Text by Katie Wood
The Turner home combines touches of modern and vintage elements to create a comfortable and relaxed family retreat.
Driving up to Greg and Celia Turner’s charming Tennessee cottage-style farmhouse you’ll notice the street’s large arching trees, wide inviting spaces of green, and general lack of traffic making it all too easy to feel like you’re deep in the country. But the Turner’s street is something of a treasure because while it feels country, it’s no more than a stone’s throw away from major shopping retailers—a perfect combination for a modern family on the go. “It feels like the country, but it’s not,” Celia says. “As Nashville’s getting busier and busier, it’s nice to be able to come here and sort of retreat and feel like we’re in the country.”
She calls her home a modern farmhouse—touches of vintage and funky eclectic finds are dappled throughout—reflecting each family member’s bright personality. Before the couple purchased the home in 2001, they were living in the house next door. “I literally feel like we moved over here with a John Deere tractor,” Celia says with a laugh. Tackling the majority of renovations when they first moved, the house has since grown with the family. “Over the years as our family grew and the ages changed, we’ve changed things to fit our family lifestyle,” she says, noting they really haven’t added on space, “We’ve just reconfigured areas.”
Small, intimate seating areas and living spaces found just inside the doorway feel both comfortable and polished and ready for conversation. Continuing through to the kitchen, the Turners transformed three small rooms into one beautiful gathering place. Small rooms with cozy, eclectic details make this house perfect for intimate gatherings. Greg made the concrete kitchen island and found in the basement the original upper cabinets that were later stripped and used as inspiration for the kitchen’s vibrant color scheme. He also built the dining table from wooden shelves original to the house, and got the striking green chairs from his elementary school. “I’m still not tired of it,” Celia says of her stainless steel, modern farmhouse kitchen.
The Turners continually open their home for dinners and church groups, and as a place for their children and their friends to enjoy. But with a lack of any large rooms inside, the side patio and back porch serve as outdoor living areas. “The porch is always shady, and I enjoy spending time out there, even when it’s just me,” Celia says. It makes a perfect place to entertain or simply retreat with a good book. Beyond the porch is a quaint guest cottage that Celia uses as her art studio, a barn that’s been dubbed “the boys club,” and a pool.
From its front door to the back porch, the Turner’s house is a home always open to friends and family. “We want people to feel real comfortable here; it’s not pretentious, it’s just us,” Celia says. “One of the biggest compliments recently came from my 18-year-old daughter’s friend who said to me, ‘Your house has such a good vibe.’ I think it’s just a good reflection of both Greg and me and the things we value and enjoy.”
Order your copy of our Spring 2017 issue today!
