A client’s art collection inspires and challenges designer Jessica Maros on an East Nashville renovation

By Hollie Deese
Photography by Justin March

Self-professed Navy tumbleweed Ann Zumwalt and her husband, Michael Coppola, are both busy retirees. Most recently from Massachusetts, they were visiting their daughter in Boca Raton when they decided to move to Nashville.

They’d been thinking about where to move next, and Music City checked all the boxes: diverse, walkable, cultural and artistic, with great restaurants and access to an airport and good medical care. Add in a tax-friendly environment and four distinct seasons and it was a no-brainer for the couple.

They found an East Nashville home for sale online, contacted a friend for a Realtor referral (Jenny and Brianna Morant with Oak Street Group) and scooped it up. Then, Morant recommended designer Jessica Maros to help with the interiors before they moved in.

Maros, a musician with the band Escondido and others, had been doing commercial and residential interiors for years when she connected with the couple. She and Zumwalt hit it off immediately, and she was excited to work on the old Victorian home.

“She just wanted to start new,” Maros says. “She had the only thing she wanted to keep, and, like a hundred pieces of artwork, and I got to go through everything. And there was some pretty amazing stuff.”

Though she’s a longtime art admirer and collector, Zumwalt says she has no innate creative talents or gifts. “But the world needs people like me to admire what they do,” she says. “I’ve always been attracted to art, and along the way I have found things that I liked and purchased them without any regard to who painted it. And there’s a couple of artists who are somewhat better known than others.”

So when it came to collaborating with Maros, they agreed the art shouldn’t just shine — it should push the design in interesting and unexpected ways.

“I’m not a color person, per se,” says Maros. “I do love color, but it’s not always my go-to. But I don’t design for me. I design for you. I want to get to know who you are, what
you love — and then I will make it beautiful.”

And according to Zumwalt, Maros delivered.

“It was unbelievable,” Zumwalt says. “There were pieces of art that I never would’ve hung where she did. And she does it without thinking. It’s like gravity pulls her to the wall with the artwork.”

Maros used pieces of the couple’s collection in every room. Zumwalt thought there were more pieces than Maros could have possibly ever used, but Maros found a way to use them, even on some slanted walls upstairs that Zumwalt never would have thought of.

“And it’s fabulous,” she says.

Maros would find one art piece for each room and build the room around it. “They really trusted and respected my opinions, and it
just was a good flow,” Maros says. “Magic happened.”

There was one difficult piece, in particular, by Tom Thayer: “This Life is Nothing More Than Waiting for the Sky to Open.” It’s big and red and bold — not exactly the easiest piece to decorate with. But it was important to Zumwalt that it be on display in their home. They had gotten the piece when their oldest daughter, Lauren, was working
at an art gallery in New York City. She was dating the artist’s manager
at the time, and she called her parents to tell them there was a piece
she thought they would really like.

“We went to New York City, we saw it, we loved it, and then we purchased it,” she says. They had only had the piece for six months before they were contacted by the Whitney Museum of American Art
to include the piece in their 2012 Biennial. They even used a section
of the piece to advertise the show on taxi cabs all over the city.

“Michael and I just looked at each other and joked, ‘Oh! Maybe we
really are collectors.’”

And a piece that incredible and intense shouldn’t just hang over a couch, Maros thought. Instead of playing it safe and letting the art be the only bold focal point in the room, Maros doubled down and placed it over an equally intense graphic Pierre Frey wallpaper.

“The wallpaper didn’t take away from the painting, and the painting didn’t take away from the wallpaper,” Zumwalt says.

Maros says her clients spark the creativity, like when Zumwalt wanted to find a special place for an elephant figure she had. Maros had a little shelf made high up in one of the hallways — an unexpected place, but one that highlights the piece perfectly.

“And when you’re walking in the hallway toward her bedroom and you’re in the closet, above the door is this gorgeous art piece,” Maros says.

Each room evokes a different feeling for Zumwalt. The entryway evokes joy. Then, the primary bedroom brings calm, as does the living room. A hidden projector is tucked into the top of the arch of a built-in in the living room, and across the room a screen drops down over some architectural salvage pieces, for whenever they want to relax even more with a favorite movie. And in the bedroom, another TV is hidden when not in use.

“Adam Keifer, a bass player who used to be in my band, ended up making the staircase handles, which really pop in the home, and then did the built-in upstairs and the TV room.” Maros says. Reid Christopher did the living room projector, and Josh Rew did the hidden TV in the primary.

But the kitchen is a little more dynamic, with hardly any white in sight. They opted for green cabinets, bold wallpaper and gold hardware, with a massive chandelier over the island.

“I’ve always liked white kitchens, but now that we are retired, I decided to go 180 degrees,” Zumwalt says.
“And it’s just enchanting.”

In the dining room, a long light fixture hangs over the table, a piece Zumwalt purchased in Kips Bay and brought with her from Massachusetts.

“It’s probably one of the showstoppers of the house,” Maros says.

They have been in the home for two years now, and though Maros found a place for every piece in their collection, Zumwalt hasn’t stopped purchasing. So it’s a good thing they are getting ready to build a DADU (detached accessory dwelling unit) that will serve as
an art gallery annex.

“I’ve already told my husband there’s a particular artist that I really like,” she says. “I don’t know if I’m going to spend everything we have on the DADU, and then I can’t afford the art. But I’m always looking around for art. It’s just what kind of happens because there’s so many talented artists out there.”

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