Chip Pankey
The family likes to entertain in their stylish sunroom throughout the year, even in the winter months.
Jim and Karen Avery built their French-inspired stucco home in an upscale neighborhood in Cordova 19 years ago. They happily raised their three daughters there, but once the girls were “out the door” with families of their own, Karen decided it was time for a change. Since her taste was always somewhat traditional, she sought help in creating a new look for her interior décor.
Then, by great good fortune, Avery and Rachel Gray met each other, clicked immediately, and developed what was to become a beautiful working relationship. Gray is the owner of Rachel Gray Interior Design and Consulting, located on South Main, and is well known for her versatile and unique modern designs, into which she injects proper lighting and scale, amazing artworks, antiques, and special “found” objects. Her style is eclectic but is always reflective of her clients’ wishes.
Gray pays careful attention to fabrics, furniture layout, and color, and is influenced by the work of fashion designers, as well as by interior design professionals. Most years, she travels to the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina to study. She loves woodworking and has designed tables and other furniture pieces, and her artistic talents include wire weaving. I’ve read that her guiding principles are “authenticity, functionality, longevity — all with a healthy dose of adventure,” along with, from what I have observed, a dash of drama!
Karen Avery says she really loves Gray’s decorative “eye,” and the designer was only too happy to help her new client begin a new decorative chapter. What started as a project to recover one bench soon evolved into redecoration of the entire house. Avery is quick, though, to say that Gray never pushed her, and they took their time with “baby steps” along the way.
For the most part, the colors Gray has used are neutrals, although she introduces pops of color and texture whenever she can. Her mission was, in a sense, to “clean up lines and replace more ornate pieces with simpler ones.” Gray believes that, in general, “good designers place pieces that move your eye through the room.” Avery and Gray both love the work of local artist Jeri Ledbetter, and now a total of five of her paintings hang on the walls of the home — all bought through Linda Ross at the L Ross Gallery.
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The view looking through the archway into the home’s handsome living room.
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Stephen Jerkins
A neutral couch with textured pillows and the use of elongated, golden sconces exemplify Gray’s high style.
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Stephen Jerkins
Rachel Gray, interior designer extraordinaire.
In the living room, Gray designed the custom-made sofa and chose to keep the antique chest, and, of course, the piano was non-negotiable (Avery plays). In the dining room, there is a wooden sculpture that belonged to Gray, but Avery lobbied to acquire it — and she finally won. (As Gray says, “the client always wins.”) It took a year to find just the right dining table, which was made in Mexico and is a non-traditional oval — a shape which Gray likes to use “to soften edges.” The Art Deco sideboard is a new piece.
The adjacent sunroom has a bar, and Avery says this is where the family does most of their entertaining — even in December’s cooler weather. A rustic wood piece gives warmth to the room (as do the cocktails served!).
In the downstairs cozy, light-filled master bedroom, there are two paintings by the late Richard Knowles, a local favorite of both Avery and Gray. The furnishings also include a custom headboard, a cut-velvet covered bench, blackout linen drapes, and of course a fluffy rug for Higgins, the family’s energetic little dachshund, to roll around on. Bedside tables do not have to match, according to Gray, and in this room one of those tables is an antique chest. The pillow is an English textile of blue and white silk velvet, and the flooring is tobacco-stained hardwood.
The kitchen/keeping room area has a travertine stone floor. Gray says “she plays around with ceiling colors” to add warmth, especially in large rooms, and used functional gray by Sherwin Williams on the kitchen ceiling. The mohair sofa in the keeping room area is custom, and the coffee table is one of the few pieces that the homeowner had previously that were kept. There are also two Jeri Ledbetters in the room. Avery decided she was “tired of drapes,” and solar shades were used for the keeping room to give it a cleaner look. There is a somewhat more utilitarian wing downstairs that we did not photograph, which contains the laundry room, office, and poolroom, with a stone floor that Avery says her eight “dripping wet” grandchildren cannot hurt.
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The view looking through the archway into the home’s handsome living room.
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The beautifully landscaped back of the property with pool and towering trees.
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The clean, modern look of the kitchen/keeping room is warmed by the mohair-upholstered sofa and the large, colorful Ledbetter painting.
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The handsome covered patio provides additional living space — weather permitting.
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The bed in this sophisticated and serene first-floor master bedroom is flanked by two Richard Knowles paintings.
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The centerpiece of the dining room is a “non-traditional” oval dining table, which is meant to soften the edges of the room.
As is often the case, designer and client have become very good friends; it was a pleasure to take the time to chat with them over a glass of wine when our work was done. Karen told us that her husband, Jim, has a dental practice (Avery, Meadows, Patel and Page), and that, in his younger days, he was an offensive lineman for the Vanderbilt University football team. In terms of décor, Jim Avery was always a traditionalist; however, according to his wife, “he came around” and loves the new look of his home’s interior.
The multitalented Gray explained she is a busy mother of two living in Midtown and that she loves to cook. She told me that her downtown office space once belonged to movie-maker Craig Brewer, so clearly there must be scads of artistic karma in those walls. One of her favorite quotations is from French writer Emile Zola. It goes like this: “If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.”
Words to live by and a fitting endnote to our visit to the beautiful Avery home!
