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A leather swivel chair set beside a bay window on Franklin's historic Main Street provides an enviable vantage point for watching buskers, shoppers, and tourists absorb the neo small-town experience. The window is a part of the apartment of Christian hip-hop artist Toby McKeehan (TobyMac) and his wife, Amanda. The McKeehans and their five children have lived in Franklin since 1994 and have watched it emerge from its slumber as a rural town into a restaurant, boutique, and festival destination rivaling its bigger, louder sister 20 miles to the north.
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In 2016, when a friend offered the McKeehans the opportunity to purchase their very own piece of progress, Toby had only three words: 'We'll buy it!” The McKeehans planned to use the two-bedroom, 1,450-square-foot apartment as both an Airbnb rental and as a creative muse for Toby and collaborators. For interior design and spatial planning, the couple brought Nashville-based designer Brad Ramsey on board. With the original 20-foot-high tin ceilings in the living room, narrow hallway, and skylights in the bedrooms, Ramsey envisioned a modern Parisian loft.
'I wanted it to feel as if you had inherited your aunt's loft with crazy collections of art,” he says.
White walls and ceilings provide a backdrop for a balance of form and texture that whisper both Mid-century Modern and Louis XVI. The master bathroom features sleek marble countertops and gilded mirrors. In the dining area, a gold mirror hanging on the wall at a 45-degree angle directs light onto a marble dining table, stacked with art and architecture books. 'Tilting the mirror down is reminiscent of old bistros,” Ramsey explains. Hanging above the gray sectional in the living room is a six-frame grid of 'Handsome Men” paintings on wood boards, adding an unexpected wash of color and humanity to warm the space.
For continuity of theme, Ramsey added medallion moldings above the chandeliers, horizontal moldings under the bar, and a massive reprint of a 19th century letter to the French minister of war. In the master bedroom, Ramsey framed a black-and-white graphic mural that subtly references a French Pastoral scene. In the guest bedroom, a keyhole iron bed adds another element of whimsy.
On the exterior of the building, facing Main Street, Ramsey chose to paint the entire front white, including the archway, which pops against the black lacquered door to the left of the boutique Vintage Jolie. Marbled green inlay provides just enough color, Ramsey says.
Now complete and attracting guests from across the country, the apartment is a chic metaphor for the evolution of Franklin: a stylish renovation still in touch with its original quirks and charms.
'Now, I tell friends from Nashville to come to Franklin for the night instead of the other way around,” Amanda says.
Photos by Showcase Photographers.