This Colorfully Renovated Nashville House Has Wallpaper Made from Kids’ Artwork
“This house is now a love letter to our family and a living archive of our family’s story,” begins Mary Kathryn Wells, the founder and principal of Mary Kathryn Wells Design, an interior design studio based in Nashville, Tennessee, specializing in “joyful, highly personal homes for color-loving families.” Exactly what she’s created in the family home she shares with her husband, Chris Vinyard, and their three kids, (ages 12, 10, and 7), plus a dog and two guinea pigs.
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“We bought this house 10 years ago, when we had an 18-month old and our second child on the way,” Mary Kathryn continues. “It was a brand-new spec home, and while it didn’t have much (or any) personality, it was in an unbeatable location, it was well laid out in terms of the floor plan, and it didn’t have as many poor design choices — both aesthetically and functionally speaking — as often plague builder-grade spec homes.”
“We renovated it in 2024 to better suit our family in this chapter of life as well as to elevate the home and make it feel really custom. It’s now a layered, colorful, deeply personal space that reflects the lives and personalities of the five people who live here (plus a dog and two guinea pigs). There is now a meaningful family history written into the walls: kids’ artwork turned into wallpaper, and rooms that have shifted and adapted as our kids have grown. It’s a house that has been shaped by our family’s life, and that’s what makes it special to us,” Mary Kathryn explains.
Mary Kathryn and Chris lived in the home for 10 years before they decided that it was time for a big renovation. The kids were 10, 8, and 5, and for the first decade the existing home’s open floor plan was perfect for young kids who needed supervision (and wanted to be around their parents all the time). “Once they became tweens who play video games and want to host sleepovers, the open floor plan drove us nuts,” Mary Kathryn admits.
Because most of the house’s natural light enters the home from the front, Mary Kathryn wanted to break up the existing open floor plan but not make the house feel dark, closed-off or cave-like. Her brilliant solution? Window walls that visually separate the living and dining rooms and the kitchen and dining room without closing off the rooms from light.
“We also turned a poorly utilized room into a back den that functions as my husband’s office by day, and video game central and tween-sleepover spot on weekends, and I managed to turn an ugly storage closet into a tiny-but-functional and joyful office for myself,” Mary Kathryn continues to explain of the updates they did in the renovation. “In both of those rooms, we ripped out the unattractive windows (in the back den) and door (in the storage closet-turned-office) and replaced them with iron and glass window doors that elevate the spaces while letting in loads of natural light.”
A new and improved house isn’t the only thing that happened during the renovation: Mary Kathryn also launched her interior design studio, Mary Kathryn Wells Design, and wanted to “get to do to my own home what I do to my clients’ homes. We’d never really had the budget to strategically invest in our home in this way.”
“I design homes for the people who live in them, not for hypothetical future buyers,” Mary Kathryn emphasizes. “This house was never meant to be too precious or frozen in time. It was meant to hold our family’s energy, creativity, and messiness, and to evolve as we do. When the story of the people who live in a home is clear, those so-called rules stop mattering.”
Resources
LIVING ROOM
- Barton Sectional — Serena & Lily
- Cleo Seahorse Indoor-Outdoor Coffee Table — Anthropologie
- Marcel Media Unit — Soho Home
- Artwork Over Mantel — Original artwork by my daughter
- Drapery (Hockney) — Pepper Home
- Lampshades (Pink + Red) — Ginger Jar Lamp Co.
- Pillows — St. Frank
KITCHEN
- Wallpaper — Custom creation with New Hat
- Cabinet Paint Color — Farrow & Ball “Schoolhouse White”
- Island Paint Color — Farrow & Ball “Railings”
- Runners — Etsy
- Island Pendants — Beata Heuman Dodo Egg Pendant
- Cabinet Knobs — Colonial Bronze cabinet knob from PDI Kitchen & Bath; this is similar
- Cabinet Pulls — Colonial Bronze pull from PDI
- Range Hood — Custom
- Range — Wolf 30” dual fuel
- Child’s Play Table — Oeuf
- Kids’ Play Market — Target
- Joie Sconces — Serena & Lily
DINING ROOM
- Ton 33 Bentwood Cane Chairs — Schoolhouse
- Folding Ribbon Rug— Nordic Knots
- Drapery — Pepper Home
- Antique Buffet / Dresser — Gas Lamp Antiques
- Vintage Candelabras — 1stDibs
- Custom Chandelier — Southern Lights Electric
- Custom Wallpaper: New Hat, made from children’s artwork
KIDS’ BEDROOM
- Beds — No longer made it appears, but they’re the canopy version of this bed
- Kids’ Statement Knob Dresser — West Elm
- “Townhouse” Wallpaper by Sarah Jessica Parker — WallShoppe
- “El Quijote” Wallpaper by Chris Benz — WallShoppe
- Larkspur Single Sconces — Serena & Lily
- Abeille Embroidered Bee Cotton-Blend Blackout Curtains on Windows and Beds — Anthropologie
This tour’s responses and photos were edited for length/size and clarity.
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