Houzz Tours
My Houzz: A 1915 Nashville Craftsman for Making Music and Art
A singer-songwriter couple’s casually chic home has room for both their businesses
Maher shares her home with boyfriend Daniel Parks, also a musician, and their dog, Booker.
The living room was the first room Maher finished, because she already owned all of the furniture from her previous one-bedroom apartment. She spends a lot of time here, so she added a lot of houseplants to make the space cozy.
The ottoman was converted from her grandmother’s old sewing box from the 1960s, and one of Maher’s original prints hangs above the armchair.
Art print: Wink Wink Paper Co.; lamp: Big Dipper arc floor lamp, CB2
The ottoman was converted from her grandmother’s old sewing box from the 1960s, and one of Maher’s original prints hangs above the armchair.
Art print: Wink Wink Paper Co.; lamp: Big Dipper arc floor lamp, CB2
Maher says the first thing she did when she moved in was hang this floating shelf in her living room. “It was a really simple and cheap project,” she says. “I got some screw-in ceiling hooks from Home Depot, along with rope and a board cut to the length of the windowsill. I cut the rope in half, tied the center of each rope to a hook, then tied a knot toward the bottom of the [rope] where I wanted the board to hang. Finally, I slipped the board through the loops and added the plants.”
Maher’s guitars hang on the wall next to the credenza, which was a vintage find.
Ladder: Bamboo ladder, Amazon
Ladder: Bamboo ladder, Amazon
The closet in the living room serves as Maher’s organization space for her business. She says having different work spaces for her and her boyfriend is important. “I really like spreading out my artwork on the dining room table and being able to hear Dan practicing guitar in the guest room,” Maher says. “The house has a really calm, slow vibe about it that I love. There are lots of nooks and crannies, and different places for you to escape to for a change of scenery, which I think is really vital to your creativity when you spend basically all of your time at home.”
Maher says she had no idea what to do with the entryway space when she first moved in. “It was suggested that we could put our couch and TV in here and call it the living room so that the room next to it, the current living room, could be used as a third bedroom instead,” she says. “Since it’s such a small space, using it as an entryway made more sense.”
Table: Terrace console, West Elm; mirror: Infinity 36-inch round brass wall mirror, CB2
Table: Terrace console, West Elm; mirror: Infinity 36-inch round brass wall mirror, CB2
Maher’s favorite thing about the entryway is her blue velvet sofa from West Elm. She watched it online and waited for it to go on sale before making the splurge.
Sofa: Esme sofa, West Elm
Sofa: Esme sofa, West Elm
The dining room wall is one of the first things you see when entering the home through the front door. Maher knew she wanted to add some dramatic flair by painting it black. The pink crystal chandelier belonged to her mother, who found it at an estate sale when Maher was 9. When Maher moved to Nashville, her mother gave it to her. She says, “I’m a little obsessed with it.”
Rug: Mashad design rug, eSaleRugs
Rug: Mashad design rug, eSaleRugs
The guest bedroom functions as both a guest room and Parks’ practice room and office. The room contains instruments and furniture from her old apartment and their parents.
Console: Rolling console table, World Market; rug: vintage
Console: Rolling console table, World Market; rug: vintage
Maher built the desk in the guest room several years ago. She salvaged the wood from Woodstock Vintage Lumber in Nashville. “They let me walk their lumberyard and pick out this piece of reclaimed wood myself, which they then cut down and sealed for me,” she says. “All I had to do was attach the legs, which I ordered from Hairpinlegs.com.” The piece cost about $350 in materials to make.
The kitchen was a huge selling point when buying the house. “It’s not the sleek and minimalist all-white kitchen that I thought I wanted, but I really like the warmth of this room, it turns out,” Maher says. “The black countertops are dramatic, like the black wall in the dining room.”
The master bedroom is the largest room in the house; it was an addition made sometime in the 1950s or ’60s.
Nightstands: Midcentury nightstand, West Elm
Nightstands: Midcentury nightstand, West Elm
Because the master bedroom is so private and peaceful, Maher’s piano is also in this space. “It’s a great place to write songs, and the acoustics are wonderful,” she says. The homeowner also loves the little reading area tucked away in the corner of the room. “The shelves hold a few precious pictures of my grandmother that Grandpa took, plus a few books on meditation and self-help. It’s a nice place to go to relax and read, or write in a journal,” she says.
Pouf: Wool White Pouf, CB2; side table: OrWa Designs, Etsy; chair: vintage
Pouf: Wool White Pouf, CB2; side table: OrWa Designs, Etsy; chair: vintage
The master bath is relatively large and a nice space to relax in after a long day.
The fireplace in the master bath is one of Maher’s favorite parts of the house. “We think this room was part of the original master bedroom, which would have extended into the current laundry room. I’m really glad the contractor was able to leave this little touch when he remodeled the house,” she says.
My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph creative, personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. Share your home with us and see more projects.
More home tours: Apartments | Small Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | All
My Houzz is a series in which we visit and photograph creative, personality-filled homes and the people who inhabit them. Share your home with us and see more projects.
More home tours: Apartments | Small Homes | Colorful Homes | Contemporary Homes | Eclectic Homes | Farmhouses | Midcentury Homes | Modern Homes | Ranch Homes | Traditional Homes | Transitional Homes | All
Who lives here: Holley Maher and Daniel Parks, and their Great Pyrenees-Rottweiler mix, Booker T. Bones
Location: Germantown neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee
Size: 1,900 square feet (177 square meters); three bedrooms, two bathrooms
Year built: 1915; remodeled in 2015
Holley Maher bought her Craftsman-style home in 2015 and was so smitten with its architectural charm that she was willing to take on its unconventional layout as a design challenge. The home was built in 1915 and had gone through small additions and remodels over the years before the biggest remodel in 2015, right before Maher, a songwriter and illustrator and owner of Wink Wink Paper Co., bought it. “I’m assuming that at one time, the house was essentially a long hallway with rooms off each side, like many late Victorian-early Craftsman-era homes. Now, however, the spaces carved out in the house are a little more ambiguous.”
Sofa: West Elm; coffee table: Orchard Tables; area rug: Sweater Wool Rug, West Elm; see more area rugs