A custom farmhouse is filled with elegance and era-correct touches

By Hollie Deese
Photography by Brian Bruzewski

A woman from Georgia met a man from Oklahoma on a ranch in Colorado, where they fell in love over their mutual passion to become teachers. Eventually Kelli Shipman did become a teacher, but Jason became a doctor instead and was matched with Vanderbilt. So, they came to Tennessee and moved into a little house in West Nashville.

Three kids and 10 years later, they moved into a much larger home in Franklin’s gated LaurelBrooke neighborhood, but it still wasn’t quite right.

“My husband, being from somewhat rural Oklahoma, really wanted some property where he could work with wood and dig a hole and all that good stuff you absolutely cannot do in LaurelBrooke,” Kelli jokes. “I prayed about it for years, because financially we were going to have to buy a piece of property, maybe an hour or more away.”

Those prayers were answered in a much better way when a friend in Hillsboro Valley alerted them to a property that was likely to become available. Kelli, now a teacher at Christ Presbyterian Academy just down the road, wrote the woman a letter. When the owner was, indeed, ready to sell, that letter put the Shipmans at the top of her list.

“She had a stack of letters from over the years from people putting them in her mailbox, so why did she choose my letter? Well, obviously it was God,” she says. “I had written about her barn, this beautiful barn on the property. And we have just felt so blessed.”

That barn was built in the ’60s by a man who had bought the 1950s property for himself and his wife, who ultimately refused to live that far from town. He sold it to the Underwoods, and after Mr. Underwood died, Mrs. Underwood responded to Kelli’s letter and sold her the home.

“We had really hoped to be able to renovate the original house to work for us, but we just couldn’t,” Kelli says. So, they hired architect Preston Shea of P. Shea Design to design a working farm home on the property. They wanted something that functioned for their family of five, provided the feel of a renovated farmhouse that had been there for generations, yet had luxurious touches and thoughtful design. The addition to the property was brought to life by builder Mike Stouffer.

“They wanted their furniture to be a lot of leather, kind of indestructible, because they were really going to live this farm life,” designer Anna Forkum said. “And then with the colors, we just played around with what she liked — the reds and that robin’s-egg blue.”

For standout wood pieces, like an oversized door with stained glass, Shipman turned to Leigh Skillington, at Franklin’s Karmal Skillington, to execute her vision. Skillington ended up doing a few other custom pieces in the home, like a hutch in the oversized kitchen to display dishes.

“I knew we wanted a big kitchen. Every house we lived in before, the kitchen was the size of a matchbox — even in LaurelBrooke,” Kelli says. “The sink is actually a replica of what was in the cottage because having drainboards is the best thing ever.”

Off the kitchen is a dumping zone era for when Jason or the kids — ages 18, 16 and 14 — come in with muddy boots, or one of the two dogs has muddy paws. Windows are strategically placed everywhere to soak in the beautiful views and natural light.

One room that tips the scales to total glam is the master bathroom, with standalone tub under an oversized chandelier that Kelli found. It reminded her of a tree.

But the work didn’t stop with the original cottage or new build. While they were working on getting all of their permits, their new neighbor came to them and said she had prayed about it and thought they should buy her house, too, so she could go live near her grandchildren. And, taking her cue, Kelli’s father bought that little stone house, which they lived in while their new home was being built.

The hope is that they have finally created something they have always dreamed of, while providing their children a place to call home if they ever feel called to come back.

“We are hoping that one day maybe God will bring one of our kids back and they can live in the house,” she says.

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