There are certain things one comes to expect when envisioning a traditional, upscale family home. There are standard elements: tranquil suburban setting, sprawling residence and three-car garage, all accessed via a long driveway bordered by manicured lawns. But that’s not what you find as you walk past the shops and restaurants up the stone stairs of a venerable old commercial building in downtown Hendersonville.
But on the landing halfway up the interior staircase, it hits you. Suddenly there is plush carpet underfoot and a chandelier overhead that has far too much personality for a place of business. A few more steps and you find yourself transported into the great room of a gracious residence — worthy of any palatial property — two floors up on Main Street.
It seems as though it’s always been so. Everything about the home feels well established: the richness of the Brazilian cherry floors; the congenial groupings of comfortable furnishings; the tender collections of family memorabilia. But when Gayle Farrar first saw the place it was anything but homey. It was, in fact, just 2,100 square feet of raw space. “The front door was covered in plywood and secured with some old school locks,” Gayle recalls. “It was dreadful. But I had an epiphany. I called my husband and said ‘Honey, I’m so excited. We’re going to sell our house.’”
To his credit, her husband, Dr. Joe Farrar, agreed. The couple had lived in Haywood Forest for 17 years. Their home sat high on a hill overlooking the lake below — a charming setting, one that many would not deliberately choose to leave. “I’ve always had a love affair with Main Street,” says Gayle. “I knew it could be amazing. Lots of people thought that we had lost our minds, but I’m not afraid of change and adventure.”
The conversion may have seemed an impossible mission, but the Farrars had a secret weapon. Two, actually: a go-to, hands-on structural magician and an interior designer who understood their vision and priorities.
The couple had a long-standing relationship with Paul Taylor, a Hendersonville contractor who relishes challenges. “Ordinary projects don’t interest me so much,” says Taylor. “I love to help take something that’s nothing and to make something special of it.”
Working with a rough architectural layout, they began to envision a floor plan that would accommodate daily living and entertaining areas for the Farrars, an established suite for each of their two grown children and a separate mother-in-law apartment. What at first appeared to be ample space suddenly wasn’t quite enough. So when the adjoining building unexpectedly came on the market, the Farrars purchased it and broke through the shared wall, incorporating the additional 2,300 square feet into their master plan.
As the basic framework of the rooms began to take shape, the Farrars realized that this abundant space would require a unifying aesthetic. “I’d never worked with an interior designer before,” Gayle explains, “but I’d seen Harry Deaton’s work at a friend’s home and it impressed me.
“I didn’t want a place that looked like a showroom,” Gayle continues. “I envisioned a home that my family could come back to — a place where we could gather. I wanted a designer who could incorporate our treasured things with the new. Harry seemed to know just how to do that.”
Deaton’s challenge was two-fold: to imbue the loft with a welcoming, domestic ambiance without sacrificing the history and personality of the space itself. As the renovation continued, Taylor set aside the salvaged materials, many of which Deaton integrated into the new design.
An inviting fireplace was constructed using bricks recovered from the demolition of the joining wall and strategic elements of the structures were left intact, including the serendipitously decorative support beams in the great room and much of the brick and plaster on the walls. One of the buildings had suffered a minor fire at one point, leaving a smoky grey haze on some of the brick, which Deaton chose to retain, sealing it with polyurethane.
To complement the existing surfaces, faux painter Jim Bernard was brought in to add texture and depth, applying multi-layered color to the new walls, giving them a patina of age. In keeping with a sense of provenance and permanence, Deaton chose a Tuscan palette of rich autumnal shades — green, gold and wine — and relaxed, yet classic furnishings in a mix of fine and rustic woods.
Arranged into discrete areas within the expansive great room and punctuated by Gayle’s concert grand piano (a “thanks-for-your-support” gift from Joe after he’d completed his schooling and residencies), the groupings of furniture define the activity areas — cooking, dining, conversation, games — without the interruption of walls. “When the family is here, it allows us all to be separate, doing our own thing, but still be together,” says Gayle.
And when the rest of the gang isn’t in town, Gayle and Joe have plenty of diversions to choose from…right outside their door. “The loft is very low maintenance,” Gayle notes. “It’s lock and leave. We love being downtown — we love the restaurants, we love the merchants and we love it when we hear that others have bought along Main Street. We know it has something special.”
For the Farrars, that something special is called “Home.”
Local Resources: Harry Deaton Interiors – interior design and window treatments; Paul Taylor Construction – builder and custom cabinets; Jackson Steel – metalwork; Shealy Electric – lighting; Merrell Paint & Decorating: paints and glazes; Bernard’s Fauxtastic Finishes – faux finishes; Rudy’s Furniture – custom dining table; Ferguson Bath & Kitchen Gallery – plumbing fixtures; Mountain Marble & Granite – granite countertops; Dreamweaver – accessories.