blvd. | style
CLOSET CRUSH:
Whitney Yellow Robe Yates by Whitley Adkins • photographs by Amy Kolo
B
orn in Hawaii, Whitney Yellow Robe Yates and her parents came to Charlotte to be close to family. Her uncle was the chief radiologist at Mercy Hospital (now Atrium Health Mercy). “We followed [his family], and my sister subsequently moved here as well,” says Yates, a former model whose mother is from Kentucky and father is a Lakota Sioux Indian of the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. A friend introduced Yates to her husband, Doug, president and CEO of Roush Yates Engines, at the NASCAR All-Star Race in 1998. The couple got married in December 2000 and have four children. “I have a stepson who is 25, a son who is 20 and twin girls who are 14,” Yates says. The Yates family lives on Lake Norman, where Whitney recently built the closet of her dreams, a two-story stunner with an elevator and spiral staircase. Assisting with the project were interior designer Melissa Godwin of Crown Design Group of North Carolina, Erick West from Erick West Construction Management, and Dale Bullock, a custom cabinet-maker from Covenant Building Services Inc. “It was all a vision, and they made it real,” Yates says. Comments have been edited for length and clarity.
THIS IS ALL SO SPECTACULAR. HOW DID THIS CLOSET COME TO BE?
I’ve always wanted a two-story closet. The opportunity arose to purchase some land next to us, which gave us the ability to add on to our house. We opted for a new master suite, office and guest bedroom, as well as a larger bar area downstairs and the patio outside. AND THEN THERE IS THE ELEVATOR.
I use the stairs to go up and down to grab a piece, but if we’re moving seasons from one floor to the next, I’ll use the elevator. The bottom floor is for the current season, and my off-season clothes are upstairs. 24
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SOUTHPARK
Above: Yates is a huge Billy Joel fan and keeps a harmonica that belonged to him in her closet. “His lighting person is a good friend of ours. Our friend told Billy Joel I would love to have something from him, and he said, ‘give her this.’ It is very special.”
