Chip Pankey
This is a “great” Memphis home on so many levels that I hardly know where to begin. Located in the beautiful Hein Park neighborhood off North Parkway (near Rhodes College) and built in 1910, the house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Its stellar provenance is that until last year, it was the home of the late D’Army Bailey, famed civil rights activist, judge, and attorney, and his wife Adrienne. Today, it is being extensively renovated by new owner, Tom Crissey, a FedEx pilot, whose previous homes have been in Cooper-Young and Chickasaw Gardens. To add to all this, the exciting news is that the gorgeous furniture throughout the house is from Rachael Ray’s new home furnishings collection.
Courtesy of Diana Parrish Design and Photography
The back story is this. Crissey’s good friend, Michael Murray, is General Manager of Rachael Ray Home, and he enthusiastically jumped at the chance to be in charge of reimagining the house.
Of course, we all know that the multitalented, 48-year-old Rachael Ray is famous for her syndicated daytime television program, her 22 cookbooks and various cookware, Rachael Ray Every Day magazine, and her Nutrish line of dog and cat foods. But, she’s been more shy about sharing her longstanding passion for all things home design, having designed her own homes in Upstate New York and Greenwich Village. So, it was a very natural extension of her brand when she launched Rachael Ray Home in the spring of 2016.
Crissey will live in the home, although at the same time, in Murray’s words, it will serve as “a design lab” where he experiments with new concepts for Ray’s home furnishing collections, and as an event venue for major fundraisers. Murray tells me that Ray loves travel and she is also a self-described “music fanatic.” She is an advocate for children everywhere and, in fact, the home will be the site for an event in November to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. All of this makes Memphis a perfect fit for Rachael Ray.
Ray gave a shout-out to Murray in a recent cover story in USA Today Home Magazine as her “design partner.” He clearly loves his work, seeing himself as her “translator” — turning her design ideas into realities, although he admits that the pace is insane and that he basically lives in airport lounges.
Murray was in Memphis recently and kindly gave us a wonderful personal tour of the home, which is nearing completion. He told me he fell in love with renovating houses at an early age, and that he is a self-taught designer/builder whose mantra is “re-use, repurpose, and restore.”
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The extensive renovations to this vintage great home that he reeled off include turning the old porte-cochere (too narrow for today’s vehicles) into a sunporch/breakfast room and transforming the old dining room into a new modern kitchen. With a nod to the importance of aging in place, the former kitchen is now a downstairs bedroom. The old sunroom has been reborn as the media room, and the basement boiler room is a guest suite. The driveway was moved to the opposite side of the home, a pool is being added, and the coach house has become a guest house. All I can say is, “Whew!”
The expert work on the house is being done by those whom Murray calls “his buddies,” including Aguilar Construction and Kaiser Flooring, among many others. In the course of the project, he is partnering with Memphis’ own Worlds Away and Worlds Apart to accessorize the home. Also, I was told that Rachael Ray fell in love with Jack Robinson’s amazing celebrity studio portraits, several of which are in the house. These are available through the Jack Robinson Gallery on South Front Street, where Dan Oppenheimer is president.
Murray explained how the furnishings of the home will tell Ray’s design story, as every piece is a part of Rachael Ray Home and is manufactured by Legacy Classic Furniture and Craftmaster Furniture. Murray used three collections from Ray’s line, Highline, Soho, and Upstate, curating from a total of 130 pieces. To these will soon be added Rachael’s newest whole home collection, Cinema, youth furniture, and casual dining, as well as lighting and rugs. Ray’s furniture is available at Sensational Sofas in Germantown. In total, her furnishings are currently in more than 400 stores nationwide — with more to come — and are aimed at a middle-market price point and represent great values.
The historic old home is now so light and airy that it positively sparkles. The dark walnut floors were stained a light “greige color,” which is a favorite of Ray’s. The furniture is light as well, and the rooms seem to glow. Murray put quartzite on the fireplace surround, and he tells me he likes to mix contrasting colors and materials, such as “the metallic with the rough.” He always has three to five accessories on a table (a design tip!), and is an ardent advocate for the transformative powers of paint. His “go to” colors are Revere Pewter and Pure White by Benjamin Moore. As he likes to say, “Paint it and if it moves, paint it again.”
He also believes strongly (as does Rachael Ray) that you don’t have to be rich to live well or have a home that welcomes you the moment you walk in. Despite the home’s high taste levels, details such as unlined linen draperies and light fixtures available at typical big box retailers still abound.
I cannot resist using one of Ray’s most famous expressions to describe this beautiful great home: “Yum-o!” By the way, this is also the name of Rachael Ray’s nonprofit organization that empowers kids and their families to develop healthy relationships with food and cooking. She is an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, and now, I am happy to say, a friend of Memphis.
