Southern Living Showcase Home

Back in Middle Tennessee this Fall

Photos by Peyton Hoge

Sumptuously southern is the look and feel of the Southern Living Showcase Home opening its doors October 21 through November 6 in southern Davidson County’s new Dorset Park neighborhood. The home is open from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays October 21 through November 6, The home’s After Sale is scheduled for Monday, November 7.

Returning to the Nashville area for the first time in over a decade, this year’s Southern Living Showcase Home is a charming French Country home being built by Castle Homes with 11 of Nashville’s top designers bringing their A game.

“It is a very exciting project with the area’s top design talent and decorative artisans bringing the latest in creative decor to this uniquely southern home,” says Alan Looney, president of Castle Homes. “From iPad-run home technology and new exterior finishes to unusual muted zebra style window treatments and exotic teak root furnishings, the showcase home is packed with the latest in home design while incorp-orating green building principles,” he says.
Natural, organic textures of cotton, linen, silk, and leather are found throughout the downstairs living areas. Using soft, pleasing colors, Jerome Farris of Peddler Interiors, designer for the living room, says the color palette is a reflection of the times.

“Stepping away from heavy, dark colors, you’ll find the Showcase Home embraces the trend toward lighter colors as people are searching for calm and hope.” He adds, “With Oyster White walls (Sherwin Williams paint throughout home), the room has an airy feel but with some design intrigue found in the muted zebra print draperies of linen and silk velvet, a new line of fabric from Texture, and the room’s smoky Venetian glass chandelier.  
Relatively new to the mid-state area, a NanaWall system, has also provided a lot of inspiration for the downstairs areas. An accordion-style wall of windows opens to the outdoor living room seamlessly weaving outdoor area with indoor ones.

The NanaWall is seen more often in warmer climates like Nevada, according to Looney. “I was attending a national builder peer-group meeting in Las Vegas and saw this in the Maloof home, (Maloof is the owner of the Sacramento Kings). It is a brilliant building element that helps transform and expand a living space,” he says. “As a strong green building advocate, the NanaWall encourages the home owner to turn off the air conditioner and save energy.”
Kitchens and baths are always a home tour favorite. Caroline Weigel and Heather Looney, Castle Homes’ in-house design team, have created a chef’s dream kitchen with Wolf/Sub-Zero appliances, a honed marble center island with a clever pop-up mixer lifter, and Caesarstone perimeter counters in “Lagos Blue.” The refrigerator and freezer are 27-in. wide towers and feature new flush inset cabinet panel doors. Don’t miss Kohler’s new “Whitehaven” enameled, cast-iron, farmhouse sink with an apron-front and Parq chrome bridge style Kohler faucet.

The home showcases two exterior home products. An innovative use of a Sherwin Williams commercial product has been applied to the home’s clay-fired brick creating an Old World textured finish. The UltraCrete Acrylic Texture Coating is hand-brushed and rolled offering a more affordable option than stucco and custom mortar rubbed finishes.

The outdoor living room has a gorgeous painted concrete floor. Created by artisan Brooks Tucker of Bella Tucker Decorative Finishes, the Skimstone concrete floor is relatively new and sports a modello design with a Skimstone concrete overlay finish in soothing earth tones.Ronald McDonald House Nashville is the event’s benefiting charity and an adorable boy’s bedroom and tween girl’s room, by designers Lee Shacklock and Kristen Finney, both embrace this charitable connection. Using low VOC paints, the rooms are full of whimsy and great design ideas.  The books found in each room are provided by the Books from Birth Middle Tennessee and will be donated to the Ronald McDonald House Nashville after the tour.

In addition to the use of low VOC paints, LP Building Products, the showcase home’s presenting sponsor, is featuring the latest in energy-saving building products and materials featured in a clever LP Building Room in the home.

The design team, headed by Castle Homes’ Caroline Weigel and Heather Looney, includes: Dana Goodman, ASID, Dana Goodman Interiors; Lee Shacklock, Lee Shacklock Interior Design; Kippie Leland, ASID, Leland Interiors, LLC; Jennifer Jones, Allied ASID, Jennifer Jones, Inc.; Jerome Farris, Peddler Interiors; Kristen Finney, Allied ASID, Finney Interiors; Beth Jones, ASID, The Interior Collection; Amanda Burdge, Allied ASID, AB HOME Interiors, Inc.; Treesa Hudson, Allied ASID, Bradford’s Interiors; and decorative artisans Mojo Faux and Bella Tucker Decorative Finishes.

The build and design of the Southern Living Showcase Home is being chronicled through a series of website and video blogs providing resource information and home decorating inspiration with Facebook and Twitter posts all via www.castlehomes.com.

Tickets for the Southern Living Showcase Home are $10 in advance at www.castlehomes.com (look for tickets link) or at the gate for $14. Children 12 and under are free. For more informaiton visit www.castlehomes.com.