House Beautiful teams up with Castle Homes for Whole Home Concept House

By Hollie Deese
Photography by Reed Brown

House Beautiful is bringing their Whole Home Concept House to Nashville this fall, showcasing a nearly 6,000-square-foot home that is a stunner while also promoting happier, healthier and smarter living.

“At House Beautiful, we believe your home should work for you — bringing you joy, helping you reconnect with family and recover from external stresses,” says Carisha Swanson, senior editor and market director. “This house will illustrate these concepts through layout, product and inspiration, providing actionable ideas that readers and visitors can implement in their own homes. I look forward to seeing this exceptional group of designers bring these ideas to life and transform these spaces into more than just beautiful rooms.”

The goals are to produce beautiful rooms with purpose and to create a home that contributes to your wellness, your peace of mind and your sense of place.

“It’s an amazing place,” says Alan Looney, owner of Castle Homes. “I think, hands down, it’ll be one of the best show houses this town has seen in years.”

Castle Homes’ design build team for the House Beautiful Whole Whole Concept House: from left, Rachel Haag, Brett Wright, Joy Huber, Heather Looney and Alan Looney.

Looney and the Castle team had been looking to host a National Symphony Showhouse like they had in 2015. They’d found a perfect lot in Belle Meade when they were approached by someone at House Beautiful magazine to do a show home. So a partnership was made, and Looney’s project became House Beautiful’s Whole Home Concept House, to benefit the Nashville Symphony.

The lot once had an old English cottage that was in disrepair and needed to be torn down, but not before it had inspired Looney and architect Kevin Coffey to do an English Arts and Crafts house.

When it came to selecting the interior designers, it was a collaboration between House Beautiful and Looney, with a mix of national designers and local collective Modern Remains, comprised of O’More alums Evan Millard, Betsy Trabue and Lauren Moore.

“When we had our initial phone call, they really emphasized that we would be the team from Nashville, representing Nashville. They wanted us to utilize Nashville talent and Nashville artists, so that was a very big focus in many of our designs,” Millard says.

Plus, they were excited to be able to give local artists like Jack Spencer, Meagan Little, Andrew McKellar, 5 String Furniture and EClan Design a little shine in their spaces.

“We love to use local artists,” Trabue says. “That’s a key component to our business.”

Vern Yip

Modern Remains, from left, Evan Millard, Lauren Moore and Betsy Trabue.

Other designers on the home include Vern Yip, Amy Berry, Barclay Butera, Joy Huber and Rachel Haag of Castle Homes, Chenault James, Dani Arps, Tavia Forbes and Monet Masters of Forbes+Masters, Kristine Paige of Jackson Paige Interiors and Matthew Quinn and Richard Anuszkiewicz of Design Galleria Kitchen & Bath Studio.

Quinn worked on the House Beautiful Kitchen of the Year in 2017 and then did the Whole Home in Atlanta version, the first one ever.

“I really wanted to push it to Nashville, because obviously I love Nashville — I’m building a design center there, moving an office there. So I really kept pushing the editorial staff to move it to Nashville, and they loved the idea. And we wanted it to have the personality of what we think Nashville is all about.”

Quinn’s Design Galleria did the kitchen and the master bath, while he personally designed the kitchen and the pantry. Anuszkiewicz, his lead designer who will run the Nashville showroom studio, designed the master bathroom.

“I think the wellness of the house just brings a different layer to it, maybe something that people don’t consciously think about. The types of materials that are used, thinking through the sustainability of the materials that are used, the VOC, the content, how it’s manufactured — really looking at it,” Quinn says.

For Looney, keeping all those voices working toward a cohesive design goal was a challenge, especially when the goal is to show off all you have — and everyone had wallpaper.

“You want to dazzle people,” Looney says. “It gives you a chance to really let your character and your personality shine. I mean, that’s what I’m looking for.”

House Beautiful’s 2019 Whole Home Concept House, powered by LG, is partnered with Signature Kitchen Suite, Benjamin Moore, Circa Lighting, Architectural Grille, Rocky Mountain Hardware, Stressless, Caesarstone, Castelle, Grothouse, Kohler, Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, Tempur-Sealy and The Tile Shop.

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