The Reserve at Greenbrier: Couple drew inspiration from variety of sources to design space that blends traditional, rustic

Nicole Cox can’t help but gush a little about the shiplap accent wall in the hearth room of her new home in The Reserve at Greenbrier, a new development of Jimmy Nash homes off Winchester Road near the Hamburg corridor.

A devoted fan of HGTV’s series Fixer Upper, Cox incorporated the go-to, wood-plank accent material of designer Joanna Gaines both in the first floor hearth room off the home’s spacious kitchen and in its basement, where a large shiplap wall houses an oversize flat-screen TV and a horizontal, inset electric fireplace.

“I am so proud of the shiplap and brick fireplace, as well as many of the other rustic elements we were able to incorporate, including the sliding wooden barn doors on our master bedroom closets,” says Nicole, a Winchester nurse practitioner who with her husband, Thadis, a Morehead gastroenterologist, moved into their new home in late July. The couple share their two-story brick, chateau-inspired home with their daughter, Ava, and bulldogs Dahlia, Brindle and Emma.

Armed with ideas from TV, as well as online interior design sites like Pinterest and Houzz, the Coxes worked with Jimmy Nash’s team of builders, contractors and designers to achieve the home of their dreams – and the rustic, transitional look Nicole wanted.

“We wanted a very open concept floorplan, and I wanted to stay traditional but with some elements of a rustic look,” says Nicole.

“Nicole wanted this house to be light and airy, with lots of natural light and softer colors than the deep reds and golds I had used in our previous Jimmy Nash home, which had been my bachelor pad before we married and she moved in,” says Thadis.

The couple worked closely with Jean Ann Corbin, an interior designer with Jimmy Nash homes, to create a bold yet inviting decorating plan – including the use of teal on the home’s great room ceiling to pick up on the coloring of a pair of Ethan Allen accent chairs that were the starting point for the look of the room. A teal, Ming-inspired buffet served as similar inspiration for the wallpaper and window treatment selections of the adjacent dining room.

During the layout and design phase, the couple worked with Jimmy Nash and foreman JW Nash to tweak the chateau floor plan in order to expand their kitchen and master bathroom and reposition the staircase in order to retain the open concept they wanted on the home’s first floor.

“It’s almost like having a ranch,” says Thadis, “because everything is really open. And we expanded the hearth room as well, because we knew it would be the central gathering point for our home.”

Anchoring the home’s first floor is its state-of-the-art kitchen. There, the oversized island’s gray-and-white quartzite countertops perfectly accent the surrounding cream and gray custom cabinetry designed by Clay Leavell, owner of Kitchen Concepts. And, the attached, custom butcher block table offers the perfect spot for the family of three to dine. When the company hosts guests, the nearby farmhouse table offers ample seating for more.

“For me, my favorite part of the kitchen is the under-cabinet horizontal windows,” says Nicole. Thadis agrees: “We wanted to have plenty of natural light in here, and they allow a great vantage point to the tree-lined backyard.”

The couple’s first-floor master bedroom offers another of Nicole’s favorite décor finds: her prized “fandolier” (chandelier/ceiling fan hybrid) that provides the room with breeze and a sense of style.

“I loved the look of the 10-foot barrel ceiling in here, and I didn’t want to spoil it with a traditional fan-blade ceiling fan. But I didn’t want to go without a ceiling fan altogether,” she says. “The folks at Kentucky Lighting, where we got all of our fixtures, said ‘you want the fandolier.’”

The adjoining master suite includes a sunken whirlpool tub and a very large, standalone glass-doored shower with a bench and dual shower heads. “We were going for a spa-like look in here,” Nicole says.

Upstairs, Ava’s room and adjoining full bathroom sport a chic gray-and-pink color scheme, while her nearby bubble-gum pink playroom – incorporated into the plans during framing, after the Coxes realized they had extra second-floor space from opting not to vault their kitchen ceiling – is the perfect spot for her toys. Another upstairs bedroom will serve as a nursery for the couple’s second daughter, who’s on the way.

The home’s basement is the perfect entertaining space, with a large bar area and full bathroom as well as a workout room in addition to the movie-hub, widescreen TV area. All in all, the home boasts 5 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms across its roughly 7,200 square feet.

While the couple has only lived in the home for a few months, they know they’re there for the long haul. “This is our forever home,” says Thadis. “We’re here until the girls are out of school at a minimum, so at least the next 20 years.”

The Coxes say the process of building with Jimmy Nash for a second time couldn’t have been easier, and they were thrilled by the firm’s use of co-construct online building software, which kept them in the loop on decisions about every design feature, and which provided an up-to-the moment running total of where their budget stood.

Best of all, their move to The Reserve at Greenbrier neighborhood – with its country-like setting and nearby horse farms – reminds Nicole of her childhood growing up in Anderson County, and it has cut their job commutes to Winchester and Morehead to just 15 minutes. The time they’re saving in the car to and from work now in the mornings and evenings is more time they can share with Ava. “That’s been huge for us,” says Thadis. “That’s made it all worthwhile.”

This story was originally published October 30, 2016 at 6:00 AM with the headline "The Reserve at Greenbrier: Couple drew inspiration from variety of sources to design space that blends traditional, rustic."