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Lockeland Springs · East Nashville · Built 1920

Family Library

The heroes of this project, a couple with two young kids, a dog, and a cat, came to us in 2023 ready for big changes. Their historic home is beautiful, and the front of the house is downright grand. But like a lot of old East Nashville houses, it had a few “features” that weren’t really features — a weird plank accent wall, and a loft with exposed screws and plywood floors. There was also gray paint. Everywhere.

Our first project with them was the entry and living room. We took down the accent wall, honed in on the couple’s color preferences and personal style, and furnished both spaces with preloved pieces and original art. A year or so later we got the call to do their family library off the entry, and we were psyched to get back in there. We created a scheme with two walls of bookshelves, turned the unused loft into a whimsical kids’ space, and finished the room with preloved furniture: a desk they already had, a reupholstered spider chair, a vintage rug, and secondhand lighting.

The whole front of the house is done now, and it gets used every single day: shoes kicked off in the entry, coffee with friends in the living room, laptops open at the library desk, and the kids up in the loft the whole time. And stay tuned, because we’ve got a third room in this home almost ready to share. It’s their downstairs den, complete with a wet bar, and you have to see it.

The entry: a green apothecary-style chest under the staircase with a squiggle-patterned lamp, stacked antique books, a bonsai, and a snake plant in a chinoiserie planter on a vintage rug

The Library

The family library: slate-blue walls and built-in bookshelves on both sides, a wood desk with a chessboard mid-game, a reupholstered spider-back chair in plaid, a brass mobile chandelier, and the loft railing above
A small white paneled door with an antique glass knob set into the wall at the stair landing, closed
The same little door swung open at the stair landing, revealing the dollhouse and striped carpet of the loft inside
Inside the loft kids’ space: a big dollhouse and wooden toy furniture on striped navy carpet, a quilt on a floor cushion, and a built-in bookcase with a rainbow of Childcraft volumes at the back

The Living Room

The living room: a mustard leather sofa with patterned pillows flanked by two rust wingback chairs, navy drapes, a hammered brass coffee table, a framed vintage rug on the wall, and the family’s tabby cat on the plaid rug
A rust wingback chair beside the mustard leather sofa, a torn-paper landscape painting and framed vintage rug on the wall, and the tabby cat under the brass coffee table
The other rust wingback against the exposed brick fireplace with a vintage sea-captain painting, and the family’s black dog lounging on the caramel leather sofa
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