford Myers
behind three different people who have made their homes more than 30 floors up. 8 | NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM
Nashville Interiors is published by Deese Media LLC. Nashville Interiors has been continuously in print since 2000. All editorial and photographic content is the sole property of Deese Media LLC and is not to be reproduced in part or in whole without the express written permission of the publisher. Nashville Interiors is available at select locations and events. For information on where to find a copy, visit the website or email hollie@nashvilleinteriors.com. To receive an advertising rate sheet contact Pam Harper, pam@nashvilleinteriors.com. To request content reprints, suggest story ideas or notify us about website or social media issues, contact Hollie Deese, hollie@nashvilleinteriors.com.
SUSAN GREGORY 61 5 . 2 0 7 . 5 6 0 0
Representing Luxury Custom Builders, Buyers, a n d S e l l e r s F o r O v e r 2 3 Ye a r s . CALL SUSAN IF YOU ARE THINKING OF BUYING OR SELLING!
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Nashville CONTRIBUTORS Interiors KATHLEEN BOYLE is a freelance writer who has been published in various periodicals nationwide. She holds a BA in Art History, an MFA in Art Criticism and Writing, and an MA in Art History. In addition to writing about art, Boyle also works on exhibits at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and teaches for two community colleges. She is launching Red 225, an art consulting and writing business, and when she is not working on something artrelated, Boyle enjoys writing garage rock songs on her guitar, running, practicing yoga and going on adventures with her mutt, Holly.
NICOLE KEIPER has spent the better part of two decades writing and editing for magazines and newspapers, from staff positions at CMJ New Music Monthly in New York and The Tennessean locally to freelance writing for Rolling Stone, SPIN, Billboard and others. She’s combined that with a blend of copywriting, content marketing, social media, email marketing and other web work for clients that range from global PR firms and record labels to local architects and makers. In between, she’s worked as a touring drummer, recording and performing with Saddle Creek band The Mynabirds, The Raconteurs’ Brendan Benson and others.
CONNIE CHORNUK began her photography career in Seattle, Washington, with a concentration in film photography and darkroom processing. After moving to Nashville, she began working with renowned British photographer Alan Messer as an assistant. Several years later, she began her independent professional photography career. Connie specializes in portraits, on-set stills and street photography, and her work has been featured in documentaries, album covers and magazines.
PAMELA MONAGHAN is a freelance photographer and owner of Wynd & Paisley Photography. She has a Bachelor of Arts from Palm Beach Atlantic University, where she met her husband. The majority of her work is wedding and lifestyle photography, but she’s always up for new and exciting shoots. Her work has been featured in multiple magazines, including The Pink Bride, and she also runs a blog called Girls Gone Mild. She lives on several acres in Portland, Tennessee, with her husband, three children and three Dalmatians.
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SANFORD MYERS has been photographing life’s moments for over 20 years as both a photojournalist and commercial photographer based in the Nashville area. During this time his unique vision has been displayed in major newspapers, magazines, corporate websites, books and commercial projects. Sanford has always enjoyed the challenges of interior photography; he is the son of an interior designer. “In an architectural or interior shoot, the lighting conditions are always changing, and you must react to make the best images possible.” What hasn’t changed is the cornerstone of the art of interior photography — composition. “Composition is still the cornerstone, though digital photography has changed the way we shoot and process the images,” he says.
JULIA STEELE is a freelance photographer and photography professor based in Nashville. She has experience in many fields of photography, but architectural and interior photography are by far her favorites. Her formal training is from Savannah College of Art and Design, where she received her BFA in photography, and from the University of Georgia, where she received her MFA in photography. Julia also shows her photographs and teaches photography at Belmont University and Middle Tennessee State University. She lives in East Nashville with her husband, their 1-year-old daughter and 12-year-old hound dog. NI NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 11
Your Nashville Symphony Unique Handcrafted Furniture and Architectural Salvage
Live at the Schermerhorn
THE MUSIC OF
JOHN WILLIAMS FEB. 7 TO 10
SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE CASE OF THE MISSING MUSIC
FEB. 9 AT 11 AM
POINT OF NO RETURN W I T H MO U N TA I N E E R HILAREE NELSON
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FEB. 11
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SPANISH NIGHTS
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MAR. 10
MAR. 14 TO 17
MAR. 21 TO 23
National Geographic Live and Experience Hendrix presented without orchestra.
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Realizing a client’s vision of custom, one of a kind, hand crafted folding screens, room dividers and wall art.
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NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 13
Nashville CONTENTS Interiors
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24 BEST 20 WINTER’S The places we want to visit and things we want to buy this season.
ELEGANCE 24 EASY Designer Ray Booth brings meaningful simplicity to the Belle Meade home of longtime clients.
50 ON THE HILL 40 CREATING Sixteen local businesses create, make and inspire in former roller-derby practice space.
BEAUTIES 50 WINTER Infuse new life inside by decorating with easy-to-care-for houseplants.
TIME FARMHOUSES 34 SCREEN 54 FUTURE Master artist Will Rhodarmer creates foldable, functional art A new neighborhood planned for Williamson County offers as a beautiful solution for open spaces.
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large lots just minutes from downtown Franklin.
INTERIOR
DESIGN
STUDIO
+
HOME
INTERIORS
MARKET
PHOTO: RUBY & PEACH
LOCATED IN HISTORIC DOWNTOWN FRANKLIN 1 3 4 2 n1d3 A4V E TH 3 7N0K6 4 | , MTo N n . - 3S 7 a t0. 6140 a m - 5 p m 2N NU DE ANVOERN U ,EF R NAONRKTL IHN,, T FN RA LIN 615.628.8253
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o n y x a n d a l a bOaNsYtXeA rN.DcAoL AmB A S|T E R@ NYXANDALABASTER . CO OM
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Nashville CONTENTS Interiors
74 90
58 70 THE CLOUDS 58 IN Life at 505 accommodates all kinds of lifestyles, including as a second home for a Sumner County resident and downsized living for nightlife lovers.
70 Katie Ridder and Peter Pennoyer share tips for couples MASTER COLLABORATION
building their dream home ahead of the Antiques and Garden show.
LIFESTYLE LEAP 73 AA couple put a pin in a map on Leiper’s Fork. Now they run the cutest group of cottages right in the heart of it all.
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ARTISTIC EXPRESSION 84 AN A small space fosters big ideas for Germantown business Overton Arts.
SPOTLIGHT: CLAIRE ROBERTS 90 ARTIST An injured dancer finds an outlet making Nashty Threads textiles on a homemade loom.
THE ARTS 93 SUPPORTING Rowanne McKnight helps nurture a group of 14 local artists in the Nashville Artist Collective.
NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 17
Your premier source for antique and vintage art, furnishings and architectural elements from France. Shop online at:
Gargoylesfrenchdecor.com
or call 615-440-1462 for an appointment at our Mount Juliet warehouse.
home for the holidays and every day after Gallatin, TN 615-451-4838 fostersruggallery.com
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YOUR JOURNEY HOME BEGINS HERE. As the most trusted custom home builder in Nashville, Williamson County and Middle Tennessee, we create your dream house by making every home a castle.
castlehomes.com 615.309.8200
CUSTOM HOMES REMODELING INTERIOR DESIGN Custom Homes with Guaranteed Pricing
INTERIORS
WINTER’S BEST THE PLACES WE WANT TO GO AND THE THINGS WE’VE PUT ON OUR MUST-HAVE LIST THIS SEASON.
Ultra-sleek, the arched wood and metal neck of the Mikonos arched floor lamp is complimented by a stylish black linen shade and sturdy base, providing a retro vibe with modern appeal. At www.allmodern.com.
British homewares designer Sophie Allport has launched a new line of hand wash, hand lotion and soap bars in containers that look lovely as they smell. Hedgerow Berries, Neroli Lakes and Honey Spiced Lavender scented products are available at www.sophieallport.com.
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Rambler Cocktail Bar is an upscale lounge with an electric vibe and plush seating, offering well-made cocktails, craft beer on draft and wines by the glass on Eighth Avenue. The creative and indulgent bar bites menu is made by Jason Brumm of Von Elrod’s Beer Garden & Sausage House fame, while the interiors at Rambler feature the combined efforts of artists Nathan Brown, Olasubomi Bashorun, and Remick Moore Architects.
Benjamin Moore has named Metropolitan AF-690 its Color of the Year 2019, a stylish gray with cool undertones. “Comforting, composed and effortlessly sophisticated, Metropolitan AF-690 exudes beauty and balance,” said Ellen O’Neill, Benjamin Moore Director of Strategic Design Intelligence. “It’s a color in the neutral spectrum that references a contemplative state of mind and design.”
Saving energy is a beautiful thing with the third generation of the Nest Thermostat. It programs itself as it learns what temperature you like and builds a schedule around yours.
Black lacquer and brass combine in perfect harmony to create the Darian Black mirror, a simple yet unique luxury item that embodies the functionality of a mirror and the splendor of an art piece. Decorative, practical and divine. At www.maisonvalentina.net.
Inspired by a ower bouquet, the Madeleine suspension light fixture from DelightFULL is light, gentle and elegant. Handmade in brass and the lampshades in aluminum, it adds a French touch to any space.
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Picture framing, installation, & arts consultation
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overtonarts.com instagram: @overtonarts robert@overtonarts.com (615) 679-1244 NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 23
CONSULTATION
INTERIORS
Easy Elegance
RAY BOOTH BRINGS MEANINGFUL SIMPLICITY TO BELLE MEADE HOME 24 | NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM
BY HOLLIE DEESE PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIC PIASECKI
NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 25
“I believe that the best design is design where you strive to tether it to something significant and meaningful for your client” – Ray Booth 26 | NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM
R
ay Booth is a master at making a house a home — a very elegant, well-appointed home, at that. One of his “rules” that brings that about is that nothing is ever untouchable. By mixing antiques and modern pieces with light and a thoughtful sense of scale and placement, he is known nationally for his stunning spaces that people really, really want to live in.
Booth, a partner in the architecture and design firm McAlpine with his former professor, Bobby McAlpine, divides his time between the firm’s Nashville and New York offices, and his work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Elle Décor and Veranda. This year he published his first book, Evocative Interiors from Rizzoli, showcasing the many homes he has been able to help transform.
Ray Booth and partner Bobby McAlpine worked on a Belle Meade home for a couple who had been longtime clients, helping them transition to a home that was more in line with their lifestyle as the kids got ready to leave for college.
“We love our work because every project is different,” Booth says. “We get a different client that shows up at our door and invites us in to their process, and we always strive to create really meaningful interiors and architecture. And you can only do that by working closely and getting to know your clients and knowing what their loves and hates are. It’s really interesting to craft a piece of architecture and interiors with somebody over that length of time.” Among the homes featured in Booth’s first book is a Belle Meade stunner belonging to longtime McAlpine and Booth clients. They were looking to switch gears from the McAlpine-designed French Mediterranean home where they raised their family to something a bit more intimate. NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 27
“We have the good fortune of having a long history with a lot of our clients,” Booth says. “The McClellans have been part of our extended family for, mercy, 20 years. You get to know people through different stages of their lives, and life evolves and changes. As much as they loved the house that they built, their kids were maturing and were going to be going off to college. So they wanted something simpler.”
The home is featured in Booth’s first book, Evocative Interiors, published by Rizzoli.
They opted for a stone home from the 1930s, and Booth worked with Chris Tippett to create an addition with a larger kitchen. He then moved on to the design, using much of the original decorative woodwork but all painted the same color, so it really became more about shadow play and light bouncing around. The result is pared-back architecture that still has plenty of character. “It was really a lesson in editing — architecturally on the house, as well as on their existing furnishings,” Booth says. “The house was great — very quaint, beautiful, proportioned rooms and such — but they
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were rather heavily detailed with oak moldings. Coming into the house and wanting to really see the house anew, it really became about editing back a lot of those moldings. In places, we took it off the walls completely.” That means some places don’t have crown moldings, and mantels were taken off of fireplaces so the look was a little more stark, with cleaner lines. Then Booth went through the couple’s pieces, deciding which to keep and where to buy new — including a square coffee table from the 1960s that became the launching pad for the rest of the design. “A project like this was such a joy because they had all of this great stuff, and it became about pulling out the things that either had the right aesthetic or the sculptural form or the meaning to them that it would last into the next incarnation of their life.” Two years later the house had become the perfect culmination of the couple’s past as they forged their future.
“Design is not about arbitrary decisions,” Booth says. “It’s not just a stroke of a pen or decoration. The best design is design where you strive to tether it to something significant and meaningful for your client. Because when you do that, it’s got a real purpose. It’s not just frivolous; it’s tethered to something of meaning.” NI
Booth says the home was a lesson in editing, scaling back the existing crown moldings and removing mantels from fireplaces. Then, the design became more about the things that were special to them and pieces they loved being around.
NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 29
S
ee designer Ray Booth, architect Bobby McAlpine and Grammy-winning superstar Faith
Hill when they discuss their design and construction of Faith and husband Tim McGraw’s Bahamian island home and all that project’s intricacies at the 29th Annual Antiques and Garden Show of Nashville, February 1-3.
Special spaces are all over the home, from an easy, breezy cabana in the back yard to the deep soaker tub underneath a glamorous glass chandelier.
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Finer Finishes
Custom closets, cabinets, pantries, garage systems and so much more...
finerfinishestn.com 32 | NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM
615.568.4470 finerfinishestn@gmail.com
Family Fun Time Inside or Out 927 8th AveNUE SOUTH · 615-254-7882 nashvillebilliard.com
NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 33
INTERIORS
SCREEN TIME
STORY BY HOLLIE DEESE PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIA STEELE
FOLDABLE, FUNCTIONAL ART IS A BEAUTIFUL SOLUTION FOR OPEN SPACES
W
hen you think of folding screens, you might envision a plain, three- or four-panel divider stuck in a corner to offer some modicum of privacy for changing clothes. And while those surely exist, folding screens have a rich history of being so much more than a place to toss robes and stockings. Folding screens originated in China around the fourth century B.C., maybe earlier, and often depicted idyllic scenes beautifully wrought by craftspeople and artists. EClan Designs master artist and designer Will Rhodarmer is honoring that history with the one-ofa-kind folding screens he creates for his company — beautiful, functional and created by hand. He works with all types of craftspeople and fabricators for wood, fabric, metal and even some synthetic materials that he’s experimenting with to create the best possible effect for the client. He will even commission other artists who have expertise in a particular technique needed for a piece. “Everything I do is either hand-painted or something is handmade and applied,” he says, including panels created using an old mural technique of painting on massive sheets of canvas that are then applied like wallpaper. Rhodarmer, a Middle Tennessee native and MTSU graduate,
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Will Rhodarmer creates each screen custom for each client, working with them on aesthetic and usage to ensure a piece that will last.
developed EClan after seeing the growing need for room separators from his faux-finishing, cabinet refinishing and mural business, Art Effects. With the growth of high-rise apartments and small-space living, he saw how he could translate his art into a highquality heirloom product that also met a need. “As a painter, the idea of a freestanding painting is really exciting, but that’s purely aesthetic, and that’s purely from a painter’s standpoint,” he says. “From a design standpoint, screens have endless functionality.” His creations include pet screens, fireplace covers, couch screens, folding screens, sofa screens and wall
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art. Some are self-standing floor screens, some are suspended from the ceiling and some are mounted on sliding hardware to act as doors. All help solve a homeowner’s specific struggle in dividing space, so the end use is key to planning the design of the piece. “The whole essence of the folding screen is to have a functional, decorative piece, and the functionalities range from just merely decorative to architectural elements such as concealment, false walls and division of space,” Rhodarmer says. “All of the same concerns that the Chinese had, we now have with the modern version of the open floor plan and small living spaces.” NI
Belle Meade Framers & The Beveled Edge CustomwCuratedwCraftsmanship
Alexander Interiors photos courtesy of Ruby and Peach Photography
With more than 80 years of combined experience in custom framing and design, we’ve come together to offer outstanding service curated to fit our client’s lifestyle. 73 WHITE BRID GE ROAD, SUITE 114, NASHVILLE, TN 37205
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KITCHENS
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OUTDOOR KITCHENS
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BATHROOMS
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MUDROOMS
•
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NASHVILLE SALES & DESIGN STUDIO 1664 Elm Hill Pike Nashville, TN 37210
Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm After 5pm & Saturdays by appointment
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www.Markraft.com/Nashville
NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 39
INTERIORS
CREATING ON THE HILL BY NICOLE KEIPER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIA STEELE
F
rom the outside, the 20,000-square-foot building at 2100 Dunn Ave. near the fairgrounds looks like any other Nashville warehouse. Inside, though, The Hill collective buzzes with creative color as 16 local businesses dig into the day’s work —
stitching sleek jackets, printing band posters, designing custom light fixtures and fabricating stylish signage, among scores of other projects. Each company — including clothing/furniture maker Oil + Lumber, lighting designer Southern Lights Electric and screenprinting house Grand Palace — has its own space, but the commonalities that come with the shared creative entrepreneurship give The Hill a collaborative, grownup-dorm vibe. “We all … are in each other’s studios all the time,” says Oil + Lumber head Ethan Summers, who initially found the space in 2015. Before that it had at times served as a woodworking shop, art gallery and storage and even practice facility for the Nashville Rollergirls. The pop-ins are social, sure, but Summers says the breezy flow among Hill residents has been a professional boon, too — a design client might come into the Oil + Lumber workshop for a consult, admire a Southern Lights Electric fixture and get nudged down the hall to check out more. Understandable result: A growing list of local and national businesses mine The Hill for an array of creative needs. Walk into the Noelle hotel downtown and you’ll see wallpaper printed at Grand Palace and glowing fixtures designed by Southern Lights Electric. Stop for a pour-over at Barista Parlor in East Nashville and you’ll walk past blinking Sideshow Sign Co. signage to perch under more Southern Lights creations. It’s a personal and professional synchronicity that The Hill residents are quick to appreciate. “Being in this building with all these other amazing, talented individuals running small businesses — we totally support each other, feed each other,” says Grand Palace partner Drew Binkley. “It’s kind of hard to imagine it being any other way.” NI
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A few members of The Hill collective (left to right): Bingham Barnes of Grand Palace, Adam and Jamie Gatchel of Southern Lights Electric, Drew Binkley of Grand Palace, and Ethan Summers of Oil + Lumber.
NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 41
INTERIORS
GRAND PALACE BY NICOLE KEIPER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIA STEELE
A
Above, Grand Palace’s studio at The Hill is a collection of color, with the goods to make everything from prints and tees to custom hankies for local chocolatiers Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Co. and screen doors for Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint.
s the morning revs up inside Grand Palace’s studio at The Hill, a rainbow of inks, reams of poster paper and stacks of blank T-shirts get moved into position — the key components of what will eventually fill a touring band’s merch bin.
Since 2006, the Nashville screenprinting company has been keeping local and not-so-local musicians flush with printed goods. Founder Bingham Barnes and partner Drew Binkley came by that calling honestly, playing in touring bands (including Nashville’s Glossary and The Ascent of Everest, respectively) that had their own steady merch needs. “That’s a common story, I’ve learned,” Binkley says of their musician-to-screenprinter career paths. “Bands need merch, and when you’re in a band, you’re not making money. So how do you have merch? You figure out how to make your own.” That figuring-it-out approach was the foundation of Grand Palace’s growth as they have kept making band tees and tour posters for an expanding — and often
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unexpected — repertoire and clientele. Caps and shirts and other merch staples still form the bulk of Grand Palace’s business, and their client base ranges from bold-name music makers like Jason Isbell to local beer purveyors Jackalope Brewing Company and restaurant Rolf & Daughters. But more and more, the brand has been asked to branch out beyond the expected. Some projects have music connections, like the handmade, small-batch guitar effects pedals they’ve been printing for 1981 Inventions, a local company led by Relient K guitarist Matthew Hoopes. Some, not so much. They’ve done hankies for local chocolatiers Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Co. and printed on screen doors for Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint. Grand Palace produces the sleek, retro-cool metal nameplates affixed to Hill neighbors Southern Lights Electric’s trademark Bell Jar Table Lamps, too. “Our motto has always kind of been, ‘We’ll print on anything that’s flat,’” Binkley says, laughing. The team hasn’t always gone into new projects knowing exactly how they’d tackle a fresh, if flat, canvas, though. When Nashville design studio New
Below: Grand Palace founder Bingham Barnes and partner Drew Binkley grew the business out of their own steady merch needs playing in touring bands.
Hat Projects approached Grand Palace with the idea of hand-screenprinting wallpaper, it was a definite figure-it-out job. Without the space or tools used by traditional wallpaper printers, the Grand Palace team had to get crafty, lining lasers up with registration marks and trudging through trials and errors to find a process that worked. “It was done on the basis of, like, ‘We don’t know if this is going to work. If it does, awesome. If it doesn’t, then, sorry? We tried,’” says Binkley. With a creative wallpaper printing process nailed, Grand Palace and New Hat collaborations have since popped up in a mix of Nashville’s most stylish spaces, including lodging spots Germantown Inn and Noelle hotel and restaurants Henrietta Red and Caviar & Bananas. Grand Palace’s interior work has expanded to Cracker Barrel brand Holler & Dash — onto large, printed wood panels that anchor the restaurants’ wall décor. That job asked for creative experimentation, too, and success brought a pretty decent reward. “We didn’t really know if we could do it, and we just tried,” Binkley admits. “And they’re like, ‘OK, if you get
this down then you’ll be printing them for every location. We’re planning to have 50-something locations in the next three years.’” It’s rewarding, too, that clients — be they bands, lighting companies, wallpaper designers or national corporations — still see the value of old-fashioned screenprinting in an increasingly digital world. “It is definitely unique compared to digital printing. It’s tactile. The process itself lends some natural inconsistencies and variation. It doesn’t look perfect,” Binkley says. “And for me, I like to think that everyone (appreciates) just the thought that someone’s hands touched every single piece, throughout the whole process. So, it’s not just put in a machine and spit out. There’s a lot of time and effort and care that goes into it. I like that people recognize that.” NI NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 43
In their Hill workspace, Oil + Lumber has designed and built furniture and dÊcor pieces for a long list of highprofile Nashville businesses, including downtown hotel Noelle, bowling-and-dining hangout Pinewood Social and high-end burger brand Burger Up, along with national names like Cracker Barrel’s Holler & Dash.
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INTERIORS
OIL + LUMBER BY NICOLE KEIPER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIA STEELE
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hen Ethan Summers launched Oil + Lumber in 2015, the name had a direct connection to what was in and on his hands on any given day: He was fixing up motorcycles and building custom furniture for whoever asked. Now the bikes are mostly parked. His business has developed into more of a fabric-and-lumber vision. The Nashville-bred lifestyle brand produces custom furniture and “genderless” clothing, all designed to look distinct but to carry a cohesive thread: Japanese-inspired Oil + Lumber couch cushions might share the same material as the Claude jacket, a classic French painter’s coat. Button-up shirt colors might be influenced by the stain choice on a side table.
Across: Oil + Lumber founder Ethan Summers.
“Everything that we build is tied together,” says Summers, sinking back into one of Oil + Lumber’s Elena sofas, built with Japanese oak and covered in cotton canvas using a Japanese upholstery method that traces back hundreds of years. “Whether it’s apparel or whether it’s furniture, we always are taking into account, ‘If we’re making it out of this, how does that make sense with our clothing?’ If it doesn’t fit, we don’t even think about it, unless it’s something completely custom.” “Completely custom” has been a steady focus at Oil + Lumber — the company has designed and built furniture and décor pieces for a long list of highprofile Nashville businesses, including downtown hotel Noelle, bowling-and-dining hangout Pinewood Social and high-end burger brand Burger Up, along with national names like Cracker Barrel’s “millennial” brand Holler & Dash. Those businesses turned to Oil + Lumber in a large part, Summers figures, because they deliver a quality product, but also because they have the gumption to solve unusual or complex problems. This particular week, the Oil + Lumber team was working to wrap up an order from a coffee-shop client
for an “aquaponic lampshade.” “We look at things uniquely,” Summers says, laughing. “I mean, we were like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know what that means, but what do you need it to do?’” This fall, Oil + Lumber stepped out with a focused declaration of their own distinct aesthetic: The FW18 Collection is a streamlined set of core products, from stitched-leather sling stools to a hand-dyed indigo Haori coat, based on traditional Japanese design. “If people ask me like, it’s a little midcentury, a little Japanese and a little Scandinavian design,” says Summers, whose pull toward Japanese design and toward working with his hands both trace back to family. His maternal grandfather was a farmer from Japan; his paternal grandfather was an IndyCar mechanic. Both loom large as influences in his aesthetic direction and DIY drive, as does Summers’ mother. “I was short, so my mom was like, ‘You need to know how to hem your pants, because you’re going to have to hem your pants for the rest of your life, and you’re not going to have to pay 20 bucks every time you go do it,’” he remembers. Oil + Lumber, fittingly, has developed into something of a family business. Summers’ wife, Kelcee, wrangles a mix of Oil + Lumber logistics, like payroll and scheduling, and younger brother, Landon, who started full-time after graduating college last year, handles an array of Oil + Lumber tasks, too, from web coding to product fabrication. (Friends/cohorts Holly Schuldt, Christine Schumann and Michael Logsdon round out the team.) Summers’ aim, ultimately, is for Oil + Lumber to produce family heirlooms. “I always build things that I’d want to use, and I put things through the wringer pretty good, pretty heavily,” he says. “So anything that we create is made to last. … We’re creating items that hopefully your grandkids or your kids fight over when they’re moving to college — stuff that will last that long. I really want that.” NI NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 45
INTERIORS
SOUTHERN LIGHTS ELECTRIC
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BY NICOLE KEIPER | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIA STEELE
outhern Lights Electric co-owners Adam and Jamie Gatchel didn’t intend, necessarily, to build a custom lighting business. It sort of just happened. Prepping for marriage in 2011, Adam was a touring musician, and Jamie worked for a nonprofit. The couple started fixing up their East Nashville rental home, just for their own enjoyment, building furniture and cabinets and tinkering with lighting.
Southern Lights Electric co-owners and married couple Adam and Jamie Gatchel grew their custom lighting business after early interest on sites like Etsy.
Nearly 80 percent of Southern Lights Electric’s business is custom commercial design, but more and more their workspace is filled with work for homeowners looking for their updated versions of the classics, like the 1950s-era Sputnik chandelier.
“I really liked building light fixtures, for some reason, so we started trying out a bunch of them,” Adam says, perched at a table inside his company’s spacious showroom/workspace at The Hill. Across from him is a small mountain of boxed, stacked Southern Lights Electric Bell Jar Table Lamps. “Eventually there were just too many lights, so we put something online just to see if they would sell. They started selling pretty quickly, and I realized it was almost more money doing that than if I was leaving town to go on the road for months.” Their early experiments on Etsy, Fab.com and One Kings Lane had a more industrial-leaning vibe. That was pertinent, then, to the aesthetic inside many a hotel, restaurant, coffee shop and bar in Nashville and beyond. Southern Lights Electric’s online embrace pretty quickly transitioned into attention from local entrepreneurs, who tapped the team for custom lighting designs. “Barista Parlor on the East Side was the first one,” Adam says, “and then it spiraled from there. So then I was full-time doing it for … one or two years. And then Jamie was able to leave her job and come on fulltime as well. She’s been that way ever since.” These days, 75 percent to 80 percent of Southern Lights Electric’s business is custom commercial design — they count stylish eateries Rolf & Daughters, Pinewood
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Social and Butcher & Bee among their Nashville clients; beyond, they’ve outfitted Atlanta’s Hotel Clermont, New York’s The Beekman Hotel, Soho House locations in Illinois and California, and many others. The couple’s direct-to-consumer connection has remained constant since their Etsy days, though, and they’re making a focused effort to expand it. Though one of their earliest direct-sale success stories, the Edison-bulbed Bell Jar lamp, still gets fabricated (largely because they still sell about 800 a year), Southern Lights Electric’s creative inspiration has moved in a less-industrial direction, toward a more midcentury and modern aesthetic. Homeowners and renters who get drawn in by the team’s current designs — updated versions of the classic ’50s Sputnik chandelier, Louis Poulsen-esque pendants and other classic looks — now have access to almost as much detail and input as the company’s custom commercial clients when they’re buying at southernlightselectric.com. “We wanted to provide that same sort of experience for a homeowner or someone that just wanted to purchase something online,” Adam says. “So you can go on and just purchase a pendant or chandelier, but we’d give you the option to customize everything, because everything’s made to order with the exception of the Bell Jar desk lamp. If you wanted a Sputnik-style chandelier but wanted it a little bit bigger or maybe a little different shape, that’s no problem.” Being able to tweak and personalize pieces — size, color, finish, drop height — doesn’t put Southern Lights Electric fixtures exclusively into the realm of ultra high-budget buyers either. Most run in the $500 to $1,000 range (some larger fixtures are more; the persistent Bell Jar lamp goes for just $135). “It provides an experience for a customer where they feel like they’ve made it themselves, or they had something really made for them,” Adam says. “Every order, whether it’s a restaurant or somebody that ordered a single pendant, gets talked about in our meetings twice a week. We try to give smallest order and the largest order an equal amount of care and attention.” NI
NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 47
Visit Our Showroom 3711 Keystone Ave. Nashville, TN 37211 615.613.0440 M-F 8-5. Saturdays 10-2 Appointments Recommended
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OUTDOOR LIVING
ADD HOUSEPLA N TS FOR WI N T E R B E AU T Y WI T H A L I T T L E C A R E , H O U S E PLANTS CAN H E LP YO U B E AT T H E WINT E R B LUES
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nfuse new life into spaces by decorating
STORY BY HOLLIE DEESE Above, from left, a peace lily, a ZZ plant and a red aglaonema.
with easy-to-care-for houseplants. It’s easy to give rooms, from bedrooms to bathrooms
houseplants thrive through the winter:
and even kitchens, a small pick-me-up
1. Red Aglaonema – Easy-going and boldly
during winter months. “Give your house a quick style update by incorporating houseplants,” says Justin Hancock, garden expert at Costa Farms. “Just about every room of your home can be home to a beautiful and inexpensive houseplant. The key is picking a
colorful, red aglaonema is a fitting choice for people who are independent and original. It’s also one of the easiest houseplants to grow and among the most stylish. Bright red, pink, chartreuse or white variegation makes a fashionable statement against dark green leaves.
plant that likes the room’s environment.” Simply
2. Peace Lily – With broad, green leaves and
place a plant on a bedside table or design a new
white, calla-like flowers all year long, peace lily is
centerpiece making fresh greenery the focus. In addition to adding a pop of color, houseplants, such as those from Costa
sure to bring a breath of fresh air to any space. This plant is easy to care for and is a top choice for removing common VOCs.
Farms’ O2 for You collection, work hard
3. Bromeliads – These stylish houseplants
cleaning the air every minute of the day. The
work especiall well with modern decor styles.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ranks
Bromeliads have colorful, long-lasting blooms
indoor air pollution as one of the top threats to public health, and houseplants can absorb
and captivating green leaves. Add a pop of color to any room by picking bromeliads in shades of
up to 87 percent of volatile organic compounds
pink, red, orange and yellow.
(VOCs) that hide in ordinary household
4. ZZ plant – Perfect for beginners, ZZ plant
products such as paints, carpets and ink. Above, a bromeliad has long-lasting blooms that add punch all winter.
Hancock offers these four tips to help
excels in nearly any spot — from dark corners
Indoor plants have been found to decrease
to kitchen windows. Also part of Costa Farms’
stress, enhance productivity and connect people
Plants of Steel collection, this plant can handle
with the outdoors.
low light and infrequent watering.
Decorating with houseplants is as simple
To find the best houseplant for your home or
as picking out the right plants. Read on for
office and learn how to care for it, visit
Hancock’s top four picks.
www.costafarms.com. NI
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BUILDING, DESIGN + DEVELOPMENT
Future Farmhouses NEW NEIGHBORHOOD OFFERS LARGE LOTS MINUTES FROM DOWNTOWN FRANKLIN STORY BY HOLLIE DEESE RENDERINGS BY BEN JOHNSON
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The streetscape rendering for Carbine’s new Nature’s Landing neighborhood off Lewisburg Pike in Franklin shows homes surrounded by trees, community sidewalks and beautiful Modern Farmhouse inspired exteriors.
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A
s land to develop keeps getting harder and harder to come by, a new boutique neighborhood near downtown Franklin was announced by Carbine & Associates at the end of 2018, with construction to begin immediately. Home prices will begin in the $800,000s. With 16 acres of green space bordered by Donelson Creek and the Harpeth River, Nature’s Landing will have 32 city homesteads surrounded by woods and water, said Daryl Walny, company vice president. “For me, a homestead is a place where your family is wrapped by nature with enough land for privacy and a possible garden, while being moments from city conveniences, shopping and schools,” Walny said. The neighborhood is zoned for nationally recognized schools. It will also aim to leave the area with more trees than before development began and will be heavily landscaped with River Birch, Bald Cypress, Black Gum, Redbud and Southern Magnolias. “In many new neighborhoods, existing mature trees are scarce,” Walny said. “Carbine is planting over 400 additional trees. Nature’s Landing will be a natural oasis convenient to downtown Franklin.” City homesteads will range from 1/3 of an acre to one acre, and renderings reflect styles that range from an English Country style home to charming modern farmhouses. A number of the homesteads will have walkout basements. The neighborhood has community sidewalks and a footbridge connecting to the adjacent Moore Elementary recreational spaces. Homes under contract immediately will have the advantage of customizing exterior and interior finishes. “We’re finding that home owners who want fresh architecture, modern amenities and convenience are loving this new neighborhood,” Walny said. NI
Above: Daryl Walny, vice president, Carbine & Associates Right: Carbine will be building a popular black farmhouse in the boutique community.
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INTERIORS
ABOVE THE CLOUDS HIGH-RISE LIVING AT 505 JUST RIGHT FOR MANY NASHVILLIANS BY HOLLIE DEESE
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t wasn’t very long ago that the ability to live 40 floors up in Nashville was even an option. But in 2019 it’s here, it’s accessible and it’s attracting every kind of homeowner Middle Tennessee has to offer. Here we get to know three different people, from a young single who sold her car to a business exec looking to cut her commute, all living under the same, sky-high roof. PHOTOGRAPHY BY SANFORD MYERS
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“I sat there, and I told my dad, ‘I’m in Nashville. This is where I want to live, and this is where I want to be.’” Today, she gets emotional as she looks out over that same corner from her condo more than 30 floors up. The day she closed on her condo in November was the one-year anniversary of her stepfather’s passing, and she credits him with part of her ability to live there. “He’s the whole reason I even got this condo,” she says. “At the front of my door, it says ‘Go get ’em, tiger. I believe in you.’ The birthday before he passed, he wrote that to me. It has always been something he said: go get ’em, keep pushing.”
Candida was able to sell her car last year and use the money she saved to move from her apartment rental on the third floor at 505 and buy a condo 30 floors up.
CANDIDA A DREAM FULFILLED When Candida, 28, was in high school she told her father she was going to a girlfriend’s house for a sleepover. Instead she hopped a Greyhound bus to Nashville and auditioned at Belmont University. Afterward, she called him from a small table at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Church Street to come clean.
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Candida, who goes by one name, sold her car and lived in an apartment in 505 for a year. She estimates she saved $500 a month from insurance, car payments and gas, and she took her savings and put it toward the purchase of the condo. She sees no downside to being able to buy a home within walking distance to restaurants, entertainment and culture. “I love Makeready, that’s one of my favorite places. I love the Bobby. I just went to Skulls the other day for the burlesque show.” She stocks her European-style kitchen with enough
food for the day, buying fresh fruits and vegetables. And if she’s about to start cooking and realizes she needs an onion, she walks to the H.G. Hill nearby and walks back home. “I don’t eat fast food anymore because I’m not driving,” she says. “I go to the market, I just walk everywhere. And if I want to do Green Hills, I’ll just take an Uber.” Candida’s English bulldog and boxer love the amenities, too, including the pet parlor and dog park, a de facto social spot for dog owners in the middle of the night. “That is a blessing in disguise, too. Say it’s three in the morning and they’re crying to go out — I can just take the elevator down to the seventh floor. I go out in my PJs and throw my coat on and it’s right there. You don’t have to leave or try and look for grass.” Candida loves 505 so much she currently does leasing for them while she works to get her real estate license — hopefully to sell units at 505. “This building means so much to me, and it’s not just a building. I work here, and it’s not just a job. It really is my life. I know it sounds cheesy. but it’s really cool how this building has been a monumental piece of
me. I will continue to have this place, whether it is my permanent residence like it is now. Or I might make it an investment property when a guy sweeps me off my feet.”
THE GONZALEZES DOWNSIZED FOOTPRINT, UPSIZED NIGHTLIFE Tony and Stacia Gonzalez were one of the first tenants to move into 505 last December, downsizing from a 6,000-square-foot home in Hendersonville to a twobedroom rental on the east side of the building. Then, in September, they moved to their current space almost 40 floors up.
Tony and Stacia Gonzalez sold their large Hendersonville home when their youngest left for college and moved into a space just under 1,000 square feet. The don’t miss the maintenance and love all the amenities and entertainment within walking distance.
“Our son was going to college, and we really didn’t use anything but the kitchen, the bedroom and the living room,” she says. “And we like being downtown with all the activity — the restaurants, Bridgestone, the hockey games. We like to enjoy ourselves.” Before they moved they still did all those things, but one of them always had to drive home, or sometimes they even got a hotel room. Now, they park their car on Friday nights, do all the things they love to do and don’t worry about driving again until Monday morning when Tony does a reverse commute and heads to his NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 61
dealership, Nashville Toyota North. “It used to take me an hour to get home,” he says. “Now it takes me 10 minutes.” The smaller space — just under 1,000 square feet — is much easier and faster to clean than their previous home, and the move forced them to reevaluate what things they kept and how to best organize the rest. California Closets created a space that worked for both of their wardrobes, and they use the in-house maid service and on-site dry cleaners to take care of the laundry. They also use the dog park and have made friends with other people in the building thanks to communal gatherings, growing their social circle into a big group of downtown dwellers. It’s the kind of vibe that’s not quite possible living in the suburbs, where you pull into your garage, go inside and never really see your neighbor. And when not entertaining, they are having the best time getting to experience downtown Nashville together. And their son loves the change in lifestyle, too, when he comes to visit from college. “We’re active, and we spend more time together,” Tony says of the lifestyle switch. “Before, even though we’d go home and sit outside for a minute, we would then watch TV and go to bed. Here, we go outside. We walk the streets together. We go eat together. We have a glass of wine together. You spend more time together as a couple.”
SUE NOKES A CONVENIENT ROOM WITH A VIEW Denver, Seattle, Detroit — as the chief operating officer at T-Mobile, Sue Nokes has had to live all over the country. But when a job with Asurion brought her to Middle Tennessee, she bought a 10,000-square-foot lakefront home in Fairvue Plantation in Gallatin, a golf course community with tons of room, a gorgeous view — and an ever-growing commute.
Finishes matter in such a small space, and the Gonzalezes were able to get things they loved.
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“Gallatin is a great place,” Nokes says. “I love the lake. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. But the reality is I just spent a ton of time in traffic. There is a lot going on in Nashville, and I’m there a lot.” So Nokes put a deposit down on a second home in Middle Tennessee — a high-rise condo at 505 with another gorgeous view. She closed around Labor Day and spent her first weekend there in late October. Now she can enjoy all that Nashville has to offer, from restaurants to sporting events and concerts, without worrying about traffic. “You can eat out breakfast, lunch and dinner,” she says. “You’re within walking distance of some
shopping, and even the grocery store is a block away if you really needed something. I just love it.” Joni Szell helped Nokes with the design of her lakefront home and her condo, choosing more modern pieces for the condo, which is also home to some of her dozen Warhols and extensive music memorabilia collection like the lyrics to “Imagine” written and signed by John Lennon.
When you are nearly 40 floors up the clouds can sometimes block the downtown view.
“I have to like it,” Nokes says of how she buys art. “I do like Warhols. I have some Dali, I have some Chagall. I have almost every Beatles album signed by all four Beatles.” Of course there are challenges with designing a condo NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 63
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Sue Nokes has a primary residence in Gallatin, and now a condo downtown so she can do all the things she loves without having to fight traffic or make a long drive afterward.
as opposed to a sprawling home, Szell says, but the level of appointments Nokes chose is similar for both. Szell chose an eclectic combination of patterns for the dining room, which Nokes was — at first — very much against. But she trusted Szell, and now she loves the end result. If a Nashville corner condo with killer views over the AT&T building had been available in 2010, when Nokes bought her Sumner County home, she might have opted for downtown living right off the bat. But now she is happy to have the best of both, enjoying her hot tub under the stars in Gallatin and the bustling activity of downtown. “It’s a totally different style of living,” she says. “You go out, you walk around, you look at very interesting shops and art, and it’s all in within reach. And the views are tough to beat.” NI NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 65
505 AMENITIES Sure it’s within walking distance to entertainment, food, retail and sports. But there is really no need to leave the building at all. Clockwise from right, the common space on the 7th floor, the pool, tennis courts, gym, dog park and entertaining space are all available for residents to use. Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams designed communal space.
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A DREAM REALIZED TONY GIARRATANA IMAGINED A WALKABLE DOWNTOWN. THEN HE MADE IT HAPPEN.
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hen people talk about the “new Nashville,” nowhere is that more physically evident than at 505 — the tallest residential building in the state, right in the heart of downtown. Of course those who are actually new to the new Nashville might not know how incredible high-rise living is in a city where just a decade ago people weren’t even really allowed to live downtown. The work of developer Tony Giaratanna, 505 was in his head and heart long before ground broke in 2015. Giarratana grew up in a ranch house in the beach community of Clearwater, Florida, and went to college in Tampa. In 1981 he got a position in Denver in one high-rise building and lived in another. That’s where he fell in love with high rise and urban living. “I didn’t have a car for two years. I walked to the fitness club, the grocery store, the restaurant and bars. Mostly bars,” he jokes. “Everything I did was urban and high rise. It was fantastic, I loved it. Walkable.” From there he went to New Orleans, then Nashville, where he wanted to live downtown. A relocation
specialist showed him places in Green Hills and Belle Meade, but he wanted to be downtown. Standing at the corner of Second and Broadway she told Giarratana that there were apartments at the top of some of the older buildings.
STORY BY HOLLIE DEESE
“And just then Jack May walks out of one of the buildings,” he says. The specialist introduced them and told May what Giarratana was looking for and May told him he would move out and give him his place. “That was on a Wednesday and on Saturday I moved in,” he says. But he was still stepping over drunks and there wasn’t much else to do other than hang out at the Old Spaghetti Factory, so the hard work of turning downtown was just beginning. And Giaratanna is quick to credit then- Mayor Phil Bredesen and then Executive Director of MDHA Gerald Nicely with moving things along for downtown development, approving apartments even though Giarratana was more interested in office space at the time. “It was that conversation that led to Cumberland. And that was the beginning,” he says. The Cumberland opened in 1998, the first new residential development
Clockwise from above, Tony Giarratana, a view from below 505 and a wine cellar for residents to use for tastings and dinners, and to even store their own special bottles.
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in the central business district in decades. “To me urban living is walkability,” Giaratanna says. “Downtown, after all these years, is finally becoming what we envisioned. In 2018, what we envisioned 20 plus years ago.”
Residents can entertain, do work or just sit back and enjoy the view in a common area at 505.
And he says the end result is even better than he could have imagined. “They say ‘necessity is the mother of invention.’ I’d rephrase that as ‘necessity is the mother of taking risks.’ We took a gamble on it and right at this moment we’re within months of everything we dreamed of becoming reality. We always said that Fifth and Church was the geographic center of the universe.” It’s starting to look that way too, with the 100,000-square-foot food hall going in as part of the 5th & Broadway development, retailers like H&M opening up, and even more hotels. “Church Street has always been the street for local,” he says. “The shopping, the movie theater, the diners, the restaurants. Our vision for Church street is where Nasvillians live - not necessarily born here Nashvillians, but people who are now Nashvillians. We’re very passionate about Church street.” Giarratana, who maintains a residence in Williamson County, has a two-story penthouse at 505, and his children also live in the building. “There’s no commute,” he says. “You raise the blinds and you look at the sun coming up over the river. It’s magical. Have some coffee, take the elevator down, start your meetings. It’s pretty great. I can walk to my
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lawyer’s office, I can walk to my accountant’s office, I can walk to the courthouse, walk to the council, walk to planning, walk to MDHA. You can walk to anything, so you’re able to get a lot more meetings packed into the same amount of time because you’re not having to commute all over the place.” And the response to 505 has him energized to just keep building up. “We just completed a 45story building and we’re ready to do another one,” he says. “The park project is perfect for us. All of our experiences here at 505 are fresh. We have a lot of lessons learned, we know what the market wants, we know what to build, and it’s not here right now.” While the 505 has 543 units, the $240-million Paramount Tower will be 15 floors taller, with only 200 units all 2-bedroom or larger. Giarratana. The Paramount is planned for where the Church Street Park now sits, part of a controversial land swap. If approved Metro would give Giarratana the park in front of the library in exchange for a parking lot he owns on James Robertson Parkway. Giarratana would also commit $2 million to convert that parking lot into a new park. By spring he will know if he has a deal or not. “I believe it’s the right thing for the city as a whole,” he says. “I know it’s the right thing for Church Street and it is the right building, not for right now — It’s the right building for 2022, when it will be complete. We’re not building for yesterday, we’re building for tomorrow. That’s what development is all about.” NI
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When Katie Ridder and Peter Pennoyer come to Nashville, they plan to visit Cheekwood because a client of Pennoyer’s had sent him a picture of the stairs there to use as inspiration on the home he was building.
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BUILDING, DESIGN + DEVELOPMENT
Master Collaboration KATIE RIDDER AND PETER PENNOYER SHARE TIPS FOR COUPLES BUILDING THEIR DREAM HOME
G
etting through a new build is not typically an easy feat for couples, especially when they each have strong design aesthetic and even stronger opinions. But somehow interior designer and architect power couple Katie Ridder and Peter Pennoyer were able to create their dream home, together, on a six-and-a-half-acre parcel of land in Millbrook, New York. Honoring Millbrook’s history of nature conservancy and sporting pastimes, the result is a one-of-a-kind Greek Revival-inspired house, with woodland and flower gardens, nestled amid gently rolling hills. The idyllic project is chronicled in the book A House in the Country, where they open the door to their house and tell the story of its conception, design, decor and landscaping. And the two learned that the experience is a little bit different when they became the client. “You have total freedom to do what you want, so you have to be your own editor. Katie is really good at editing me,” Pennoyer says. “And I think I edited her a little bit … not a lot. But you have to set your limits and come up with your own wish list. And it’s different when it is your own.”
some of that delay was their own fault — they made adjustments along the way, allowing themselves a little more leeway than they might allow other clients. “I tried to be really buttoned-up and organized with all our projects, but it’s a little more challenging when you’re the client because you can excuse yourself from simple little changes here and there.” Still, they say it is important for people embarking on designing their dream home to start with the ideal, make a wish list and be really specific. Then, edit as necessary. “The time to do it and to really focus your ideas is at the beginning,” Pennoyer says. “It’s worth it. You’re really thinking about where you’re going to spend time in the house and what you’re going to do there and all those things.” NI
STORY BY HOLLIE DEESE PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIC PIASECKI
See Katie Ridder and Peter Pennoyer when they speak at the 29th annual Antiques and Garden Show of Nashville Feb. 1–3, when they will share more about their experience of becoming the client and building their dream country home together.
It helped that the two already work so well together and have such trust in each other’s abilities. So instead of worrying about managing each other, they just had to make sure that the finished project worked perfectly for how their family lived. And that it incorporated all of their favorite things — like tea paper from de Gournay and fabrics ordered from Sweden. “We mix in a lot of antiques,” Ridder says. They buy many things at auction and pull ideas from their travels to Berlin and London. The planning of their home took a year, and construction lasted another year and a half. But NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 71
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BUILDING, DESIGN + DEVELOPMENT
A LIFESTYLE LEAP IN LEIPER’S FORK
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✯
t’s your typical story of boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy and girl move to a place they pinned on a map. Or something like that. Samantha and Eric Coghlan met at gemology school in San Diego 14 years ago, and their connection was instant and strong. He was a third-generation jeweler by trade, and she had started her own jewelry company at 16, so after school they started a family — sons Cash and Ozzy — and moved to Santa Barbara, where they opened a jewelry store inside a wine tasting room. But they were also in California to care for Samantha’s ailing mother, so after she died they were ready to leave and try something new. And they were in a position as independent business owners to go anywhere in the world.
STORY BY HOLLIE DEESE PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAY WINTER PORTRAIT BY ANTHONY SCARLATI
“We had a bunch of pins on the map, from New Zealand to Sun Valley, where I grew up, Boulder, Austin, and we went. And the only place we
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✯ didn’t look at was New Zealand,” she says. Well, New Zealand and one other place. Eric is from Kosciusko, Mississippi, right off the Natchez Trace and often spoke of an idyllic Tennessee town he visited as a teenager — Leiper’s Fork. “We actually had an offer on a house in Boulder, Colorado, and Eric said to me, ‘There’s one place that we haven’t been,’ which was on the map, which was Leiper’s Fork. We had agreed we were going to look at all these places, and he had talked about it for as long as I’d known him. It had always left a big impression on him.” And so it happened some friends of theirs had purchased some property, and they packed up the family and came to visit for the Fourth of July in 2013. “And not two hours after stepping foot in Leiper’s Fork, I looked at Eric and said, ‘You know this is it, right?’ They started looking for houses that trip and moved two weeks later. “I can’t imagine calling anywhere else home,” she says.
They purchased their first home on Joseph Street, a 1,200-square-foot farmhouse that was a little tight for four people and three dogs. So when they sold their place out West, they bought a larger home down the road and began getting that cottage ready for Eric’s parents to stay. Then Eric’s father suddenly passed away, and instead they tested the waters renting it out as a vacation property. “It is walking distance into the village, less than five minutes, and it’s a great, cute house so we thought we’d see how this goes,” she says.
Samantha and Eric Coghlan fell in love with Leiper’s Fork while visiting friends and ended up moving there themselves within weeks. After upsizing from their first cottage near downtown, they converted it to a rental space. More cottages followed, and then the Lieper’s Fork Inn.
It went well, and about eight months later one of the guys who was cleaning the property for them came flying up their driveway to tell them the house across the street was for sale by owner and they had to look — while they were also in escrow on another property that had recently come available on the same street. “We just got an accepted offer two days before that. So we went down and this house sold furnished, and NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 75
✯ ultimately how we would want it to be in the end. They had done really good job in updating it and renovating it, and on a handshake, we bought that house.” So they closed escrow on those two cottages within days of each other, and that was the beginning of Pot N’ Kettle Cottages, consisting of Coda Cottage, Tin Roof Cottage and Pickers Cottage. A little over a year ago they purchased Leiper’s Fork Inn, too, which they felt was the missing puzzle piece to the whole thing. Larger, with capabilities as an event space, it was still within walking distance into Leiper’s Fork and was a draw for weddings, girlfriends meeting up for a weekend getaway or a group of cyclists traveling the Natchez Trace. “We even get people in Nashville who just want a weekend in the country. A staycation, a little getaway where they can unwind and hear crickets and not worry about the city for a couple of days,” she says. Samantha and Eric worked very closely together on the design of the cottages themselves, and did the majority of the work, too, including completely updating the inn. “When we purchased that property it had changed 76 | NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM
“He’s [Eric] also very mechanically inclined and handy — which is great because sometimes I come up with these wild things” – Samantha Coghlan
The Coghlans handled all of the design of the Coda Cottage, Tin Roof Cottage and Pickers Cottage, taking unexpected chances that make the rentals stand out among a sea of farmhouse trends.
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With a recording studio within walking distance, musicians have been known to book a cabin or two when in town and relax on the porch after a long session.
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✯ hands several different times,” she says. “Every time furnished and every time unchanged. So it was pretty dated. It had been a vacation rental since it existed. It was well-worn, well-lived-in.” So they gutted the kitchen and built the cabinets themselves, Eric building the vanities for the bathrooms and repurposing some of the original fencing that was falling down around the property as a wall treatment inside the house. “He’s great. I think we’re both creative and visionary, but he’s also very mechanically inclined and handy — which is great because sometimes I come up with these wild things.” Like taking a World War II military tent she bought not knowing what she was going to do with and hanging it up in a very small room.
There is room for up to 34 people at once in all of the cabins, making it just the kind of place that is perfect for everything from family reunions and weddings to girls’ weekends or a staycation from Nashville.
“A lot of what I hear from guests is that they love the eclectic feel and that the homes make them feel happy when they walk in,” she says. “They can tell that there’s a very personal touch put on them. It’s not your
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✯ average hotel room. There’s stuff found locally and pieces that we’ve made or repurposed. I like a mix of modern and vintage.”
Samantha bought a World War II military tent not knowing what she was going to do with it, but she found the perfect space draped in a small bedroom.
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Fully booked they can accommodate about 34 people across all the cottages, and even host their own family reunions and friendly gatherings now. Musicians come to stay and can walk to a nearby recording studio, and everyone gets tips and referrals about all the best Leiper’s Fork has to offer. “I definitely try to be somewhat of a concierge service for people,” she says. “I deal with every single guest. I answer every single phone call and email, and I love it. I truly enjoy it because I love where I live and I love for people to come and experience it. I want it to be the best it possibly can because it’s not just my houses, it’s the whole community that’s going leave the impression on them. That’s going to want to make them return, so I want them to have the full experience.” NI
Just a few minutes’ walk to downtown, the Coghlans love suggesting local favorites so guests fall in love with Leiper’s Fork as much as they did.
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Robert Jones moved back to Nashville a year ago after honing his craft in Washington, D.C.
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ART & ANTIQUES
AN ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
SMALL SPACE FOSTERS BIG IDEAS FOR GERMANTOWN ARTS BUSINESS
STORY BY HOLLIE DEESE PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIA STEELE
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obert Jones is ready to prove you don’t need a lot of space to make a big impact. His Overton Arts framing workshop is carved into the 100 Taylor Arts Collective in Germantown.
“Because it’s so small, and it’s just me, I’m really able to put a lot of time into each project and get to know the customers really well,” Jones says. He carefully curates his selection of frames, choosing ones that are consistently reliable, along with options from smaller craftspeople putting out smaller batches of frames, sometimes from workshops as small as his Germantown space. And if something doesn’t work after it’s hung, Jones is happy to reframe until the piece and the space where it is hung are working in perfect harmony. “If somebody needs a design project, no matter how crazy it is, those are the projects that I am most excited to work on,” he says.
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There is a level of trust when people come to him to frame mementos they most want to preserve, everything from intimate photos to a 5-foot-wide handpainted tail wing from a World War I plane. “There was a real attachment because the man who was getting it framed, his grandfather had flown the plane,” Jones says. And since his work goes beyond framing and into art consultation, his relationship with artists is something he’s put a lot of thought into as what makes a traditional gallery is changing. Currently he is working with Lanie Gannon, Trenton Doyle Hancock and John Alexander. “I think that social media and the internet have changed the need for galleries, in a way,” he says. “They’ve become less vital, and people want a much more personal connection to the artist whose work they’re buying, and a lot of people want to buy directly from the artist. My priority is trying to help the arts community, or at least play a role in helping the arts community, catch up with the growth other industries in Nashville have seen. And I think that’s starting to happen.” Jones’ connection to Nashville extends back much further than 2010, when he moved here the first time. Jones’ mother’s side of the family is originally from Nashville, but she moved to England to earn her Ph.D. in London and ended up staying after she met Jones’ father. Jones was born in England but grew up going back and forth to Nashville. “I’ve always loved America, and I have the family ties
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in Nashville. That really helped make that an easy choice,” he says. He was here for about two years, working at the Tennessee State Museum, before moving to D.C. There, he took a job at the well-respected frame store, Allen Custom Frame, where the owner took Jones under his wing, taking him on site with designers to plan picture-perfect walls. “He had very high standards, and I learned a lot about the industry,” Jones says. A year ago he moved back to Nashville with the framing and art skills he had learned, looking for something different from the high-paced intensity of D.C. He framed out a small workshop space for Overton Arts. He is surrounded by a music studio, ceramic artists, florists and more. The name comes from an old family name — John Overton of Travellers Rest Plantation fame is a longago relative. And more than a traditional picture frame store, he hopes with Overton Arts to key in more directly to the design community, working with interior designers to help find the right art — and the right frames — for their clients. “The best projects I’ve worked on are ones that had a more in-depth design approach when I was working with interior designers, when I was working with art collectors, when I was going out to people’s houses and seeing where it’s going to be hung,” he says. “Not just designing for the piece, but designing for the space and making sure that it’s going to create its own little world.” NI
Jones carefully curates his selection of frames, choosing ones that are universally liked along with options from smaller craftspeople putting out smaller batches of frames, sometimes from workshops as small as his Germantown space.
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Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center is just minutes north of downtown Nashville, Tennessee and is Sumner County’s premier location for the arts, music and history. The historic Antebellum home is popularly known for showcasing art from some of the world’s most renowned figures including Alexandre Renoir and child prodigy Autumn deForest; hosting legends of music like Marty Stuart and William Lee Golden, and providing an exceptional destination for vacationers and tourists to Middle Tenneessee.
A celebration of Art, Culture and Music
Three generations of artists featuring renowned artist, Hubert Shuptrine, acclaimed water color artist Alan Shuptrine and sculpture artist Ben Shuptrine. 1017 Antebellum Circle Hendersonville, TN 37075 615.822.0789 | admin@themacctn.com www.MonthavenArtsandCulturalCenter.com
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ART & ANTIQUES
Artist Spotlight
CLAIRE ROBERTS NASHTY THREADS
STORY BY KATHLEEN BOYLE | PHOTOGRAPHY BY CONNIE CHORNUK hen Claire Roberts developed a serious back injury, she needed to take time off from her dance career. A teacher, choreographer and dancer who had worked most recently with the Found Movement Group, Roberts had studied a range of dance disciplines. Dance was an
After a back injury, dancer Claire Roberts began weaving with a loom she created using a wooden stretcher for pulled canvas, and lots of tiny nails.
Original wall hangings, pillows and even chandeliers populate the space of her Donelson studio—each square foot an indication of the fiber artist’s seemingly effortless flair and good taste. A retro gold sofa and a modern cabinet showcasing a bounty of multicolored yarn are second-hand finds that contribute to an already-
outlet for exploring and cultivating her creative
lively room. “I like to be unique and to share
energy, so she feared its forced absence would
my love of all things eclectic, because all these
be a void for her innovative side.
styles have a purpose in their space and a story
“I knew that I needed to rest, but I also needed
to tell.”
a creative outlet,” Roberts said. “I was randomly
Roberts’ philosophy on interior décor directly
on Instagram and found the beautiful work of
translates to her artwork—one of a kind,
tapestry artist Erin Barrett of Sunwoven Wall
thoughtful and unexpected. A self-taught artist,
Art and Interiors. Seeing her work made me
Roberts first began weaving with a loom she
think to myself, ‘I want to try this!’ It seemed like
created using a wooden stretcher for pulled
something that I could do while in recovery.”
canvas, and numerous tiny nails. Her work
Fast-forward only a few months, and Roberts
started small, and it has grown significantly
has already established her niche in the tapestry
along with her developing artistic technique—
community with her business Nashty Threads.
and her investment in larger looms.
(You can find her on Facebook, Instagram and
Much of Roberts’ imagery reflects geometric
Etsy.) Offering a range of handwoven works
abstraction, as though channeling a fusion of Native American and Bauhaus sensibilities, as well as an assortment of textures. “I’m really interested in experimenting with many techniques, there is a lot of trial and error involved,” Roberts said. Although her completed tapestries are static works, the inspiration of movement born of her foundation in dance permeates her threads. “My movement has always been a bit quirky, fun, provocative and colorful,” Roberts explained. “When I teach, I’m always using the word ‘breath’ and ‘velvety’ to describe how I need my dancers to move with more dimension and texture… it should compel their audience to watch and be engaged in their dancing. This all comes full circle for me and translates back to my design aesthetic. I want my customers to
that Roberts describes as “colorful and funky,”
feel drawn to the movement in my tapestries.”
her collections deliver an assortment of interior
It seems that even in her recovery, Roberts
décor deliciousness sure to suit many a fancy.
found an opportunity to dance. NI
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SPONSORED BY
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ART & ANTIQUES
ROWANNE McKNIGHT HELPS NURTURE LOCAL ARTISTS WITH THE NASHVILLE ARTIST COLLECTIVE
Supporting
R
the Arts
owanne McKnight understood it was a risk to begin and lead the Nashville Artist Collective. Not that her hometown wasn’t ready for it; on the contrary, an organization like the collective seemed overdue in Music
City. The risk involved, rather, was personal. “I left my job,” explained McKnight, whose career background is rooted in marketing and sales. “I was working for a technology start-up but have always been drawn to the arts, and I knew that I wanted to work in this field someday.”
STORY BY KATHLEEN BOYLE PHOTOGRAPHY BY KIKI MORTON
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Work from artists represented in the Nashville Artists Collective, including, clockwise from top left, Katherine Stratton Miller, Richard Bowers, Craig Greene, Lisa Zager and Tess Erlenborn.
So when McKnight met Allison Williamson, founder of the 8-year-old Charleston (S.C.) Artist Collective, at a marketing conference, she knew Williamson could benefit by expanding her business into Tennessee. Williamson’s business model struck a resounding chord with McKnight: Showcase emerging, local artists in a way that is both approachable and affordable. “I told her at the time that I’m not looking for a job, but I really think that Nashville is right for this,” McKnight said. “There are so many creative people in this city.” Shortly thereafter, Williamson took McKnight’s advice and also offered her a position with the Artist Collective. Her mission? To further the aims of the founding Charleston branch with Nashville-based artists, cultivating a network of creatives and collectors that surpasses the breadth of a single city. Nashville now represents one of the organization’s four sectors, joining Charleston, the D.C. metropolitan area (Capital
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Artist Collective) and Atlanta. “The network is really nice because I have partners,” McKnight said. “We all share the same website, accounting and the business … but I am running Nashville myself. So it’s the best of both worlds — owning your own business and being in a partnership with other amazing women and markets.” Nashville Artist Collective nurtures a group of 14 Middle Tennessee artists, all of whom are primarily painters: Langford Barksdale, Richard Bowers, Susie Elder, Tess Erlenborn, Jeremy Fowler, Craig Greene, Carey Haynes, Gina Julian, Hannah Lane, Trevor Mikula, Katherine Stratton Miller, Lauren Ossolinski, Whitney St. Pierre, Lisa Zager. It’s a diverse assembly both demographically and stylistically, and the resulting portfolio offers potential clients a breadth of options with the goal of appealing to several aesthetic palettes.
More work from artists in the collective, including clockwise from top left, Gina Julian, Trevor Mikula, Susie Elder, Carey Haynes, Langford Barksdale and Lauren Ossolinski.
While many of these artists’ careers could be labeled as early-stage, McKnight is quick to point out that the artists of Nashville’s collective are not novice. “Most of the artists have been painting long enough to have a real voice. They all have very distinctive styles, but their work is still affordable because they are not represented by top galleries in cities like New York.”
That said, McKnight doesn’t believe that art galleries are a thing of the past. On the contrary, she takes pride in collaborating with Nashville galleries and other local businesses (Galerie Tangerine in The Gulch and AshBlue in Green Hills are two recent examples), devising innovative ways to showcase her artists’ work offline and in person.
The Nashville Artist Collective is unusual in that it does not have a physical location. Taking a deliberate break from the customary art gallery model, the collective is a fully operational fine-art business that functions primarily online and through pop-up events. “Our online method is meant to be an alternative and a complement to the traditional gallery scene,” McKnight explained. “We meet customers where they are, which is usually at work or on their mobile devices. We recognize that more and more people make design decisions online and that embracing this technology is necessary.”
“I have found that when people work on their interiors, they often lack confidence on the art side,” McKnight said. “It’s fun to educate people on what’s going on, host different parties and events where people feel like they can come and experience the art in a nontraditional way.”
Allison Williamson, left, and Rowanne McKnight
In addition, McKnight takes pride in joining forces with interior designers. Not only does Nashville Artist Collective have a number of finished paintings of various genres, sizes, media and price points available NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM | 95
for purchase, but the organization is also available to discuss commission work for any architectural need. “Collecting totally changes a space,” McKnight said. “It can be a dorm room, or a gorgeous kitchen, or living room. It doesn’t matter. I tell my interns, ‘If you can only afford a $50 artwork, that’s okay, but buy something you’ll love.’” NI 96 | NASHVILLEINTERIORS.COM
Works, from top, Hannah Lane, Whitney St. Pierre and Jeremy Fowler
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