Mountain Mist

Flat Rock renovation is full of soft color and earthy textures

Atop a gleaming, hand-carved, heavy wood console in the generously sized entry foyer of Crystal Matthews’ home in Flat Rock is a delicate porcelain ginger jar, painted in soft hues of greens and blues. It’s a lovely piece that catches the eye of arriving guests, just as it caught Matthews’ shortly after she purchased the property in November 2022.

“When I do a project, I need to find one thing that inspires me and then I take off from there,” she says. “I was walking through Ash’s showroom and my eye kept landing on this ginger jar. That became the inspiration for the main level, and we took off from there.”

Ash is Ashley Smith, interior designer and owner of Benson & Babb Interiors; his showroom is in downtown Hendersonville, but when the two first crossed paths 20 years ago, B&B was in north Hendersonville and Matthews was desperately seeking a design spark for the log home she and her late husband were building in Saluda. It was intended as a second residence for the Florida couple.

“I went all over the region, from Black Mountain to Waynesville, and was just stuck and frustrated,” she remembers. “I was looking for Hunter Douglas blinds, and my builder told me he ordered his through Benson & Babb. I walked into the shop and knew I had found my people. I literally bought my living room off the floor that day, and from then on, we’ve done everything together.”

Smith has a similar memory from a different point of view. “Crystal walked into my showroom without an appointment 20 years ago. We chatted and she said, ‘I want everything you have.’ I said ‘Yes, ma’am’ — and we haven’t stopped since that day.”

Over those two decades, Smith and B&B interior designer Lynn Brookshire worked with Matthews on several homes in Florida. When she decided to sell the log house for something smaller, easier to take care of, and closer to Hendersonville, she headed to the King Street showroom to meet with Smith.

“Crystal was ready for a fresh start,” Smith says. “She wanted something very different from the Saluda place, something lighter. That ginger jar really was the jumping-off point, particularly when it came to color.”

Matthews admits it was a departure from her predilection for reds. “I’ve always been drawn to reds but wanted to stay away from them on the main level. We wanted to blur the lines between the living room and the outdoors through that big wall of windows.”

The location and the floorplan sold Matthews, and she was confident that by working with Smith and Brookshire — and finding her design talisman — the nearly 35-year-old house could be transformed.

First, it was stripped bare, then they hit the basics — scraping the popcorn ceiling clean, replacing the very dated front door, painting, refinishing the hardwoods, replacing other flooring, adding new countertops and light fixtures. Smith redesigned and enlarged the island in the kitchen, and in the basement — which is intended for use by guests — they added a wet and a dry bar.

The existing handrail extending from the stunning stone fireplace in the living room and around the stairwell to the basement had to go. “Nothing bothered me more than that rail,” Matthews says with a laugh. “It was in my face, and I was ready to drywall the stairwell just to make it go away.”

A console table with interesting ironwork emulating vines saved the day. “I loved the look and asked Ash and Lynn if we could make a handrail like that.”

Smith knew a guy — blacksmith Bill Crowell, owner of Saluda Forge — and after some tweaks, Matthews says the finished product is now her favorite thing in the house.

The 106-inch green velvet sofa ordered from Sherrill Furniture Company in Hickory anchors the great room, and the area rug holds the greens and blues of the ginger jar, adding some gold that picks up the frame of the two round tables. East Tennessee artist Jennifer Austin Jennings is a favorite of Smith’s, and three of her landscape paintings — in the foyer, beside the dining-room table, and over the bed in the primary — add to what he calls the mountain spirit. “Her work is almost ethereal: the waterfalls, the mountain mist, the soft colors.”

The colors in the primary bedroom — gray, eggplant, and gold — are found in the Jennings painting, the custom pillows, and the European return-iron drapery rods. 

Matthews gets her splash of red and orange in the basement living area, which Smith says is more casual and fun than the main level. The guest bedroom is loaded with texture and whimsical touches, including metal sconces and twigs on either side of the bed.

Though she enjoys experiencing the seasons change from the balcony, Matthews says she doesn’t have to leave the living room to be in nature. “It’s like being in a tree house when you look out the windows. It all flows so seamlessly from indoors to out. It came together beautifully.” 

Benson & Babb Interiors, 300 North King St., Hendersonville, 828-693-4909, bensonandbabbinteriors.com.