Rescued from Ruin: See a Remarkable Tennessee Farmhouse Transformation

Most folks would have called this a tear-down. The 1880s farmhouse north of Nashville near the Kentucky border was crumbling from roof to foundation. A sagging addition had been tacked on in the 1980s, mattresses and garbage trailed from the yard to the porch, and vines grew through broken windows. Words don’t quite do the scene justice, so let the before photos explain:

“This family had always wanted to buy property in that area because they’d been able to trace their ancestry there,” says the interior designer Sarah Stacey. “When they stumbled across this lot for a good price, they bought it, planning to tear the house down and build a new one. But then when they looked into it more, they realized this farmhouse was actually built by an ancestor of theirs.” The couple changed course, making preserving this home their personal mission as they neared retirement.

Enter the Sarahs—Sarah Stacey and Sarah Capps—two interior designers at the firm Sarah Stacey Interior Design. The duo searched for the positives, overlooking the sumac creeping up behind the beadboard and the crumbling foundation. “From the stone fireplace to the mantels, so much of this farmhouse was purpose-built with local materials,” Capps says. “The house was designed and built with function, and it honors the place—when all the windows are open, the air just flows through and the house cools itself. The couple wanted to honor all that, but they also wanted to be able to retire there and live comfortably.”

With the design team at their side, the family decided to preserve as much as possible while layering in period-appropriate millwork and antique furniture, plus the comforts of modern living (meaning: an HVAC system.) That process that took nearly five years from when they purchased the home in 2020.

“It had been vacant after an almost hoarding situation, so they hauled off seven or eight trailers of just trash,” Capps says. One team dug up the foundation and raised the house, settling it on a modern foundation. Your jaw just might drop when you see what else the owners and their team accomplished:

The team reworked the layout to include more windows for natural light.

The fireplaces, which Capps calls “absolutely stunning,” were the designers’ guideposts. “They’re oversized for the style of the house,” she says, “but they were originally that way and we kept them all.” The client himself enjoys working with his hands, so he used bricks and wood found on-site to repair the fireplaces and mantels.

In the main living area, the designers turned fragments from a vintage overshot blanket into pillows, and placed a tapestry from a Paris flea market over the restored fireplace. The chic-again cabbageware plates are a cheeky nod to old-school Southern trends coming full circle.

The designers added a powder room and extended the kitchen, which is now the main gathering place in the home. The team worked with Logan County Cabinets in Kentucky for the cabinetry and butcher block island top.

The couple’s collections dot the home, and the designers layered in accessories and artwork from Debbie Mathews Antiques in Nashville.

The reconfigured layout added a sitting area, closet, and bathroom to the primary suite. Sarah Stacey’s team custom-designed the shade over the tub.

One of the homeowners’ many collected quilts ties together the colors in one of the guest bedrooms, which is all set for a grandchild’s visit.

“They use the kitchen door out onto the porch more often than the front door,” Capps says. “They love coffee out there, but their home is less than an hour from Kentucky and the distilleries, and I know they love to have a nice bourbon on the porch, too.” The team cleaned up that gracious front porch, once strewn with mattresses and covered in vines, to the gratitude of the family’s dogs and at least one longtime resident: “There had been this feral cat roaming around the property, and now he just sits on the front porch like he’s saying, ‘Wow guys, thanks for fixing this up for me.’”