Designers produce drawings all the time, but today that more often equates to computer models versus the classic combination of pen and paper. It’s an art form that designer Connie Vernich continues to celebrate. And in the case of her personal Nashville home, hand drawings were critical to bringing her vision to life.

After finding a 1960s residence they loved on a tree-lined street in West Meade, the interior designer and her husband, David Vernich, forged ahead with a full-scale renovation informed by their travels. “We love the warm, light woods and comfortable ease of homes in Napa, California,” explains Vernich, adding that her and David’s deep love for Provence, France, also heavily influenced the design. Add a dose of neoclassicism, some crisp strokes of black, and a few risks not taken with previous projects, and you get the perfect mix.

As the transformation unfolded, Vernich and her husband felt fortunate they had tapped the duo of Daniel Smallbone and Timothy Romero, a builder and general contractor they trusted implicitly, for the redo. David, a real estate investor, had already worked with Smallbone and Romero on numerous projects in the past. So, he and Vernich were confident to defer to their expertise when Romero discovered unsalvageable water damage in the basement joists, and the pivotal decision to raze the structure was made. The Verniches would still have their dream house, but now it would emerge from the foundation up.

Luckily, the couple had already put considerable thought into a floor plan they loved—which easily translated from the renovation to what became de facto new construction. Through a series of meetings with structural engineer and residential designer Richard Chesbro, the empty nesters had thoroughly voiced their respective musts: a ground-floor primary bedroom and two-car garage for David, a two-story home office for Vernich. The pair also hoped to combine two ideas in seeming opposition: a floor plan that would be light-filled and open, yet distinctly divided. Thankfully, the designer provided a forward-thinking solution: placing two entrances to nearly every room on the ground floor. The result? A free-flowing layout that feels intimate for the couple but just as easily accommodates a crowd.

“This project was a lot of fun, because Connie was already drawing the home’s interiors while we were still working on the plans,” reveals Chesbro, who likens Vernich’s drawings to works of fine art. “She already knew exactly what she wanted for their home—right down to the specific type of door handle.”

Hand drawings, it turns out, helped Vernich identify and refine several sticking points in the design. For the grandly scaled living room, she notes, “I began to draw the tall, rounded cabinets but wasn’t satisfied because they looked too new.” She showed the sketches to her longtime cabinet maker, Tony Leebrick, who recommended distressing the wood with a wire brush then adding a limewash treatment—moves that instantly imbued the room with patina and warmth.

Meanwhile, Vernich’s interior scheme—executed with assistance from designer Abby Sartin—is predominated by fresh green. “I think you should bring what’s outside, inside,” says Vernich, who also dialed up the glamour in a few areas—as with the Sputnik chandelier on the first floor of her office and the sleek brass trim she added to the primary bathroom cabinetry for a modernist spin.

While Vernich was able to convey most ideas easily through pen strokes and color washes, not all of her concepts could be perfectly articulated in two dimensions; a few could only be fully understood in real life. None of her staff, for example, could quite envision how her chosen check-patterned velvet would work on the barrel chairs in the vibrant green dining lounge. “Every response was, ‘I just don’t see it,’ ” Vernich says. In fruition, the fabric is what makes the space. Similarly, the designer’s sketch of the kitchen’s book-matched marble backsplash could never quite capture the drama of the final install.

Chesbro concludes the home’s success is a testament to Vernich’s experience and talent, however the designer herself gets more granular, crediting the sketches themselves for manifesting rooms of such elegance. “Drawing is my favorite part of the design process,” she shares. “There is a special connection that happens when your brain and hand are working together—and that becomes apparent when the two meet on paper.” It’s the case with all of Vernich’s projects, but for her personal home in particular, the results are picture perfect.

richardchesbroengineeringanddesign

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