BY WORKING DIRECTLY WITH THE TEAM AT PDI KITCHEN, BATH AND LIGHTING, DESIGNER APRIL TOMLIN WAS ABLE TO SOURCE FIXTURES AND LIGHTING TO PERFECTLY COMPLEMENT HER DESIGN OF A FAMILY’S LUXURY RETREAT IN FRANKLIN.
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Nashville is filled with some of the most creative people in the country. They are drawn to the city by its reputation, and by its people. The city’s allure holds more than music — it has all kinds of artists, in all areas of business, which makes for a melting pot of pure inspiration.
In honor of the second annual Artville festival, we showcase the personal collection of the public art celebration’s founder, Samantha Saturn. Saturn has incorporated the longtime popular American Artisan Festival into Artville — making it a preservation of the festival and of her family history; the AAF was founded by her parents.
Also looking to honor a part of Nashville’s creative past are Erin and Jason Hollis, owners of The Eighth Room in the old Douglas Corner space on Eighth Avenue. The couple came to Nashville during the pandemic, saw the “For Lease” sign on the window and eventually made a move to preserve what was special — the stage, the haven for songwriters — while making it a luxe lounge stuffed with vintage pieces and Versace wallpaper.
Creative people thrive on collaborative relationships, and in this issue we spotlight one of the best and brightest in the design and build community: Alan Looney, owner of custom builder Castle Homes, and architect Kevin Coffey. Over the decades the two have gone from having an instant respect and bond over the building process to cherishing a deep mutual respect and unwavering friendship. The homes they work on are a beautiful reflection of that.
And on the cover, designer April Tomlin relied on her collaborative relationship with Mary Soeder and the team at PDI Kitchen, Bath & Lighting to help her achieve perfection at a Franklin retreat. By taking her vision to an expert in finishes, Vernich sourced items she would never have found if not for Soeder — and the result was an inspired design.
Hollie Deese, Publisher
Home by Hattan is a boutique interior design and build firm specializing in home renovations. We help you live beautifully at home by transforming your beloved home into a warm, welcoming, and comfortable space that is uniquely yours. We love working with our clients to create a space that is not only functional but also a reflection of their personal style through a seamless and enjoyable experience. We want to renew your love of home!
Nashville Interiors
PUBLISHER | SENIOR EDITOR
Hollie Deese
SALES DIRECTOR
Pam Harper
ART DIRECTOR
Cat Kahnle
AD DESIGN
Tracey Starck
COPY EDITOR
Jennifer Goode Stevens
GoodeEdits.com
ARTS EDITOR
Robert Jones
CONTRIBUTORS
Cooper Alan, Joseph Bradshaw, Reed Brown
Nicole Childrey, William DeShazer, Justin March
Anthony Romano, Caroline Sharpnack
Nashville Interiors is the premier building and design guide 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.
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
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To request content reprints, suggest story ideas or notify us about website or social media issues, contact Hollie Deese at hollie@nashvilleinteriors.com
ON THE COVER
When the right vendor partners with the right designer, magic can happen. That was surely the case with this month’s cover project from the designers at April Tomlin Interiors, who worked with the team at PDI Kitchen, Bath & Lighting showroom to achieve a retreat that is the perfect mix of rustic and luxury.
(Cover photo by Joseph Bradshaw)
Nashville Interiors CONTRIBUTORS
COOPER ALAN | PHOTOGRAPHER
Cooper Alan is a Nashville-based photographer who has been shooting for more than 10 years, helping visions become reality for corporate brands, small businesses and individual creatives. In addition to photography, Cooper has spent many years pursuing the arts through filmmaking, music, sound design and painting. If he is not on his own set, you’ll find Cooper assisting other local photographers and filmmakers. For this issue of Nashville Interiors, Cooper assisted photographer Justin March in capturing the work of Cuban-American designer Vicente Wolf.
WILLIAM DESHAZER | PHOTOGRAPHER
William DeShazer is an editorial and commercial photographer based in Nashville. He spent 12 years working at various newspapers, including Memphis’ Commercial Appeal and the Chicago Tribune He’s a regular contributor to The New York Times, ProPublica and The Wall Street Journal. His work has appeared in magazines from National Geographic, Plate, Golfweek, ESPN The Magazine, O –The Oprah Magazine and Runner’s World. His interior photography has been used by Holiday Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, Whisky Advocate magazine and Davis Jewelers. William has been recognized by Photographer of the Year International and the National Press Photographers Association. For this issue of Nashville Interiors, he photographed woodworker Stevie Estler as well as Artville founder Samantha Saturn and her home art collection.
JUSTIN MARCH | PHOTOGRAPHER
Justin March is a Nashville-based photographer specializing in capturing interior design and architecture. He has a passion for discovering the place where the interior design of a space and the photography of that design can become synonymous. March has had his work featured in Rue and Luxe Interiors + Design magazines, among other publications. Originally from Chicago, March began his creative pursuits in the music industry as a recording engineer and producer working with artists such as Kelly Clarkson, Cold War Kids and Madi Diaz. For this issue, March shot the design work of Cuban-Amercian designer Vicente Wolf. He enjoys going to films at Belcourt Theatre, traveling (whether for a shoot or leisure) and visiting museums.
ANTHONY ROMANO | PHOTOGRAPHER
Anthony Romano is a Nashville-based portrait photographer with a desire to bring out the best in everyone who steps in front of his lens. The Pittsburgh native brings a balance of raw authenticity and polished finesse to every shoot, all while having fun throughout the entire process. As his career has progressed, Anthony has cultivated a unique style of shooting. Working in studio and on location, he brings a keen eye for detail and a knack for storytelling through imagery. For this issue of Nashville Interiors, Anthony shot builder Alan Looney and architect Kevin Coffey at the office of Castle Homes.
REED BROWN | PHOTOGRAPHER
Reed Brown is a Nashville-based commercial photographer who started his career shooting for the automotive and boating industries in the 1980s. His love for architectural photography began around 2003. Reed’s client list includes Nissan, Ford Racing, Coca-Cola, Eddie Bauer, Bosch, Jack Daniel Distillery, Aladdin, Gibson Guitars, Tractor Supply Co., Averitt, Castle Homes, Page Duke, Roux, Nashville Interiors, Legend Homes, Grove Park Construction, JFY Designs, Julie Davis interiors and Trace Construction. For this issue, Reed shot the midcentury remodel done by the team at Paige Williams Interiors. Married with two children and a granddaughter, his spare time is spent at home in Mount Juliet around motorcycles and family.
DECADES OF DESIGN
New York designer Vicente Wolf helps a Green Hills couple with their home — twice, with 30 years in between.
TRUSTED PARTNERS
By working directly with the team at PDI Kitchen, Bath and Lighting, designer April Tomlin was able to source fixtures and lighting to perfectly complement a family’s luxury retreat in Franklin.
FORM MEETS BEAUTIFUL FUNCTION
Designer Paige Williams and her team help a couple balance architectural history with modern functionality in Brentwood.
PERFECT PAIRING
Highlighting the collaborative relationship between builder Alan Looney and architect Kevin Coffey.
74 FLEETING BEAUTY
A spotlight on the importance of Artville’s murals in Wedgewood-Houston.
78 BUILT BY STEVIE
Stevie Estler takes carpentry into her own hands.
82 SHORT-TERM STUNNER
Pushed by her insurance company, Julie Sellers turns a crumbling garage into a rental filled with work from local makers. 89 LUXE LOUNGE
The Eighth Room transforms the classic Douglas Corner venue into a couture music club.
ART STAR
At home with the personal collection of Artville founder Samantha Saturn.
Decades of Design
VICENTE WOLF HELPS A COUPLE WITH THEIR GREEN HILLS HOME —AND THEN DOES IT AGAIN 30 YEARS LATER
BY HOLLIE DEESE | PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
JUSTIN MARCH, PHOTOGRAPHY ASSIST BY COOPER ALAN
The luckiest designers are the ones who have a career illustrious enough that they can do multiple projects for the same client throughout their life, building on an established relationship while ushering them into each new stage of life as the years go by.
A client like that is why New York-based designer Vicente Wolf was in Nashville recently, working on the redesign of a Green Hills home he worked on for the first time 30 years ago — after the homeowner saw his work in a magazine. In the time that passed between projects, the homeowner had acquired plenty of new pieces. But Wolf was able to reuse many of the ones he’d worked with before, giving them new life and purpose in the space.
“I find it amusing to take things and rework them,” Wolf says. “It’s a fun challenge to see it differently. And in the beginning, she loved it. It was beautiful the way it was before. But then she said, ‘Why don’t we just refresh it?’”
“For a long time I didn’t use trees and florals. And I’m doing it more now because I think it’s something that brings humanity into the space.It ties you to nature. It doesn’t isolate you from what’s alive.”
— Vicente Wolf
Wolf was excited with the challenge of reworking a space he had designed to make it new for the residents. “I thought, if you eat the same thing every day, it gets a little boring,” Wolf says.
Wolf is known for his clear, restrained and elegant aesthetic, inspired by his many travels that brought global perspective to his designs. This is clear in the Green Hills project, which incorporates authentic, globally sourced artifacts from the homeowners’ own travels and furnishings with modern décor.
In the living room, it is the owners’ collection of objects that inspired Wolf’s design, the juxtaposition of African pieces with Japanese, an older English chair paired with a contemporary table, midcentury pieces with a Venetian mirror and Japanese chest.
“It gives great depth to the space because it’s not one point of thinking,” Wolf says. “It has a very broad vision and understanding of objects. The tabletop is made out of resin, which is great because, with the light, it’s almost like ice that you’re looking at.”
Wolf used finishes to play with light in other ways. He had
all the ceilings and walls lacquered, which Wolf says, if done correctly, is a wonderful way to bring in light from the outside, expand the height of the ceiling and give a different dimension to the space.
“I think that the beauty of this room, which struck me from the first time that I was here, is the perfect symmetry,” Wolf says of the front room, with large windows facing each other off the front and back yards, allowing light to flow and the outdoors to come in. Wolf accentuates that with the addition of greenery inside, including a tree in a rolling pot so its position can be adjusted as needed.
“For a long time I didn’t use trees and florals. And I’m doing it more now because I think it’s something that brings humanity into the space,” he says. “It ties you to nature. It doesn’t isolate you from what’s alive.”
The first time Wolf designed this room, he used the large fireplace in the middle to create a more symmetrical design. When it was time to redo the space, he knew he wanted a much less structured, less formal look. He repurposed the existing furniture into a new configuration that allowed for the addition of some new pieces.
“I think when you do an off-balance room, it creates a much more relaxed quality to the space. It eliminates the rigidity of it,” Wolf says. “There is still balance — two chairs on each side, a pair of chairs matching on the other end. But you get the sense of a much more casual quality to it.”
Heading toward the kitchen to the back of the house, an addition he oversaw the first time they worked together creates more flow to the two-and-a-half acres outside. A large table in the middle of it all, along with the dramatic arches and transition to a darker floor, make a big impact.
“The reason for doing that is to really give a center to the space instead of having one big open room,” he says. “The table visually leads you to the outside when they’re entertaining, or it can be a bar to set up food. And it unites all the spaces together, including the den leading to the kitchen.”
He also kept things interesting by combining rounded and square shapes, a departure for many people who want to keep everything straight and even. He also encouraged the owner to display their collections in offbeat ways, like mixing her collection of African masks with piles of bracelets from India.
New York-based designer Vicente Wolf, right, recently redid the design of a Nashville home he had worked on more than 30 years previous, helping the family reuse some pieces in new ways, while also showcasing the collection of pieces they have added over the past few decades.
“We place the furniture, but then we go through all the objects to figure out how to reuse them and where to place them, and that was a lot of fun,” he says.
Wolf says that working in this space a second time pushed him to see things that he didn’t see the last time, or that he simply sees differently coming back to them after decades of designing. “You see different things as your eye progresses,” he says. “Sort of like shuffling a deck of cards: You’re trying to see things that you know in a totally different way.” NI
A couple’s home is updated to showcase the pieces they have collected on their travels.
JOINING DESIGN FORCES
DESIGNER APRIL TOMLIN LEANS ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF PDI STAFF FOR A
CUSTOM CABIN RETREAT
BY HOLLIE DEESE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOSEPH BRADSHAW
When designer April Tomlin was tasked with redesigning a peaceful country cabin getaway along the Little Harpeth River, she knew a little help from some of her best resources would allow her to elevate the intentional layout and design.
The cabin is on a large countryside estate in Franklin, where the owners also have a main house on the property. They live there full time, while the cabin — one of two — serves as a retreat for them, or a place for guests to stay.
For this cabin’s restoration, Tomlin collaborated with architecture firm Pfeffer Torode, who worked on the outside as well as some interior architectural details like the fireplace and trusses.
“I always collaborate on internal elevations, so it’s never just them and it’s never just me,” says Tomlin of working with Pfeffer Torode. “I’ve been
Designer April Tomlin worked closely with the team at PDI Kitchen, Bath and Lighting to curate the right plumbing fixtures to go along with the dark and moody vibes of the cabin.
related to the selection and installation of plumbing fixtures went flawlessly.
Mary Soeder with PDI Kitchen, Bath and Lighting did site visits with Tomlin to ensure everything
working with their team for a very long time, and so we pick and choose which parts of the interiors they are going to take, which parts I am going to take. I usually take kitchens.”
For inside the cozy space, Tomlin wanted to create a place where guests could have all the amenities they would need to stay for weeks on end, like a small fridge and storage.
Tomlin has been working with the team at PDI Kitchen, Bath & Lighting for more than eight years, much of that time with Business Development Manager Mary Soeder.
“I don’t know if anybody ever thought in their life they would have a plumbing girl, but I’m happy to be that person,” Soeder says.
For this project, Tomlin relied on Soeder’s knowledge and skill to find the perfect plumbing fixtures for the cabin’s design.
Tomlin passed on the details of what she was looking for, and Soeder presented a packet of options as a starting point. But that is just the beginning. This collaboration between designer and showroom works so well because Soeder is so hands-on.
“The reason why I really love working with PDI, if I’m being super honest, is because of Mary,” Tomlin says. “It’s my relationship with Mary. She is always so helpful. She’s extremely knowledgeable, and she is willing to come to the job site and work hand in hand with me.”
Soeder has helped Tomlin source items beyond what they have on the showroom floor, calling other locations to find what they need. She has even helped Tomlin source products from Italy.
“She made that happen,” Tomlin says. “She just goes above and beyond. Because I don’t just use certain brands, I don’t just use certain finishes. Every single thing that we touch is
very unique and different, because all of our clients are unique and different and want different things. We don’t do spec homes, so it’s not the same finish every time. Mary always helps us establish the look that we want to go for.”
Since their other cabin is more playful and light, the owners wanted the juxtaposition of a dark, moodier cabin. Tomlin obliged with textures, wallpapers, fabrics, stone and wood finishes. “There are modern moments in this cabin, and everything’s clean, but then there’s a lot of classic components of this cabin,” Tomlin says.
For example, the curved wood island in the kitchen has turned wood legs, and many of the antiques were recovered in new, custom fabric.
“I have all my favorites in town. It’s not that the other ones aren’t amazing, it’s just who you form a relationship with and who you trust that can execute,” Tomlin says. “And because we want everything to come across as unique and special, it is important to have those relationships like the one we have with PDI.”
Soeder says working with a designer over the course of a project can sometimes take years, and when they are part of the process from the beginning they can truly collaborate.
“One thing I’ve always said about April’s team is that they challenge me to find cool things. Or when I see something new, a new finish or design style, I automatically think of them,” she says. “It’s the same reason why you should use a designer, because now you kind of have two people on your team. If something doesn’t quite go as planned, you have the designer and you have the showroom that they partner with. As a team, we’re going to make it right for you.”
“I think it’s nice to show them the differences in products, show them the color behaviors of the different finishes”
— Mary Soeder.
A decade in the design community
PDI opened its Nashville Showroom in September 2014, and over the past decade their involvement with the design community has evolved and grown. They joined the local American Society of Interiors Designers and National Kitchen and Bath Association chapters, and they ensure that the knowledge and experience of their showroom staff aligns with the needs of designers like Tomlin.
“As a showroom, you’re the ambassador of the product,” Soeder says. “A lot of times you’re the one who’s bringing the new trends, the new colors, the new styles to the designer. They might scour the internet for hours and find things, but I think a lot of them actually prefer us to do that for them.”
And Soeder says she and the showroom team love doing that, and they love using their space as a way for designers and their clients to experience the product before purchase. Having a showroom helps the client understand when they are going to spend a little bit more on one thing, they can save on another, based on what really matters to them. Plus, they get an idea of scale and scope of everything from bathtubs to showerheads simply by seeing them in person — something that is lost when items are ordered sight unseen online.
“I think it’s nice to show them the differences in products, show them the color behaviors of the different finishes,” Soeder says. “I think scale’s always going to be a big plus. It’s obviously very nice for homeowners to come in who haven’t done this in 20 years, or have never done this at all, just to understand the different brands.”
A showroom is also very helpful if somebody’s on the fence about something. By letting them come and see and experience it, to either justify the price or to justify the layout that they want to do, or maybe even just confirm that they made the right choice.
“We love to help,” Soeder says. “We love being in the thick of it. We’re nothing without people coming to us for their homes, so we always want to be a part of it. I don’t think we take it for granted that it would be hard to build a custom home without us, so we totally want to be in on it with you.” NI
All the plumbing fixtures for the cabin renovation were sourced with the help of the team at PDI Kitchen, Bath and Lighting.
FORM MEETS beautiful function
DESIGNER PAIGE WILLIAMS AND HER TEAM
HELP A COUPLE BALANCE ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY WITH MODERN FUNCTIONALITY
BY HOLLIE DEESE | PHOTOGRAPHY BY REED BROWN
Anne Hunter and Scott Bennett knew when they purchased their Brentwood home that they wanted to mix its architectural past with modern functionality. Designer Paige Williams, along with Brittany Creekmur, was able to do just that, guiding the midcentury modern update in a way that met all the needs of the family living in the space.
“We had used designers in our other houses, and we just knew we were taking on a really large project.”
— Anne Hunter
“We had used designers in our other houses, and we just knew we were taking on a really large project,” Hunter says. “We really loved Paige and Brittany and their vision for the project.”
The couple had built a home in the Nippers Corner area, but after the COVID-19 pandemic their priorities and needs as
a family shifted. “We were spending so much more time at home, and working from home, and really needed a dedicated office space,” Hunter says. “And I really wanted to have an outdoor living space with a pool.”
The new home was originally built in 2003, with plenty of 1990s sensibility, and it leaned heavily into a country lodge aesthetic.
“It was not our style at all,” Hunter says. “We wanted to do both the interior and the exterior to look more midcentury and really honor what the house, I think, was built to look like.” That included a full gut rehab in the kitchen, the addition of the pool and backyard hardscape and a master bath upgrade.
“You just can’t do everything at once,” Williams says. “I suggested we assess what they needed now, get them living in it, and just see how your family operates and then we can better plan.”
Renovation and redesign “always starts with functionality,” Williams adds. “I mean, we’re going to make it pretty, but I encouraged them to live there a bit and figure out — when they come in from the garage, where does everyone dump their stuff? Where do your kids throw their shoes? Where does your husband throw his keys every day?”
Wood played a big part in the design during the renovation of this Brentwood home, much of it original to the home, including the front door.
Those answers helped guide the design in interesting ways, like one of the closets being turned into a wine bar with extra prep space, or an extra prep sink in the kitchen that makes it easier for two adults to cook together for their family of five. Another is one of Hunter’s favorite elements: the “appliance garage” Williams created in the pantry that gives her a place to stash her toaster, mixer and bagel slicer while keeping counters — and sightlines — clear.
Knowing a kitchen renovation takes easily six months or more, Williams and Creekmur first installed a bar and kitchenette in the upstairs bonus room with a sink, microwave and wine fridge. That was accessible and running for the family by the time the main level kitchen and master bath were under construction.
“Doing that first enabled us to kind of live out of there while our kitchen was being remodeled,” Hunter says.
Beyond its use as a stand-in kitchen during renovations, the room was also an entertainment space for the three kids (one who recently moved out again after college), with a big game table, video game consoles and popcorn machine for movie watching.
“We had a full basement in our previous house, with a bar, and we really wanted to have a wet bar up there with a rock’n’roll feel,” Hunter says.
Once the upstairs was done, Williams could focus on the main part of the renovation, the kitchen and connecting pool and outdoor kitchen out back, which is accessible from a sliding door through the breakfast room.
“We can really go from inside to outside and be right by the pool, and then come into a beautiful kitchen, and all that has fit together really well,” Bennett says.
Hunter even wrote into the offer on the house that the flowerpots on the front porch remain, and many more were added out back by the pool. And the view of the backyard is perfect from the primary bedroom. “We can sit in bed and have the electric blinds go up and watch the sunrise over the pool,” Hunter says. “It’s just a button away.”
The trim work is all original to the house, and it was important to the homeowners that it remained — even if it meant carefully removing it to redo the kitchen and then putting it all back again. Sometimes it was used in a totally new way, like the doors that were originally a cased opening into the kitchen that were redone into a closet.
The media room upstairs was completed before the kitchen so the owners had a mini-kitchen to use while the main floor was being updated.
“The wood really works for the house,” Williams says. “In one of our first meetings, Anne and Scott brought a Frank Lloyd Wright book. We studied that architecture in design school and absolutely love it. So I think the trust and collaboration of them adding their own colorful and functional style that still honored the house and the woodwork, keeping all that intact is what meant the most to the house and to the client.”
And Hunter and Bennett loved that they were able to modernize everything while still keeping that wood and midcentury style — like having a drop zone, but behind doors that are original to the house, repurposed from another area.
Williams helped the couple push boundaries the most in the bathroom, but in many other small ways throughout the project, including the bold colors in the kitchen and octopus wallpaper in the laundry room, which has become another one of Hunter’s favorite moments.
“I do feel like we stayed true to what the client really wanted, and their personality, and the house at the same time,” Williams says. NI
LOCAL RESOURCES
Lead designer: Brittany Creekmur with Paige Williams Interior Design
Builder: The Dan Company
Countertops: Smokey Mountain Tops & Cambria
Gold tile (bathroom and kitchen): Ann Sacks
Cabinets: Century Entertainment & Furnishings
Plumbing: Ferguson
RESPECT, TALENT SKILL
THE COLLABORATIVE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BUILDER ALAN LOONEY AND ARCHITECT KEVIN COFFEY
BY HOLLIE DEESE | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANTHONY ROMANO
Finding someone you can work with, create with and grow with is rare. To have that relationship grow over decades is rarer still. But that is exactly what Alan Looney, owner of the custom design build firm, Castle Homes and architect Kevin Coffey have found in one another over their years of collaboration on some of the most beautiful homes in Middle Tennessee.
The two met in the late 1990s on a project with the architect James Edwards, and then they worked on a show home together. Immediately, they worked together with a flow and collective vision that Looney had been missing with architects before Coffey.
“And it was always just a struggle,” Looney says. “When I met with Kevin, I gave him the direction I wanted to go, and, his vision, he hit it right on. He can read people really well, and I think it shows up on almost every project we work on.”
It is a skill that has helped guide initial client meetings when he sketches what they have talked about. Looney says Coffey sometimes nails them on the first try, and if not, he gets them on the second.
“He’s right on the money, and I think it is just because he listens so well,” Looney says. “And then he will begin researching. We want our homes to look historically
accurate, so that when you look at the house, if it is a certain architectural style, that it also has the right scale and proportion and details. We work with Kevin on a majority of what we do, and it’s just been a great formula.”
Evolution of a working relationship
While Looney says the process between them has always been collaborative, they have continued to evolve over the years, fine-tuning their process and including in-house designers to provide feedback on any tweaks once plans are approved.
Coffey says they are both different now than when they started, in style and process. Now, he adds, they fight like brothers when a disagreement comes up — which would have not been the case on their first few projects together.
“In a way, the first two or three projects were easy because we didn’t know each other at all,” Coffey says. “Now, if we disagree, we just get on with it. And I don’t think it’s ever hurt projects. It’s usually helped them when we have had some push and pull.”
Some styles they have done together are English Arts & Crafts and French Country, which they both have an affinity for. And in recent years, they’ve worked on more modern homes.
A collaborative build from Alan Looney and Kevin Coffey. Across, Coffey, left, and Looney in the Brentwood office of Castle Homes.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY REED BROWN
A
“I wouldn’t say we’re trying to stay out in front of the market, but we’re not necessarily trying to follow trends either,” Coffey says. “We’re trying to do our thing and what we believe in — and hoping that the market has fallen in line.”
“When I met with Kevin, I gave him the direction I wanted to go, and, his vision, he hit it right on. He can read people really well, and I think it shows up on almost every project we work on.”
— Alan Looney
Over the years the two have learned how to collaborate with their homeowners, too, which can throw a few curveballs into their fine-tuned partnership. The scale of the homes they work on together has also increased.
But one thing the two make sure to never do is build something big just for the sake of building big. If the client thinks they need 10,000 square feet, but Looney and Coffey know they can accomplish everything the homeowner wants and more in 8,000, they start with something that’s 8,000 square feet.
And they make sure the budget is always in alignment with ambitions.
“We try to avoid that by setting expectations on the front end,” Looney says. The design phase is detailed, including everything from the architecturals to the interiors, the hardscape and landscaping and the storm water plan — everything is detailed and priced out.
“We really try to home in on that budget before we start designing so we can make sure it doesn’t get overdesigned, or that it isn’t bigger than what it needs to be,” Looney says.
If they could pick any project to do together in the future, it would be similar to one they worked on during the downturn in 2007: an eight-lot Green Hills development that featured a more English Arts and Crafts style of architecture. But if that never happened, they would be proud of the work they’ve done together
“We’ve already done a couple of dream projects together,” Coffey says. “It’s making people’s dreams come true, and loving them through the process.”
Looney agrees. “We’ve done homes for recording artists, producers, athletes — big, really amazing estate homes,” he says. “Those are dream projects. I think about 30 years ago when we started this company, we didn’t think we would be building homes that are $15 million or $20 million, with such incredible architecture and incredible finishes.”
Not to mention the numerous showhomes, including for the Parade of Homes, the Nashville Symphony and House Beautiful
“We are more than just a working relationship,” Looney says. “We’re definitely friends, and have a big, mutual respect for each other. I would do anything for Kevin. I think the world of him, and he’s seen our family grow up. He’s been around to see the company grow. He has been a part of growing this company.” NI
custom home deisgned and built by Kevin Coffey and Alan Looney.
“I was raised at [The Craft Cranny]. I always loved it.”
— Samantha Saturn
ART STAR
SAMANTHA SATURN
AT HOME WITH THE PERSONAL COLLECTION OF ARTVILLE FOUNDER
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY NICOLE CHILDREY
BY WILLIAM DESHAZER
Samantha Saturn chose this striking geometric piece by John Ha to enliven her space.
When Samantha Saturn was just a year old, her mother, Nancy, bought The Craft Cranny, a shop stocked with handmade art and artisan goods. The youngest of three, Samantha stuck at her mother’s knee, toddling around a carefully curated hub of creativity and marveling at macrame and pottery.
“I was raised at that store,” Samantha remembers, now sitting surrounded by her own carefully curated collection of original art in her Green Hills home. “I always loved it.”
Samantha watched — and later contributed — as her mother built and grew The Craft Cranny and its creative community into long-standing crafts gallery The American Artisan and The American Artisan Festival, an annual event that Nancy and husband Alan Saturn shepherded for nearly 40 years.
Samantha remembers packing into the station wagon and traveling to national buying fairs, bringing back work from across the U.S. and introducing Nashville to names and disciplines. When Nancy Saturn died in 2010, a Nashville Scene obituary affirmed how she “changed the city’s arts scene.”
Today, Samantha Saturn hopes to help change it again, coleading Artville, a free, three-day visual art festival that’s prepping for its second year in Wedgewood-Houston.
Scheduled for Sept. 27-29, Artville 2024 includes site-specific installations from handpicked artists, the mural-centered Artville Walls project, a Zine Fest and a reimagined version of The American Artisan Festival — paying homage to her family’s past while championing Nashville’s visual arts potential.
“Our city’s in a major transformative time,” Saturn says.
“People recognize that the community needs things to represent the culture of its history and the culture of its future.”
Visions of a Visual Art Destination
In 2023, Saturn and festival co-founder Jack Davis announced their Artville intentions: They’d start with free public art and opportunities to learn and collect, centered in WedgewoodHouston. In time they hoped to grow the event into a citywide art celebration — less like the collector-centric Art Basel in Switzerland, more like the approachable ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
“I always talk about art as accessible versus art as collectible,” Saturn says. “I was raised in the space that you just buy what you love without having to say, ‘Well, will it be worth something later?’”
Investments in Artville came quickly, through local organizations and businesses from the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. to developers AJ Capital, Hines and Core Development. Grants went out, too, in the form of cash awards for contributing artists — another baby step toward a bigger vision.
“My goal is to raise a million dollars to create public art projects in Nashville every year,” Saturn says. “And I think we can do it.”
For the 2024 event, showcasing artists will receive awards totaling $150,000. Jodi Hays, a local painter and Artville artist, sees how beneficial — and how needed — these contributions are.
“Awards like these Artville commissions are a significant boost, and I am so glad they exist,” she says. “However, they are smaller and less numerous than those given in comparable cities. … I am glad that Artville and corporate sponsors in Nashville have seen the light, so to speak, and visual artists in our city need more to survive and thrive.”
Lifetimes of Loving Art
Knowing Samantha Saturn’s story, it’s easy to see Artville as a continuation of her family’s legacy — a commitment to helping art and artists thrive in Nashville. Saturn’s personal art collection, too, looks and feels like an outgrowth of that legacy. Eclectic, approachable and personal, it contains lifetimes of loving art — local art in particular — without pretense.
There’s a mixed-media piece by Nashville’s Liz Hodder, full of texture and movement, not far from two paintings by fellow local Omari Booker, illustrating special places in Nashville. An abstract piece by Nashvillian Tony Sobota anchors another wall, bringing blocks of cool blue hues with pointed pops of warmth.
Facing page, top left: This mixed media piece by Samantha Zaruba was purchased at Ce Gallery in Nashville. Facing page, top right: The basket by Jean Yao and the table by Richard Peyton were purchased at Julia Martin Gallery. This page: A sculpture by Jack Charney
Saturn also snagged a clutch of small, geometric pen and ink pieces by Miranda Herrick — something of a collection within the collection — from the Works and Days series, which is made up of a year’s worth of pieces started and completed each day.
“I was fascinated by the whole project,” Saturn says. “So I bought the birthdays of my family members. … Nobody knows that, but I know that.”
The artwork isn’t all from Nashville artists or from contemporary ones. They aren’t all paintings or prints, or reflective of a particular style. Saturn didn’t buy them all; some are heirlooms, some were made by her kids. Connections and affection — for the art, for the artists, for the art-loving community — are the ties that bind.
“I just like buying things that I love from people who have a story to tell,” she says. NI
Learn more about Artville at artville.org
Samantha Saturn picked specific square pen and ink drawings by Miranda Herrick (framed, at left) to correspond to dates that are important in her family. At top left is a painting by Meg Pollard; in the background is a painting by Tracy Ginsberg of San Francisco.
Ephemeral Art
‘ARTVILLE WALLS’ PROJECT SHOWCASES STREET MURALS BEFORE BUILDING DEMOLISHED
BY HOLLIE DEESE | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ARTVILLE
During this year’s second annual Artville festival, four artists completed the Artville Walls project, a temporary installation at the intersection of Chestnut and Martin streets that began with seven murals at last year’s inaugural Artville. The four new murals that complete the series were from local artists Tracee Badway, Omari Booker, Tess Davies and German Rojas.
Right now, the building hosting the murals is being used mostly as storage for the real estate investment group AJ Capital Partners — one of the major supporters of Artville. But the building is scheduled to be demolished sometime this year to make room for another development project, a fact everyone was aware of from the beginning, including the artists.
“When we started this project last year, that was the first talking point,” says Kerstin Hjelm, director of communication with AJ Capital Partners. “We don’t know exactly when it’s going to happen, but it will eventually happen, and that was the first thing we wanted to tell the artists because we don’t want them to feel short-changed. And, we’re looking for ways that we can keep their art in perpetuity in some other way.”
In all, there were 20 murals and public art installations during Artville 2024.
With a vision of becoming a nationally recognized city-wide art festival, Artville aims to drive arts-related tourism and support Nashville’s growing community of visual artists, galleries, art museums and cultural institutions. Co-founded by Samantha Saturn and Jack Davis, Artville is an opportunity for local and national artists to create unique works that bring large-scale art experiences for the community to enjoy, free of charge, in a neighborhood that’s known for its makers and artists.
“Just because we’re developing here and just ’cause we’re bringing in different businesses here doesn’t mean that needs to be lost,” Hjelm says. “There’s still a lot of art here, so having that remain is super important. Having community engagement here, people gathering here, is super important. That’s why we do things like the Farmers Market. That’s why we do things like Artville. Making sure that remains, even as there is development going up, remains important.”
Hjelm says it is more than just AJ Capital; other developers
and businesses in the neighborhood are working to preserve that artistic spirit.
“It is important for everyone that the culture in this neighborhood stays the same because otherwise you get, frankly, just bad development,” Hjelm says. “You just get a bunch of buildings that don’t have a lot of soul or purpose. And I think it’s just such a testament to the neighborhood and the community that people like Julia Martin (owner of Julia Martin Art Gallery) have helped.”
Artville is funded in part by the support of Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp., Hines, Core Development, The Finery, Wedgewood Village, Memoir Residential, and Hal and Jodi Hess. This year, $150,000 was awarded to artists to create temporary site-specific works. The 2024 Artville Public Art recipients this year are Beizar Aradini, Ash Atterberry, Jeremiah Britton, Jason Brooks, Amanda Browder, Joe Geis, Jodi Hays, Shabazz Larkin, Marlen Lugo, Duncan McDaniel, Jason Peters, Katrina Sanchez Stanfield and James Worsham.
“We always say that history is the best designer, so for us it’s about so much more than buildings,” Hjelm says. “When we approach a project, whether that is a hotel or a mixed-use community, we really take inspiration from the community that’s been here before us. That is incredibly important to us. And this neighborhood has largely been known for the arts, and we don’t want that to go away.” NI
Artist Tracee Badway in front of her mural, one of four that were done this year to complete the Artville Walls project. Across, murals by Brian Wooden and Xavier Payne were completed during the inaugural Artville in 2023.
Built By Stevie
STEVIE ESTLER TAKES CARPENTRY INTO HER OWN HANDS
BY NICOLE CHILDREY | PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM DESHAZER
Long before thousands of social media fans tracked Nashville’s chief #carpentHER and her Built By Stevie brand, there were ceiling fans.
It was sophomore year at Florida State University, and Stevie Estler wanted air in her bedroom. Friend Lincoln Golike agreed to help her install a new fan — but only if she did the work as he coached her through.
“I hung all three of my roommates’ ceiling fans too,” Estler says, smiling at her labrador puppy, Cash, who was snoozing underfoot. “And then I started charging.”
At 30 to 50 bucks a pop, the ceiling fan side hustle brought in decent money for a college kid. But more importantly, it sparked a realization: This kind of thing was fun to learn, fun to do and lucrative. Plus she had a knack for working with her hands.
“I asked for a drill for Christmas that year,” Estler says.
Santa Claus cooperated, and the humble foundation for a tool collection — and a career as an in-demand custom carpenter — began to form.
Today, Estler’s Lebanon workshop holds a wall-to-wall array of Powermatic table saws, Jet drill presses and their high-end brethren, each playing an important role in Built By Stevie’s “generational” approach to carpentry. She and her team turn out furniture and built-ins for residential and commercial clients across the region, each piece custom-designed and finely finished with solid wood using time-intensive, timeless methods — the kind of old-school joinery you mostly find in long-surviving vintage pieces.
“Everything’s just so manufactured and cheaply made now. So I started building this old (way). … I don’t wanna say we overbuild, but we build everything for structure and for longevity. Some of it’s not necessary, but at the end of the day, when anything goes outta my shop, I know it’s quality.”
— Stevie Estler
“Everything’s just so manufactured and cheaply made now,” Estler says. “So I started building this old (way). … I don’t wanna say we overbuild, but we build everything for structure and for longevity. Some of it’s not necessary, but at the end of the day, when anything goes outta my shop, I know it’s quality.”
Out of the Woodwork
Estler’s uncle Doug Lackey — her second formative skillsbuilding teacher — inspired that old-fashioned approach. Like Golike, he encouraged Estler to tackle a home improvement project on her own, providing an old miter saw, tips, encouragement and a hulking 1950s book on cabinetry and millwork for her DIY hardwood floor installation.
Estler knocked out most of the install herself and left the project house-poor, inspired and armed with a drill and a miter saw. Furniture followed. Headboards. A desk. A dining table. A dresser.
“My brother and sister-in-law were, like, ‘Can you build us a headboard?’” Estler says. “Everyone just started asking.”
Those fun projects became fundamental in 2015, when Estler lost her job in wholesale and event planning. The job hunt stretched, and a friend suggested she turn her carpentry side hustle into a full-time business.
“On August 20th, 2015, I posted on social media,” Estler remembers. “‘Hey, I have a new Instagram called Built by Stevie and if you guys want anything let me know. I’m gonna build in Tennessee.’ Friends came out of the woodwork.”
Building a Dream
Estler now leads a team of six, and clients continue to climb out of the woodwork. In nearly 10 years, she’s run a total of three Instagram ads. The rest is word of mouth.
Most clients order high-end built-ins — Built By Stevie’s output is about 75% cabinetry, 25% furniture, earning Estler a rep as “The Built-In Queen.” Residential installs make up the bulk, but the team helps level up local businesses’ spaces too. Multiple
Carpenter Stevie Estler designed her custom workshop in Lebanon.
Five Daughters Bakery locations get their clean but homey behind-the-donut-bar vibes from custom Built By Stevie storage.
“Her ability to blend functionality with aesthetic appeal made her work stand out,” says Five Daughters Director
of Operations Cheyenne White. “She clearly had a genuine passion for her craft, which aligned perfectly with our business.”
That passion only grew with the construction of Estler’s current shop — the company’s third workspace, designed and built on her own property. Built By Stevie started in a garage, then moved to a warehouse by the airport. A 38% rent increase prompted Estler’s next unexpected, perspectivechanging project.
This time the alley-oop came from Estler’s dad. A finance pro, he ran the numbers and found that, with the rent ramp-up, a new shop build would break even in months. Estler, once again, listened and learned.
The finished, 3,200-square-foot Built By Stevie shop is bright, open and organized to accommodate intricacy and efficiency, with a big pink statement wall that serves double duty.
Clamps and levels hang ready to work under a cherry-red #carpentHER sign — a powerful centerpiece for Built By Stevie social content. (The tag has become a global hit, inspiring T-shirt orders from Nashville to New Zealand.)
It started as a hayfield. Now it’s Estler’s haven.
“I can really be having a bad day, and my day gets turned around getting in here,” Estler says. “I walk into the shop and I’m, like, ‘This is mine. I built my dream.’” NI
Short-Term
Stunner
JULIE SELLERS
TURNS A CRUMBLING GARAGE INTO A RENTAL FILLED WITH WORK FROM LOCAL MAKERS
BY NICOLE CHILDREY PHOTOGRAPHY BY CAROLINE SHARPNACK
Julie Sellers and her husband, Dave, bought a historic brick bungalow in East Nashville’s Lockeland Springs, steps from Five Points, one of the city’s most vibrant cultural hubs. They filled it with furniture and decor inspired by and sourced from the array of places they’ve called home — New York, Boston, London, Paris, now Nashville — infusing rooms with color and personality, intending to be good stewards of the home’s history.
Both came to consider it their “forever home.” But for Julie, a dream was still hiding under the crumbling garage out back.
“When we had our insurance appraisal they said, ‘You have to fix (the garage), or we’re not gonna renew you,’” she says. “So that was the trigger.”
Today, that dilapidated structure is gone. In its place is The Gwyneth, a sun-soaked, clean and serene one-bed, one-bath cottage, built as a guest house and designed like a metropolitan pied-à-terre set in a quiet, leafy neighborhood.
The name nods to Gwyneth Paltrow, yes. Julie sees some commonality between the guest house’s aesthetic and the actress/Goop founder’s vibe — a mix of minimalism and classic sophistication with proud pops of artistic flair.
“It’s controversial,” Julie says, laughing. “Some people love that, some people hate that.”
A Blend of Business and Creativity
In 2021, with the help of Nashville’s Bootstrap Architecture + Construction, Julie and Dave razed the uninsurable, plywood-clad garage to start building The Gwyneth, setting the cozy property up to serve two functions. One: full-time short-term rental. Two: tactile celebration of Nashville’s vibrant creative class.
On both fronts, it’s an objective success. Busily booked to Airbnb-ers looking for a stylish and quiet Nashville retreat, The Gwyneth paid for its construction and design in a year or so, Julie says, and its calendar stays steady.
Design details, like the New Hat custom wallpaper on the opposite page, make a bold statement in a small space.
Julie Sellers leaned on her Ellevated Outcomes clients to fill The Gwyneth with local design talent.
The cottage’s interior details make it an eclectic, effective local showcase, as intended, with an array of pieces and products from people who help give Nashville its unique creative personality.
Work by Nashville artist Mary Stengel Bentley and others from the Red Arrow art gallery line the walls, next to perky plants procured from East Nashville’s Flora Plant Shop. Guests arrive to local treats from Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Co., set out on handmade wooden platters from local furniture designer Holler Design. Wine stems rest on custom coasters by Nashville leathermaker Emil Erwin.
Caption
The idea behind the details grew, in part, out of Julie’s fulltime job. As CEO and client strategist for business advisory firm Ellevated Outcomes, she helps local creatives — from interior designers to home staging professionals — shape their business strategy. Connecting with creative clients grew into loving their work, then wanting to make The Gwyneth a de facto gallery highlighting and celebrating the talents of clients and locals like them.
A Wallpaper Pièce De Résistance
Interior designer (and Ellevated client) Barbara Vail helped shape the overall space, collaborating with Julie on her Gwyneth vision. While not white-box stark, the cottage’s overall aesthetic is crisp and clean, with neutral paint, cabinets, flooring and furnishings that intentionally cede center stage to the art and decor.
From Day One, Julie says, the vision for the Gwyneth included a custom wallpaper centerpiece crafted by Nashville surface design studio (and Ellevated client) New Hat, who’ve worked with high-profile and high-style clients from the Noelle Hotel to chef Sean Brock’s Audrey restaurant.
New Hat’s wall-covering design — a large-scale trellis pattern filled with fine pencil drawings — tells Julie and Dave Sellers’ story in custom visual vignettes, from a lighthouse that represents their wedding location in Mykonos, Greece, to orchids (Julie’s favorite flower) and picture-perfect pizza slices, a nod to the couple’s ongoing Friday-night dinner ritual.
“During our discovery process with Julie and Barbara, we saw that the vibe of the space was modern meets traditional,” says New Hat owner and creative director Elizabeth Williams. “The idea of a toile pattern, quite traditional, but ‘make it Julie,’ came into play. That’s the benefit of custom.”
To former Parisian Julie, the eye-grabbing, autobiographical design is The Gwyneth’s “pièce de résistance,” now covering two walls on two levels in two colorways, capturing the couple’s past while inspiring their future.
“I’ve thought about this a lot, actually, this year in particular. This is such a time capsule of my life with Dave before Nashville. I love how it captures that,” Julie says. “So I’m kind of thinking about stages: ‘What would my next version of this be? What’s our next wallpaper gonna be?’” NI
Julie Sellers and her husband, Dave, converted a crumbling old garage at the back of their East Nashville property into The Gwyneth, a small cottage that is filled with local art and resources.
LUXE Lounge
THE EIGHTH ROOM TRANSFORMS CLASSIC VENUE INTO COUTURE
MUSIC CLUB
BY HOLLIE DEESE
PHOTOGRAPHY PROVIDED BY THE EIGHTH ROOM
Channeling the vibe of spaces with similar styles — like Max’s Kansas City and the notorious Viper Room — The Eighth Room has become one of Nashville’s hottest locations for industry events, parties, livestreaming, and video and photo shoots. It just looks so damn good.
From the moment you step through the 1960s red door, with its speakeasy window and custom brass octopus handles, you are engulfed in a luxe mix of art, design and vintage Hollywood glamour that includes original works by HOLLIS (owner Jason Hollis), as well as Gucci and Versace wallpapers accented with custom gold chain curtains. The result is somehow intimate and maximalist.
And it is all a family affair. The Eighth Room is owned and operated by husband-and-wife team Jason and Erin Hollis, both multilayered creatives and entrepreneurs who moved to the 12South neighborhood from Los Angeles with their daughter in June 2020. Every time he walked past the Eighth Avenue South building, Jason would see the For Lease sign in the window. He finally made a move when he heard someone was considering taking over the iconic space.
“He was like, ‘I cannot let this place go,’” Erin says of his passionate pitch to her. “‘This was the iconic Douglas Corner for 33 years. Everybody’s played the stage. I don’t want it to turn into a hookah bar. Can we please just open a bar?’ And I was like, absolutely not. So anyway, here we are.”
Maintaining the history and significance of Douglas Corner was important — which Jason understood as a musician who’d played there himself in the ’90s, when he moved to Nashville from Louisiana right out of high school. He left Music City for L.A. in 2002, but on the way he discovered the rock band The Fray in a coffee shop in Colorado. He ended up working with them for two years before he continued on to California, where he soon met Erin.
“We gutted this whole place and then rebuilt it exactly like Douglas Corner was built — with the bar in the same space. The sound booth. Mervin’s closet,” Jason said, referring to Mervin Louque, the recording engineer who opened Douglas Corner in 1987 — and then closed it in May 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The only thing that we kept was the stage,” Jason says. “I mean, we’ve embellished it and made it nice, but that is definitely the original stage. We were pretty adamant the stage had to stay.”
This was a totally different collaboration for Jason and Erin, who had always helped each other with their own businesses in their decades together — her designing clothes, him running a music studio. As always, though, it was fueled by passion and partnership.
“My favorite part of curating the overall venue space was designing it with my husband and daughter Strummer,” Erin Hollis says. “We’d lie in bed at night poring over apps like Chairish and 1stDibs curating a high-end, vintage designer vibe.”
It took about a year to find all the pieces, says Erin, who would always go back to channeling The Viper Room and James Bond’s living room to stay on track. And she achieved that, snaring pieces from Adrian Pearsall, Vladimir Kagan, Milo Baughman and Jack Lenor Larsen.
Erin Hollis spent hours online sourcing vintage design details like the antique mirrored tile that defines one of the seating areas in The Eighth Room.
“Anything I couldn’t get vintage, like the Edison bulbs, I would get things that looked like they were vintage.”
— Erin Hollis
“Anything I couldn’t get vintage, like the Edison bulbs, I would get things that looked like they were vintage,” she says.
Standout design touches include glass blocks and Italian subway tile from the 1960s, antique glass mirror tiles, doors from Preservation Station, a bar top custom made by a Florida yacht company, gold mirrors from the 1980s, Italian marble flooring, Andy Warhol selfie wallpaper and converted gas light fixtures from the 1930s.
The change in the look of the building is almost as dramatic as the cultural sea change that’s swept the area since Jason lived in 1990s Nashville. No detail was left behind, down to the custom scent coming through the vents — a far cry from the decades of smoke and crystallized tobacco that caked the old Douglas Corner ceiling tiles.
Since The Eighth Room has opened in late 2023, the Hollises have held a number of private parties, and the vaunted stage is still hosting iconic bands — including Queen, who played there the night before they played Bridgestone.
“For me, being here in the ’90s and being in the music business, going to the Ace of Clubs or 12th & Porter for industry showcases — you saw that people’s lives could change very drastically in just one night,” Jason says. “And that’s one thing that we wanted to really focus on, was being a home to industry.”
They recently expanded their hours — MondayWednesday 4-7 p.m. and Thursday 4 p.m.-2 a.m. — and opened a renovated outdoor patio oasis that’s perfect for transitioning into cool fall nights during happy hour. The patio features plush built-in seating and a private bar, which can be reserved for special occasions or to host a private happy hour during the week.
“This is the perfect spot to drop in for a cocktail after work, team up with colleagues and recharge the creative soul,” Jason says. “This isn’t just another joint; it’s a sanctuary for artists, the rising stars and those who have their finger on the pulse of the cutting edge.”
Next up the couple wants to do a bottled daiquiri line in a nod to Jason’s native Louisiana. Though they have noticed that the younger generation seems to prefer mocktails, THC drinks and mushroom teas to alcohol, their craft cocktail menu still includes drinks from The Eighth Room’s private label vodka and a private label American lager.
“People may not realize the level of talent that continues to play here, and our ambition is to keep that legacy going of not only showcasing up-and-coming talent, but also very high-level talent,” Jason says. “We want this thing to live past us and go on. The Douglas Corner was here for 33 years as a music venue. It takes 50 years in Nashville to become a historic music venue. So if we can hold out for long enough, this could be a landmark.” NI
Jason and Erin Hollis aim to preserve the essence of Douglas Corner by ushering the storied venue into historical status as their reinvention: The Eighth Room.
