Nostalgia buzz

Nick Akins loves old cars. Sally Akins loves to dance. Now, the couple have a room for both of their passions. They’ve turned a former garage into a party room complete with a bar, dance floor and tiled area for two antique vehicles.

“Our new room was never really a garage for us, though the original owner of the house did have collector cars stashed there when we bought the house back in 2000,” Mr. Akins said.

Until the recent conversion, the large, ground-level space was used for activities such as table tennis. The idea for transforming the room took root while the Akinses were at a friend’s party in Ringgold, Ga.

“The host had this large room set up just for parties. It had jukeboxes, karaoke, a pool table, antique phone booth, antique brass cash register, antique Coke boxes — all kinds of cool things that baby boomers remember and enjoy,” Mr. Akins said. “That evening triggered my desire for a similar area.”

Modern Retro

Originally, the dance floor was not in Mr. Akins’ plans for a party room.

“I just wanted a bar right here,” he said, pointing to his new retro-sleek black-top bar. “Just a place to sit around with friends and talk about cars.”

But Mrs. Akins, who’s taken ballroom dance lessons the past six years, wanted a dance floor, too.

“We learned to dance before our children got married so we could dance at their weddings, then really got into it a couple of years later,” she said.

Mr. Akins, a pharmacist who owns Thrifty MedPlus Pharmacy in Hixson, said he briefly entertained the idea of incorporating a soda fountain into the design of the planned space. But the idea of ornate wood and marble, reminiscent of soda fountains of the 1950s, just didn’t appeal.

“We wanted something less ornate and more contemporary,” he said.

So the Akinses turned to designer Juliet Bauer with Classic Cabinetry to incorporate retro-style metal, such as chrome, and shiny black cabinets into the bar design.

“I told them that we could do something slick and kind of funky,” Bauer said.

Sleek bamboo flooring covers the larger portion of the room, which has a bar big enough for four barstools, adjacent pub table with another three barstools and a separate seating nook with a sofa and armchair. To enhance the room’s function as a dance space, a wide, floor-to-ceiling mirror covers one wall.

Next, it was time for Mr. Akins to bring two of his cars into the design: a 1974 XKE 12-cylinder Jaguar and a 1961 Austin Healey Bugeye. His 10-car collection, which he described as “minuscule” by local standards, also includes a 1908 Cadillac, a 1913 Oakland and a couple of old Corvettes that he stores in a garage in Red Bank.

The Details

Bauer worked with local interior designer Katie Pratt to choose appropriate cabinetry and countertops to augment the modern-retro decor.

“I used vintage-inspired finishes in a modern layout, and we made the two blend,” Bauer said.

Vintage finishes harking back to the days of sock hops and poodle skirts included highly polished black finish on cabinets representing metal cabinets of the 1950s and stainless-steel edging on the sides of the black leather countertops.

For the lighting, Bauer illuminated the area beneath the bar’s toe kick and its overhang.

“The lights reflect against the stainless steel,” she said. “We also added some mesh texture to the back of the bar, and the lighting is very reflective and gives the area a funky retro vibe.”

The Akinses at home

Mrs. Akins was a teacher at Girls Preparatory School for 22 years and is now a partner in developing Stonebrook, a community for baby boomers. Her husband commutes from their Eagle Bluff home in the Highway 58 area to his Hixson pharmacy every day. So they stay busy and aren’t exactly dancing the night away yet.

“You know how it is at home,” Mr. Akins said. “You are always working on something else that requires immediate attention. We don’t use the room nearly enough.”

Reaction from guests has been positive.

“Most people are a little surprised at first,” Mr. Akins said.