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When they built their home in Belle Meade 14 years ago, Bill and Sissy Wilson led very different lives than they do today. Their four young children would tromp through the house, laughing, playing, and spilling in the playroom upstairs, which was, according to Sissy, 'like a rummage sale,” with various pieces of knock-around furniture. Prints and floral wallpaper dominated the décor; Sissy's bathroom alone was an explosion of pink festooned with puffy toile drapes.
But times and lifestyles change; with the last of their four children heading off to college, the Wilsons wanted to clear out the visual clutter and transform the home they love for an empty-nest life. So they turned to Ray Booth of McAlpine Booth & Ferrier Interiors, a designer known for his love of neutral palettes, use of light, and open spacejust what the Wilsons were looking for.
Just this year, McAlpine Booth & Ferrier was named to Architectural Digest's prestigious 'AD100” list of designers and architects. Booth himself is tall, tan, and impeccably dressed, but his manner is soft-spoken and often self-deprecating.
'I think people tend to be intimidated by him because he is this big, well-known designer,” Sissy says. 'But once you get to know him, you realize how kind and easygoing he really is.”
With architect Ron Farris, Booth developed a plan to bring 'light into the belly of the house” by removing the drapes from the windows, painting the walls in soft grays and ballet white, and reupholstering much of the furniture in taupes and grays for a cleaner look. The entryway to the house is the crown jewel: Concrete floors, white plaster walls, and a spiral staircase with stone steps make for a light and airy welcoming area. Booth also moved an antique French tapestry from the dining room and hung it on the wall in the curve of the stairwell.
But the repurposing didn't stop there: Booth's strategy also involved swapping the functions of certain rooms. The old dining room became an elegant receiving room, with an antiqued mirrored wall adding bounce and reflectivity. A Peter Hoffer painting, coated in a reflective resin pour, also acts as a mirror, an abstract Ed Nash painting in neutral tones pulls the palette of the room together, and ivory sculptures of a horse and a ramBill's personal piecescontribute a touch of whimsy. The receiving room is Sissy's favorite.
One of Booth's trademarks is showcasing drapery on walls instead of windows. Curtains on windows block light; on walls, they add division and soft gravity to an expansive space. In one of the sitting rooms, pecky cypress paneling creates a den-like feel. Booth installed accordion drapes and then hung the Wilsons' personal black and white photographs over thema creative way to 'hold” the images, he explains.
'When presented against a quieter, larger paneling of drapery, they become something soft and precious,” he says. 'It is a reflection of what our needs areour small hearts look for something bigger to hold them.”
Now that their main home is finished, the Wilsons have asked Booth to lend a creative hand to their new beach house in Naples, Florida.
McAlpine Booth & Ferrier Interiors, 124 12th Ave. S., 615-259-1222; mcalpineboothferrier.com.