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If there were an official guide to creating a bachelor pad in East Nashville, it might look like this: Gather your finest retro accouterments (a record player, a WWII-era telescope inherited from a relative), assemble an upscale whiskey collectionand hire interior designer Brad Ramsey.
'If I had done it myself, it would have looked like a Turkish bazaar,” says Tripp Costas, a stylish 31-year-old who recently enlisted the owner and principal designer of Brad Ramsey Interiors to put the finishing touches on his East Nashville condo. 'I think I know a cool piece when I see it, but it's how you pull it together.”
Visitors to Costas's three-level, two-bedroom space on Russell Street are greeted by a wall of whiskeys collected from all over the world. They rest on three floating shelves, alongside a vintage telescope from his grandfather and above a credenza that Ramsey reinvented as a bar.
Costas, who operates an agency that specializes in supplying furniture to the hotel industry, is a man of many talents. He travels and collects art. He's a pilotbecause, of course. (Next to his front door, there is a triptych print of a DC-3.) And he has a predilection for midcentury modern and Scandinavian design, which he asked Ramsey to fold into his condo's aesthetic.
He also hoped Ramsey could maximize the functionality of the space, which they both describe as 'challenging.” Located one and a half blocks from Five Points, Costas's 1,600-square-foot condo is designed with high ceilings and an open floor plan. Most owners use their ground floor as a living room and their second-floor space, which shares a kitchen, as a dining room. But Costas wanted to turn the dining room into a cozy spot for watching movies and the living area into a lounge.
'It was about making it lounge-y and having some vibe,” Ramsey explains. 'So it was important to give it some great light fixtures and some pieces that give it a lounge feel.”
In that room, brass is blended with pops of silver. An atomic-style Flake chandelier, an amalgam of brass and steel, illuminates the room, as does a swing-arm light fixture from Nashville's Southern Lights Electric (outfitted, appropriately, with a vintage-style Edison bulb). 'Brass has definitely made its comeback,” Ramsey notes. 'We try to do it tastefully without going overboard.”
In the corner sits a custom L-shaped sofa upholstered in slate gray; there are also two apple green rolling ottomans and two club chairs. Cream-colored floor-to-ceiling drapes accentuate the massive windows, while one smoky black wall carries through to the second floor, which Ramsey says makes the space feel more intimate and the wood tones appear richer. On the second floor, the den's highlight is a pair of penguin sculptures that Costas got from German artist Ottmar Hörl.
'I kind of live for the weird,” Costas says.
Another standout art piece is a digital print of a buffalo on a massive pine plank. There is also a set of Barcelona chairs covered in weathered, cognac-colored leather and a midcentury modern-style sofa.
'It's worked out exactly how I wanted,” Costas says of his condo's design. 'I've had great conversations with good friends. We go downstairs and maybe solve a world problem or two…especially when we have some good blues music playing and some whiskey flowing.”