Architect and partner at River Street Architecture, Michael McGowan has made a career out of designing homes and buildings for other people, but the two-story, board-and-batten farmhouse on the corner of East 16th and Jefferson streets is the first project he has drawn up for his own family's use. A collaboration with his wife Lindsay, the home's crisp white facade and lean agrarian lines distinguish it from the row of new Craftsman-inspired homes surrounding it.
After 10 years, Lindsay, Michael and their three children had outgrown their Lookout Mountain home and knew it was time to move. "Our kids were all sharing one bathroom," Michael says. "We looked at other houses, but building made more sense for square footage."
Designing a new home would also allow the couple to take advantage of every square inch of living space and correct some of the downfalls of their previous home, like a master suite off the main-floor living room, which they often found too noisy.
Jefferson Heights was already on their radar, since Michael had won a design competition there in 2007. Over dinner at Clyde's one evening, the Southside became a real contender for their future home site. The McGowans had two stipulations: the freedom to custom build, and a corner lot that would give them natural light and views on three sides of the house.
Local green-minded builder GreenTech Homes was putting up a new development on 16th Street, but the couple heard the company didn't build many custom homes and the corner lot had already sold. Amazingly, the McGowans were able to bypass both hurdles. GreenTech agreed to let them draw up their own design, and the couple made a deal with the owners of the corner lot to trade for the one next door. The McGowans gave their new neighbors extra square footage for their one-story home, then set about designing their own home to take advantage of the light and views provided by the 35-by-120-foot corner lot.
"My business partner Rob Fowler had built a house with his wife and suggested to me, 'Treat your wife like a client,'" says Michael. That philosophy worked well for the couple, allowing a healthy collaboration of Lindsay's ideas on style and the family's functional needs with Michael's professional expertise. "Lindsay had as much to do with the interior design as I did."
The resulting modern farmhouse is simple and old-fashioned with a single-gable roof running the length of the house and shed roofs over the front and back porches. Still, the couple frequently gets compliments and even some who knock on the door to ask about the specific shade of white or where the couple sourced their bold black windows (they're by Windsor and purchased through HomeChoice). "I love the simplicity of the design," Lindsay says.
In harmony with the exterior, the inside of the house is free of crown moulding and window and door frames are minimal. The lack of extraneous detail makes every design choice more important in the same way that limited space makes every square foot more meaningful.
"With three kids, we couldn't afford to have wasted space," says Michael. "Every square inch is something we need and use." After whittling down their priorities, they forfeited less necessary spaces like a walk-in laundry room or formal dining room for the end payoff of five bedrooms and four full bathrooms in only 2,500 square feet.
An open floor plan saves square footage on the main floor. Without a space-hogging foyer, the front door opens into the adjoined living room, kitchen and eating area. A united color scheme of black and white keeps the space cohesive and elegant, allowing each design choice to make a statement. The staircase to the right of the entrance is balanced by the shiplap-sided chimney and green-tiled surround of the fireplace on the left wall, a natural focal point of the living room. The extra-deep mantle perfectly suited for the TV and myriad holiday décor is one of the boons of custom design.
Lindsay is entirely responsible for the kitchen's layout, a big deal since it's in view of the entrance and living area. Clean white cabinets keep to the home's overall color palette, while the hand-painted Tabarka tile backsplash from Stone Source, a few blocks away on Broad Street, adds an unexpected texture to the space. Storage below the marble countertop is all drawers for easy access, and the top cabinets come down to meet the countertop, providing out-of-sight storage for small appliances. A giant Frigidaire Professional Series refrigerator, two dishwashers and a generous 4-by-8-foot island make the kitchen functional for the family of five.
While the builder's plan had an air return located under the stairs, the couple relocated the unsightly vent, and Lindsay repurposed the space as a clever, angled beverage nook with a refrigerator below that's within reach of even the smallest child.
Besides seating for four at the kitchen island, the casual dining space is at hand, where the family can easily add and subtract chairs to seat the whole family and more. Great for parties or a pleasant summer night, sliding glass doors open up the dining area to the side deck on Jefferson Street, linking inside and out.
While white is beautiful, it can be a burden in upkeep, so the McGowans chose the slightly darker tint offered by Benjamin Moore's "Pale Oak" for the walls in the living space. Either way, they say they don't let fingerprints or scuffs get to them. "It's a family house," says Lindsay. "We built it to live in it, to have friends over and not be cringing every time somebody does something."
Upstairs, too, the walls are mostly light, this time tinted with gray. In the new house, their daughter, the eldest, gets an en suite bath in her room plus a study niche. The boys each have a room to themselves and share a subtly nautical bathroom with round porthole mirrors and ship-style sconces.
The hard-won natural light comes through in huge bedroom windows and square agrarian ones along the hall. Here, a laundry nook is tucked away behind a custom sliding barn door, and at the end of the hall, with a degree of separation and privacy from the rest of the house, is the master suite.
In the master bedroom, the pale tones give way to deep, almost black walls that stretch to a 12-foot vaulted ceiling. The gorgeous bath is nearly timeless with white marble vanity tops over black vanities, white subway tile in the glass-enclosed shower, and a black-and-white clawfoot tub from The Chattanooga Auction House.
The fifth bedroom is really a flex space on the back of the main floor that serves as either guest or rec room with a bath on the hall. Sliding doors open to a peaceful back porch with a dining table.
Like the other homes on the row, the McGowans' cozy backyard exists in the courtyard-like space created by the detached garage at the back end of the lot. With high privacy fencing, the family's fire pit and lounge furniture are totally private from neighbors and passersby, while their raised back porch allows them to look over the fence and socialize. The porch is a nice shelter from the rain, which makes a musical patter on its standing-seam metal roof and almost transports one to the era of the home's architectural style.
The farmhouse gives the illusion that it has been there since the early 20th century, but it outdoes even a renovated home in its supreme energy efficiency. Among its green qualities are exclusively LED and compact fluorescent lighting and a roof insulated to R40, well surpassing the standard.
In the months since the McGowans moved in, they've found their choices of location and home design were solid. The neighborhood suits the house and vice versa. Jefferson Heights is full of young families whose kids end up at the farmhouse, and the adults often follow. The home has become a gathering space for a community with its roots in a different era. "We have potluck dinners. Everybody watches out for each other," says Michael.