Inside Beautiful Homes II From the Early Summer 2008 Issue
When the architect has done his magic, it’s time for the interior designer to bring a home to life. With imagination, color, texture and pattern, our second Beautiful Homes Contest winners in this category capture the mood and style of the people inside, turning houses into homes. Each a unique reflection of the individuals’ lifestyles, personalities and choices. Here are our five winners, selected by Mountain Homes editors from entries submitted from September to Nov. 30, 2007.
PAMELA MCKAY
PLATINUM AWARD Photos by Dan Forer
Company: Dianne Davant & Associates
Location: Banner Elk, N.C.
Years of Experience: Gallery and interior arts since 1993; five-plus years with Dianne Davant & Associates.
Using rich-toned fabrics in the stylized window valance and coordinating Oriental rug, McKay brightens the breakfast area with splashes of white.
Personal Style: McKay likes a rustic, casual feel with antique furniture and a down-to-earth style. Professionally, she works with clients to incorporate their own preferences and tastes into their homes.
Objective of Design: Homeowners Mr. and Mrs. Ed Robson wanted a mountain home with an elegant yet casual feel, rather than the traditional rustic style.
Architect, Style and Home Location: Combination of European and mountain style by Mark Simski; home located outside Asheville, N.C.
Décor Style Chosen and Description: To achieve the Robsons’ desired country French look without an overpowering rustic element, McKay followed a palate of lighter colors to contrast with massive wood details, such as furniture with barley twist legs and antique carved accents. The kitchen and breakfast room feature a valance of dark blue and warm yellow while the master bedroom, accessible to the summer kitchen, features a pale celery green faux. Focal points of the master suite include an appliqued fabric bedspread and bath valance, a country French-inspired bed and stunning bench.
A dream kitchen departs from the ordinary in the choice of a stone arch, inset tiles and a fanciful use of rooster motifs.
Special Features: The full summer kitchen – complete with dining area – caters to the Robsons’ enjoyment of entertaining guests. Additionally, an exterior deck that connects to these rooms is a prime spot for entertainment and utilizes metal outdoor furniture with an aged appearance and mutted green fabrics that replicate the colors of nature. Because the Robsons wanted to preserve the mountain view, McKay selected full sheers that also soften the height of large windows.
Why the Design Works: It goes back to the client’s idea of what they wanted: a home that fits into the natural environment but with a spectacular interior that is unlike the typical mountain home.
SUSAN NILSSON
GOLD AWARDS Photos by David Dietrich
Location: Asheville, N.C.
Years of Experience: 25 years; started own firm in 1987.
Personal Style: Classic interior design. Upon starting a new project, Nilsson develops a concept with the owners. The concept drives the design, but she tends to work within the most classic and historically correct language of that idea.
A perfect spot for entertaining in the warm weather, this open porch and its stone fireplace are set off with wicker furniture and brown and orange tones picked up from the fireplace facade.
Objective of Design: To create a comfortable Southern Mountain Vernacular home suitable to owners Jim and Bonnie Spry and their love of entertaining friends and family. Nilsson wanted to create an evening ambiance to thrill guests with lighting and color. To stretch the owners’ imagination, as the scale of the home was designed with large architectural features, Nilsson introduced bold furnishings and colors. All upholstered pieces fit the needs of the couple – quality with much comfort. Because the owners are sports and music enthusiasts, Nilsson designed seating locations to enhance the enjoyment of these interests and encouraged them to invest in a sound/listening room and a real bar versus a cabinet with a counter.
Architect, Style and Home Location: Southern Mountain Vernacular by Jan Grierson, AIA; Hendersonville, N.C.
Décor Style Chosen and Description: Classic mountain elegance with a nod to fine traditional and rustic furnishings counterpointed with fine smooth finishes. The architectural heritage of noted professional A. Hays Town of Baton Rouge, La. was inspiration for the Sprys during the original architectural planning, and the finish material selection with Nilsson. The floors are a rustic antique heart pine with a smooth-finish cherry as trim. Ceiling beams in the kitchen are rescued cypress from New Orleans.
A perfect spot for entertaining in the warm weather, this open porch and its stone fireplace are set off with wicker furniture and brown and orange tones picked up from the fireplace facade.
Special Features: The home has large-scale architectural features – rooms, windows, doors and trim; a dense color palette and antique heart pine floors. Brick pavers enhance the entrance hall. The Sprys display their North Carolina pottery collection in the great room, along with a custom rug from Turkey that was sized to fit the proportions of the room. The room also includes a black baby Grand piano, anchor of the room that was the architect’s dominant force in space planning. In addition, Nilsson designed the kitchen’s copper range hood.
A nice way to enjoy mealtime, the eating area continues the neutrals-plus-brights color scheme with a heavy accent on woods. Giving it an open feel is the wide window with its view of the living room, archways, piano and accessories.
Why the Design Works: Because the owners were close friends with a couple Nilsson had worked with, the Sprys gained a level of confidence in Nilsson’s design sensibility that brought them the interior they wanted, a mix of classics blended with bold touches suitable for mountain living and frequent entertaining.
DORIS J. CLARK
SILVER AWARD (TIE) Photos by Mark Miller
Company: Stedman House
Location: Nellysford, Va.
Years of Experience: Freelance for 20 years; Stedman House for eight years.
Trevor and Jean Campbell’s post and beam craftsman home invites comfortable style, which Clark created here with an intimate round table and settings situated before the room’s fireplace for cozy appeal.
Clark achieved casual elgance in the living room by pairing plush chairs in warm tones with an intricate Oriental rug, dark-hued woods and leather.
Personal Style: Traditional in styling, but skilled in contemporary designs, Clark believes in hearing clients express the mood they have in mind for certain rooms and the way they plan to use them. She then translates their ideas into attractive finished products that reflects the individual’s needs. A self-described “color person,” she encourages homeowners to consider new shades but to stay in their comfort zone.
Objective of Design: To achieve casual elegance in a mountain home, a goal set by homeowners Jean and Trevor Campbell. The home, which will become the couple’s primary residence in the near future, was designed to meet the needs and enjoyments of family and friends as they visit from various states and countries.
Custom Home Designer, Style and Home Location: A combination of traditional post and beam and craftsman design by Michael Moore; Wintergreen, Va. location.
Décor Style Chosen and Description: Because the Campbells preferred to avoid rustic décor, the home features traditional, comfortable styling, which Clark incorporated through soft fabrics, inviting round tables, a stunning bar handcrafted from one piece of wood, intricate Oriental rugs and beautiful artwork of surrounding mountain area, as well as Jamaican art depicting games Trevor played as a child in Jamaica. Floral arrangements, designed by Jean Wade, add bursts of color to rooms.
Special Features: A ballroom, complete with mirror and crystal chandelier, enhances the couple’s enjoyment of one of their favorite hobbies – dancing. Other notable accents include a cream and terracotta marble foyer, an elevator to accommodate Trevor’s mother and a small media room equipped for adults and grandchildren. The couple also showcases personal mementos, such as a framed segment of a quilt that belonged to Jean’s grandmother.
Why the Design Works: The home provides ample space for the couple and their extended family. Builder Gaia Homes was also instrumental in achieving the home’s purpose: entertaining family.
CINDY TREMBLE KELLY
SILVER AWARD Photos by Margie K. Carroll
Objective of design: To create a warm, comfortable, low-maintenance second home for the two-family owners. Both families have children, dogs and friends who use the property. Therefore, the home had to be pet-, children- and guest-friendly. All furnishings are overstuffed and plush, to encourage lounging and support comfort. The lighting, furnishings, finishes and linens all complement each other, following an Adirondack style.
Everyone’s dream of a mountain home, this modified Adirondack style is inspiration for Trimble Kelly’s choice of rough-finished chairs, heavy furnishings and deep, rich tones against stone and block tile.
Style and Homeowners: The architectural style of the home, owned by the Davis and Brock families of Atlanta, is a modern interpretation of an Adirondack style with an Appalachian mountain layout. The home started with a small existing cabin located on a prime spot on the shores of Lake Burton. The owners worked with a builder to both renovate the cabin and add on several new rooms, including a new kitchen, great room, two master suites and a full upstairs with a bunk room for the kids. Adirondack features were added throughout, including bark siding, beams of bark-covered sticks, taxidermal animals and furnishings clad in birch bark and sticks. It was important for the home to appear as if it had been there for many years. The muted colors give a worn and aged look.
Décor Style Chosen and Description: Adirondack is a Northeastern mountain style that uses conventional construction with bark-covered accents and stick details. Traditionally, birch bark sheets are used on Adirondack homes, but because the home is located in Appalachia, poplar bark was used instead, although birch bark was introduced on furniture and decor. Appalachian mountain architecture historically starts with a single-room cabin that receives multiple additions as the family grows. This results in a non-traditional architectural form with different rooms jutting out from the sides or on top.
Part of the decor’s wizardry is creating an aged look while capturing a rustic ambience through heavy use of bark,
along with beams and taxidermal animals.
Much of the home’s appeal is the result of its muted interior color palette and the re-creation of an authentic Northeastern-
style aura.
Special features: Large spaces with overstuffed, comfortable furniture enable lounging and entertaining. The public entertainment spaces are central to the plan, while the two master suites sit on opposite ends of the house, allowing privacy. The children have their own spaces to sleep and be entertained, permitting adults to enjoy the main level great room and kitchen area. A large pool room is open to, but separate from, the great room and kitchen, where multiple areas of entertaining can be used at one time while still being connected. Views of the lake are kept open by using minimal window treatments and placing furnishings so that views can be seen from all rooms adjacent the lake. The main-level flooring, a durable Jerusalem stone, is carried throughout the public space and presents a pre-stained look that is easy to maintain.
Why The Design Works: The combination of these architectural styles creates a warm, indigenous-looking home that blends with the environment. The muted color scheme and low-maintenance/high-abuse materials are forgiving to scuffs from use, soiling from kids or dogs and weathering from the mountain environment. The end result is exactly what the homeowners dreamed it would be at the beginning of the project.
CINDY TREMBLE KELLY
SILVER AWARD Photos by John Umberger, Real Images Photography
Company: Trimble Kelly Studios
Location: Blue Ridge, Ga.
Years of Experience: 28 years as a professional; own company since 1992; moved to mountains in 2002.
Personal style: Trimble Kelly follows a personal design philosophy based on a client-driven approach. Each project focuses on the individual client’s lifestyle. Personally, she prefers a “refined rustic” style, which blends raw, natural rustic building materials such as rocks, trees and mud with modern construction methods and materials. Her projects feature an understated elegance that stays away from heavy-handed over-decorating since most mountain homes are either second homes or retirement homes that need to be easy to live in and easy to keep up.
Done to accent its Northwestern mountain style, the interior of the Craddock-Payne home features heavy weaves, leather and large pieces that complement the square chinked log siding used on both interior and exterior walls.
Following her clients’ directive, Trimble Kelly kept design simple, down to a subdued beige billard table with matching lights and accessories, set off with a fur rug and deeper walls.
Objective of Design: To create a modern home that combines modern creature comforts, such as a high-tech entertainment system, security and centralized controls for heating, air and lights with rustic detailing, including Southwestern accents. The clients preferred to keep everything simple, non-cluttered, comfortable, low-maintenance and dog- and company-friendly. Instead of a heavily decorated second home, they chose a sophisticated interior design that complemented the architecture, while creating a backdrop for the spectacular views from the top of this mountain. They also wanted a home that would showcase their collection of original artwork.
Design Source, Style and Homeowners: The architectural style of the home, owned by Nan Payne and Tish Craddock of Atlanta, is essentially Northwestern Mountain, using square, chinked log siding, inside and out. It was conventionally built with rough sawn beams, log siding and some sheetrock in bedrooms, bathrooms and the basement.
Décor Style Chosen and Description: The decoration is classic mountain modern with a Southwestern twist. Keeping with the simplicity directive, one stain color was used for the entire house (interior and exterior) but diluted to several strengths, resulting in a variety of tonal differences on various architectural elements. Accent and structural beams are the darkest, log siding a mid-tone and the tongue and groove decking the lightest. A dark burnt red was chosen as the only accent color, used sparingly in small splashes, such as a rug, painting and window frames. The mountain-themed furnishings feature heavy wood frames and leather and wool upholstery in classic, simple plaid or geometric patterns. The flooring is reclaimed heartwood that is more than 100 years old, complete with divots, nail holes and lots of character. Natural tongue oil was used as the finish, sealing the wood while bringing out the intense natural color.
Special Features: Large spaces with overstuffed, comfortable furniture enable lounging and entertaining. A state-of-the-art smart home system with small touch-screen monitors throughout the house controls security, heating and air, lights and entertainment features. The system is set so the owners can call the house from a computer to see the house through security cameras, turn on air, lights and disarm the security. An entertainment system includes large flat screens in most rooms that can all be turned to the same movie or program for parties, and speakers throughout the house for sound and music. The owners have a comprehensive original art collection from both local Appalachian artists and artist from their hometown of Tulsa, Okla. The master bedroom, located in the upstairs loft, features large barn doors that open to reveal the home’s best view of the mountains, and a see-through Lutron electric window screen system was installed to protect interior materials and furnishings in the great room.
Why the Design Works: Because the design is sophisticated but simple and comfortable, there is minimal upkeep and maximum comfort. The home exudes a definite mountain feel, but also appeals to the modern urbanites. Designed for entertaining guests, the kitchen, dining room and great room are located in one large space. The three bedrooms are distant enough from the central gathering area to allow privacy when needed. Adjacent to the central entertainment space are two outdoor porches: One side has a large seating area and fireplace while the other contains a hot tub for relaxing.
PAMELA MCKAY 
DORIS J. CLARK 
CINDY TREMBLE KELLY 
