2. 38 NASHVILLELIFESTYLES.COM FALL/WINTER 2015
LITTLE HOUSE
Tall OrderAn interior designer takes on the monumental task of designing a guesthouse—as well as
the main home and party barn—for Luke Bryan’s new property.
BY KRISTIN LUNA. PHOTOS BY SHANNON FONTAINE.
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t takes a special kind of visionary to be up for craft-
ing three permanent structures comprising the estate of a musician as
prominent as Luke Bryan. Even more challenging is building a cohesive
compound in rural Williamson County that consists of new construction
yet has a weathered farmhouse feel to it, as if it were always a part of the
land. But Chad James was up for the challenge.
The Muscle Shoals, Ala. native has called Music City home since 1997,
though he spends an ample amount of time on the road traveling for work.
“I’ve loved Nashville ever since I was a kid,”James says.“I love that there
are four seasons, that it doesn’t get crazy cold or crazy hot, and I love the
outdoors.The economy is strong, there’s main industry, and the work-
force—there’s a group of talented individuals who come here with the idea
of what the ‘Nashville experience’is, and I’ve had success in seeking out
those people.”
In 2011, he recruited a handful of these creatives to start his own
design firm, Chad James Group. While the seven-man team is based
in Midtown, it serves clients all over the country. (At press time, CJG
was collaborating on 13 projects, only two of which were in Nashville.)
“We’re more than interior designers, we’re a lifestyles brand. Our clients
come to us because they want that experience,” James says. “On a Chi-
cago home we just finished, when [the clients] walked in, their clothes
were in the closet, there was candy in this dish, flowers in the vases, every
single bed had been made. Anything and everything that you need to
live your life was put in that house by CJG.That’s what we offer—we of-
fer more than architectural consulting and interior design; we offer that
service of a brand and of a lifestyle.”
In 2012, Luke and his wife Caroline became subscribers to this CJG
lifestyle, as well. Mutual acquaintances connected them with James, the
three hit it off on a blind lunch date, and the rest is recent history: The
Bryans liked James’style and direct business approach—”I’m a straight
shooter,”he admits—so much that they hired the firm as both the consul-
tant and interior designer for the project.
Because the farm, which sits on more than 150 acres, was going to
take a couple years to complete from concept to execution, James started
with the 1,800-square-foot guesthouse so the Bryan family could move
in while the 7,000-square-foot barn and just under 10,000-square-foot
main house were being built. Even though the three are separate entities,
they all mimic the same style and feel.“It’s definitely like a tapestry,”James
explains.“The barn, the guesthouse, and the main house all are woven
together by a common gold thread.When you see a big tapestry, you don’t
want it be all the same thread.There’s got to be that one odd color that
weaves it all together. And that’s how this happened.”
For James, in order to create a home, first there had to be a story.The
script that wrote itself in his head went like this: At one time, the property
housed a handful of buildings.There was a little farmhouse that was >>>
I
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originally by a primitive carpenter; all of the trim and
details are skillful, but simple. From there, the barn
happened next and has carpentry elements that are
similar to the guesthouse.The story continues, in
James’ head, when a small family living in this little
farmhouse decides to add a main house.The main
house—the finest quality of the three buildings—is
where they employed the master craftsman. “In my
head, I’m always telling that story, and that little
story seems to be of age and of how this property
came to be,” James says. “The way the guest house
was designed, it looks like it’s been sitting on this
property forever.”
Nailing the vision the Bryans had in mind for such
an extensive project wasn’t as tricky as it could have
been, as Luke was clear upfront about the feel the
property should exude.“One day, we were out there
and Luke said,‘Have you ever been to Blackberry
Farm? If you can make this farm look like Blackberry
Farm, I’ll be the happiest man on this planet,’”James
recalls. Luckily for the Bryans, James had spent many
Thanksgivings as a child at the East Tennessee resort
and was also a fan of the Farm’s design.When he pre-
sented the completed guesthouse to them after they
returned from vacation earlier this year, the Bryans
told James it was far beyond what they ever dreamed.
“I said,‘Does that meet the standard of Blackberry?’
and [Luke] said,‘Man, that’s even better than Black-
berry,’”James says.
The two-story structure has three bedrooms, two
bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen, an upstairs media
room, a front porch, and a screened-in porch on the
side.The walkway from the guesthouse leads down to
a catfish pond.
Luke named the property “Redbird”after his late
sister, with whom he was extremely close. (The Bryans’
beach house, which James also designed, is called
“Snowman”for Luke’s brother, who also passed away.)
For James, the redbird—“a sign that everything was
going to ok,”something his grandmother had always
told him—also hit close to home. It’s only fitting then
that every time he’s driven onto the property, James
has been greeted by a handful of redbirds.
When the designer began conceptualizing the
interior of the guesthouse, he reverted back to his own
upbringing.“There’s this dynamic of what we do that
has a contemporary edge to it, but yet there’s a root
of my passion in there.With the kitchen, there’s all
this planking that totally goes back to my child-
hood—this old house with these planked walls that
were encrusted with layer upon layer of paint. I believe
there is beauty in imperfection, and I interject that in
interiors all the time.
“It’s important to me that everything not look
‘Made in China’yesterday—or so sleek and refined,
because that’s not how we live,”he continues.“People
want it to be beautiful, but so many times we think
that means the mentality of the front room in Mom
and Dad’s house that you weren’t ever allowed to go
into.That’s not how we live today.We live in homes
where we utilize every bit of the space.”
While functionality is important to James, he
doesn’t believe in utilizing trends, but rather imple-
ments clean lines and builds his design scheme upon
lighting and background.“There’s a classic element
to that guesthouse that will never go out of style,”he
says.“Fabrics will go out of style, sure, but the founda-
tion of that house will never go out of style.”
Still, he was able to have some fun with the project,
even going against Caroline’s initial wishes to not use
taxidermy as a design element.“Sometimes clients will
say no to stuff and I know they don’t really mean no—
they just don’t understand how I’d use it,”he explains.
While the Bryans were on vacation, James called Luke
and said he’d found some things in the hunting room
he wanted to use.The singer told James that he was
a brave man—and that Caroline would never go for
that. But James knew what he was doing. He picked
the two most important deer mounts to Luke and his
collection of antlers, and worked them into the guest-
house. Luke and Caroline both loved it.“There’s a way
to do things so it doesn’t look macabre,”says James.
At the end of the day, James’goal was to create a
welcoming, homey environment for the four Bryans—
Luke, Caroline, and their two sons—since they will
reside in the guesthouse until their main home is
complete in the next year or two.“I’m this kid from
Alabama, and I love the whole cottage mentality,”
James says.“I want that farmhouse to be a place of
refuge for them [for now]. It’s a fun little house with a
lot of memories to be made.”
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41. Chad James Group developed the interior elevations, the
trim, the doors, and much more for the Bryans’ guesthouse.
“Basically, anything on the inside of the house that's aesthetic,
we've done it,” says James.
2. James’ design philosophy is to go heavy on the neutrals
and add a punch of color to jazz up a space. In the case of the
living room, he used a piece of art Luke bought Caroline early
in their relationship as inspiration for the color palette.
3. CJG had a hand in planning the exterior, such as how
the brick was laid. Before the Bryans moved in, James also
“outfi ted every single thing in there—except for their
clothing—right down to the shampoo,” he says. “The house
is definitely a efuge and a place not only where they're living
but they're having this amazing time with their boys. It's a fun
little house, a lot of memories to be made there."
4. Caroline was initially opposed to using Luke’s deer trophies
as décor, but James knew he could weave them into the
background in a subtle and tasteful way.
5. Luke and Caroline Bryan’s property eventually will be
expanded to include a guesthouse, a main house, a party
barn, and a catfish pond
6. Chad James in front of the Bryans’ new guesthouse.
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When envisioning the overall feel of Redbird, James aimed
to create a farm that felt “like it had always been a part of the
land” while outfi ting the inside with timeless furnishings. Next
up: He’ll tackle the design of the 7,000-square-foot barn.
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