My Houzz: Bright, Kid-Friendly Home for a Creative Couple
A painter and a songwriter add a master suite and freshen up other rooms in their 1900s home in Tennessee
Caroline Sharpnack
5 March 2019
Caroline Sharpnack is an Interiors, Architectural & Lifestyle Photographer based in Nashville, TN. Caroline has an evergrowing love for design, and she gravitates towards spaces both bold & vibrant, and minimal in aesthetic. She's passionate about capturing beautiful moments that occur within a space and conveying through photographs the unique story each space has to tell.
Caroline Sharpnack is an Interiors, Architectural & Lifestyle Photographer based... More
House at a Glance
Who lives here: Bryan and Laci Fowler; their son, Kota, 2, and 6-month-old daughter, Sunday; and their Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Ruby
Location: Franklin, Tennessee
Size: 1,987 square feet (185 square meters); three bedrooms, two bathrooms
“We knew this house was special,” painter Laci Fowler says of her family’s early-20th-century home in Franklin, Tennessee. She and her husband, Bryan, jumped at the opportunity to buy it. “We’ve never regretted moving quickly on it. I’m an artist and my husband is a songwriter, so we trusted our creative instincts,” she says.
After purchasing the home, the couple painted and decorated, updated the kitchen and, with the help of Rosanbalm Homes, added a master bedroom and bath.
The living room was the most difficult space for the couple to design. “It’s a work of art all by itself, bursting with character without any added design elements,” Laci says. “I wanted to respect that, not adding too much but instead enhancing what was already there.” She admits to ordering and returning furniture for this room more times than she can remember. In the end, she says, it was worth it to get things right.
Who lives here: Bryan and Laci Fowler; their son, Kota, 2, and 6-month-old daughter, Sunday; and their Cavalier King Charles spaniel, Ruby
Location: Franklin, Tennessee
Size: 1,987 square feet (185 square meters); three bedrooms, two bathrooms
“We knew this house was special,” painter Laci Fowler says of her family’s early-20th-century home in Franklin, Tennessee. She and her husband, Bryan, jumped at the opportunity to buy it. “We’ve never regretted moving quickly on it. I’m an artist and my husband is a songwriter, so we trusted our creative instincts,” she says.
After purchasing the home, the couple painted and decorated, updated the kitchen and, with the help of Rosanbalm Homes, added a master bedroom and bath.
The living room was the most difficult space for the couple to design. “It’s a work of art all by itself, bursting with character without any added design elements,” Laci says. “I wanted to respect that, not adding too much but instead enhancing what was already there.” She admits to ordering and returning furniture for this room more times than she can remember. In the end, she says, it was worth it to get things right.
Before: Here’s the living room before the Fowlers purchased the home. The space already had interesting architectural details, so all that was needed was a few coats of white paint.
On the other side of the living room, Laci hand-painted a pattern of black birds. The striking visual repetition catches your eye when you walk through the door.
Lucy acrylic coffee table: Naples Grande
Stroke of DIY Design Genius: 14 Crazy Cool Hand-Painted Walls
Lucy acrylic coffee table: Naples Grande
Stroke of DIY Design Genius: 14 Crazy Cool Hand-Painted Walls
Before: Seen here is the kitchen before the couple made renovations. Though everything was functional, the Fowlers wanted to change the walls, shelving, countertops and tile to create a room that matched their style and needs.
Find a kitchen designer on Houzz
Find a kitchen designer on Houzz
After: Nearly everything in the kitchen was altered in some way, with the exception of the brick fireplace. “We saved money on things like butcher block countertops and a simple but timeless backsplash, both of which we installed ourselves,” Laci says.
The couple repurposed the existing cabinets and added new black hardware to update their look. They removed the upper cabinets and replaced them with open shelving. Wicker pendant lights hang over a stand-alone wooden table that provides a work area as well as dining space.
The Pros and Cons of Upper Kitchen Cabinets and Open Shelves
The couple repurposed the existing cabinets and added new black hardware to update their look. They removed the upper cabinets and replaced them with open shelving. Wicker pendant lights hang over a stand-alone wooden table that provides a work area as well as dining space.
The Pros and Cons of Upper Kitchen Cabinets and Open Shelves
Laci painted a mural of abstract florals that shows off her trademark style.
Shop for black bar stools
Shop for black bar stools
Just off the kitchen is a bright and airy sunroom. Laci says she looks forward to afternoons and evenings spent in this room and the kitchen. “Making a Manhattan, cooking dinner, playing music and watching Kota, our son, run all around us singing or watching a movie he loves and sporadically asking if dinner is ready yet. Every day at this time I’m reminded that this little house is more than enough for us,” she says.
Laci’s paintings are found throughout the home. Here in the living room, her abstract art pops against the white walls.
Laci’s paintings are found throughout the home. Here in the living room, her abstract art pops against the white walls.
During the design process, the couple challenged themselves to think outside the box, Laci says. “Just because we live in Nashville and Bryan is in the music industry doesn’t mean that a painting of a guitar should be on our wall,” she says. “I love things that are personal, rather than random items that seem as though they were all bought over the weekend.”
In daughter Sunday’s nursery, Laci kept a neutral color palette, enhanced by the white wood floors.
Two of her paintings decorate the walls.
Two of her paintings decorate the walls.
The house originally had just two bedrooms, but when Laci found out she was pregnant with their second child, the couple decided to add extra square footage. They reached out to Rosanbalm Homes, which helped them create their dream master suite. The couple want their home to reflect their creativity while still respecting the character of the house.
The house, built in 1900, was originally in Leiper’s Fork, a village about 30 miles south of Nashville. It was later physically moved to the heart of downtown Franklin.
Here, Laci and Bryan are pictured on their bed with Sunday, Kota and dog Ruby.
The house, built in 1900, was originally in Leiper’s Fork, a village about 30 miles south of Nashville. It was later physically moved to the heart of downtown Franklin.
Here, Laci and Bryan are pictured on their bed with Sunday, Kota and dog Ruby.
A studio space was a must-have for Laci, but with the new baby and the lack of extra bedrooms, she decided to transform a small area of the master bedroom into her workspace.
14 Home Studios That Nurture Creativity and Art
14 Home Studios That Nurture Creativity and Art
After: Laci and Bryan picked out everything themselves for the new master bath, from the fixtures and hardware to the flooring. They wanted the style to be simple and as timeless as possible and went with primarily white finishes. The white hexagon floor tile and square wall tile features a contrasting dark grout. Below the pedestal sinks is a rug that Laci designed in collaboration with Anthropologie in 2018.
Shop for pedestal sinks
Shop for pedestal sinks
The couple replaced the corner bathtub with a classic claw-foot tub. Laci frequently wonders what her walls would say if they could talk. “The age of the home is a reminder of where this house has been, that it’s seen a lot of life,” she says. “And then we get to add more life to it, like markings on the walls of when our children grow in height. If a house has the potential to tell a story, then I want mine to be an open book.”
My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph creative, personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. Share your home with us and see more projects.
More on Houzz
See more home tours
Find a general contractor
Shop for claw-foot bathtubs
My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph creative, personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. Share your home with us and see more projects.
More on Houzz
See more home tours
Find a general contractor
Shop for claw-foot bathtubs
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You have done a fine job on your house. I love the paintings. I just have to comment on one possible negative - do you have that big big heavy mirror anchored to the wall in this kid & dog friendly house? Also those flat screen tv's that look like they are sitting on little spindly legs? I don't even know you but I wouldn't want one of your kids to pull one of those over on themselves.
Beautiful family, wonderful house. Great art. Please secure the mirror. Old ladies will give advice.