“I’m originally from South Florida,” says Richard Fast, “so I need to have light. Light … and water … I grew up around water.” He is standing in the airy, sun-drenched living room of his new home, watching the joggers and dog walkers circulate around Beaver Lake. “This house has everything I need. It’s light, it’s bright, and I love the view.” But this wasn’t so just six months earlier, when Fast and his partner, Eric Hardy, purchased the 1949 vernacular rancher. “It was pretty gloomy,” he admits with a wry smile. “Dark pine walls and pine floors. Little chopped-up rooms.”
It was an estate property; well maintained, but the elderly couple who had lived in it for several decades hadn’t made any significant changes. That suited Fast fine. “One of the things I loved about it was that it still had so many period details, like the original steel windows,” explains the interior designer. “Everyone tried to talk me into replacing them, but they add such character.”
The prospect of updating the dowdy structure didn’t intimidate him. After all, that’s what he does in his firm, Greeson & Fast. The home’s many unaltered Mid-Century features provided a jumping-off point for the creative process, and the disciplines of his trade allowed him to re-imagine and reconfigure the space with astounding speed, efficiency, and style.
Fast collaborated with Marc Propst, president of WNC DesignBuild. “We’ve worked together many times before, so he knew that I could make decisions in a minute. Fortunately, since it was an estate, we had access to the house for a month before we closed. We ordered the kitchen cabinets before we moved in — half of the decisions were made before the final papers were signed. In three months, the house was gutted, remodeled, decorated, and we were in.”
Some of the work was cosmetic: painting the somber paneling in the main area a soothing blue-gray and the pink-and-yellow, striated wood wall coverings in the rear of the house in a sophisticated taupe. The wood floors were in fairly good condition, requiring only minimal refinishing by Dewey Phillips of Phillips Hardwood Resources, who applied a light-gray wash with a satin finish that evokes the soft tones of driftwood.
Structural changes were a bit more involved. A 1960s addition that connected the house to the garage was demolished to reveal the original covered porch. A small window and solid entry door that opened into the dining area were replaced with a double sliding-glass door to visually join the indoor and outdoor spaces. Faded aluminum siding was stripped from the exteriors to reveal cedar siding and red brick, which Fast swathed in a deep gray hue, punctuated with snappy white detailing.
Inside, a wall that once confined the cramped and dated kitchen was removed to create an open great room, and Nathan Hoeh of Hoeh Works installed banks of crisp white custom cabinets with an extended island, all clad in mottled-gray leathered granite from Carolina StoneWorks. Glossy-white ceramic tile, straight stacked for a contemporary feel, covers the kitchen walls, reflecting ambient light and adding pristine appeal.
The master bath was reconfigured by borrowing space from the adjacent bedroom, which, in turn, became a cozy, grass-cloth-lined office with sliding doors opening to the garden. The office window was removed and repurposed in a wrap-around bank of corner windows in the master bedroom.
To provide ventilation and ambient light in the master bath, a remote-control skylight was added above the tile and glass shower stall. “It’s amazing,” notes Fast. “If you happen to leave it open, it closes automatically if it begins to rain.”
As the living space was being established, Fast set about editing his extensive collection of furnishings and objets d’art to suit the compact footprint. “I told Eric that he could get rid of anything he didn’t want,” Fast recalls. “I had a lot of 18th- and 19th-century gilt pieces. We let go of the gilt.”
What was retained included exquisite examples of Middle and Far Eastern art, gathered by Fast or gifted to him by his mother (both are avid and adventurous travelers). These are intermingled with contemporary works by local artists, meticulously tailored upholstered pieces, Mid-Century-inspired Bolier furnishings of rich rosewood and polished nickel, and the eclectic-yet-functional elements that reveal the designer’s trained eye.
The kitchen/dining area is presided over by two vintage stainless-steel-and-glass pharmacy cabinets that display some of Fast’s family china and glassware. A multi-functional, expanding antique pub table stands in for an island. “When we’re entertaining, everybody tends to hover in the kitchen. I created an area where we could put out appetizers and our friends could stand around and drink wine … a gathering space that has them near to, but not actually in the kitchen.” A nearby round rosewood table, backed by a cozy banquette and crowned with a sea-urchin-spine chandelier, offers stylish yet casual seating.
Interesting textures and patterns abound, yet the home feels serene. “There’s a fine line for me between having a place that’s interesting and a place that’s cluttered,” Fast explains. “I like great pieces, but I need my eye to rest between those pieces. I’d rather have one thing that’s wonderful than ten things that are just OK.”
Fast settles into the corner sofa and gazes out over the lake. “You know, the biggest challenge for me was convincing myself that this was my house. I do this for a living, so in many ways it was just another job … until we moved in and it started sinking in.”
He smiles. “And then I realized, wow … this is our home.”