Story by: Lee Rennick | Photos by: Erin Kosko and Lee Rennick
Choosing the right words to describe the latest Eric Ross Interiors creation in Murfreesboro is simple. For the home of John and Emily Keach it is both “elegant” and “intimate.” While Emily calls her style “traditional,” there is a sense of a modern take on the classic English manor house with a touch of South Carolina low country design.
With a focus on fashioning a home that is both perfect for entertaining friends and family, and containing three growing, rambunctious boys and a dog named Hank, the Keach family turned to Ross to help them build a home that is timeless, hearty and beautiful. Although Emily loves color, she trusted Ross to develop a pallet that would serve them well, and she was pleasantly surprised at how much she and her husband love his preference for earthy tones like greens, blues and browns.
John’s office will be the cover shot for Ross’ latest book, Embracing Southern Homes, and elements from their home are currently featured on the introductory video on the Eric Ross Interiors website. Consider it a “sneak peek” of what those attending Margaritas in May to support the Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Ambassadors will see on Tuesday, May 6.
“We love supporting the community and are glad to offer our home to such a good cause,” said Emily.
“One hundred percent of funds raised by Margaritas in May will go to the Dr. Jim Boerner Nursery-Pediatric Fund,” explained Meredith Foster, Foundation Development Coordinator, Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Foundation. “Funds raised from theevent will provide support to the labor and delivery department, the Well Baby Nursery, the Lee and Susan Moss Family Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and the pediatric unit at Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital. The generosity of those attending this event will provide quality, compassionate care to children and newborns regardless of their parents’ ability to pay.”
Guests will be able to enjoy the gracious living spaces inside and outside the Keach home that they planned from the ground up to be both comfortable and alluring. Multiple seating areas can be found both inside and poolside with views of the home, gardens and the full-sized pickleball court in the backyard.
Bifold doors open between the great room and the back patio, offering an indoor- outdoor experience when refreshing spring breezes are blowing. The doors also allow guests to drift between the kitchen-heart of the home, the casual living room with its stone fireplace crowned with a carved wood crest inspiring thoughts of medieval times and a stone terrace overlooking the inviting pool.
“The crest is one of our favorite pieces,” said Emily. “We bought it in Highlands, North Carolina. It’s one of the first things we saw when we got to walk the house after it was completed.”
The Building Process
“We bought the lot in 2021. Then from that point it took about a year before we actually broke ground,” explained John. “We broke ground in 2022. Then we moved in in March of 2024. It was a two-year building process. Really a three-year process if you include the time it took with the architects, builders and designers.”
They drew the plans from the inside out, using Pfeffer Torode Architects in Nashville to do the layout, Davis Properties out of Brentwood to do the construction and Ross to do the interior design. They enjoyed working with Ross so much, they wished they had brought him onto the project a little earlier.
Being in the construction business himself, John never thought he’d hire someone to build something for him, but he was glad he did. The quality product they received from Davis Properties was worth it.
Their esthetic is based on the traditional, influenced by Emily’s mother Mimi Genet, who has always had antique stores and helped Emily develop her fondness for antiques. But, they also wanted everyone enjoying their hospitality to be at ease.
“We wanted it to look nice, but feel homey and comfortable,” said Emily. “We both have big families and we wanted to have a big space to entertain everyone inside and outside. I love the
bifold doors, when we entertain there are kids running through the house.”
“A couple of weeks ago we had everyone over, opened up all the screens and it just flowed very well,” said John. “You can kind of push everybody outside, especially the kids. This area opening out to the pool is the best part of the house.”
While the colors chosen for the walls tend toward the moody, the many windows bring in tons of natural light. In the master bedroom all of the natural light is peaceful and relaxing.
Furnishing The Home
While most of the furnishings are new, only a small truckload being brought from their former home, there are a number of family heirlooms, especial in the décor.
“One of my favorite pieces is a painting we got for our wedding from my Mom’s friend Jeff Jamison,” said Emily. “It is a painting of downtown Murfreesboro. It has been in all of our houses. It takes a second to see that it is the Square. It’s neat to see.”
Another piece they brought with them from their old house is a bed that once belonged to Mimi. They had it redone and the dark wood painted a creamy white, bringing out carved details in the frame they had never noticed before. The four- poster now sits in one of their upstairs guest bedrooms.
In the same room is a pair of chairs that are a light mustard color, but the seat cushions have been re-upholstered to match the fabric on the bench at the foot of the bed.
The couple wanted everything to fit the dynamic of their new home, so 90% of the furnishings are new to them, most being antiques.
A Dramatic Kitchen
The sprawling kitchen offers a cooking area, a pantry, a prepping station for catering, a scullery used as a serving area when they have company and lots and lots of storage, including a glass display of family silver and serving pieces.
“The flow of things when we have people over is similar to our other house,” John noted. “We had the big kitchen and living room all being open. Everyone would come and sit at the big island we had in the kitchen. We had a big breakfast table off to the side, but no one would ever sit at it. And then we had the dining room for when we were really entertaining, but most of the time everyone sat at the island. So, we wanted the same thing here. But we also wanted space removed from where people were sitting, even the food. And the scullery keeps a little bit
of everything out of sight.”
“We wanted to spread everything out so you were not crowded when you were using it,” Emily commented. Things are organized near where they will be used, so the cups and plates are in a room with the dish washer, but removed from the cooking area.
In a set of cabinets in the scullery, their wedding china is displayed. The pattern contains pheasants, as John’s family are big hunters and they travel annually to South Dakota to shoot pheasants. Beginning in their 20s, in the 1950s, John’s grandparents began the hunting tradition. The family has been going for years and years since, and have a house out there.
“We bought property out there in the early 70s,” added John, “but I have been going since I was 14. I am 38 now and I have only missed two seasons.”
“You’ll see a lot of pheasants in the house,” said Emily.
Designing For An Active Family
One must for the Keach family was a mud room. Located on the first floor behind the kitchen and at the side of the home by the garage, it offers lots of space for storing shoes, boots, jackets and the various items their sons carry with them to school or when active outside, like a fishing pole.
“This was a big focus for us with three boys,” said John. “In our other house we had a little mud room type thing, but it was right by the back door and when everyone was trying to get their shoes off, you couldn’t get out the back door. We wanted to have this so there was plenty of room.”
A Welsh cabinet is a part of the furnishings in the mud room, coming from their previous home on Cherry Lane. It originally came from the Colonel Reid house across from the old Readyville Mill. There is also a large bench located in the room with plenty of space to remove muddy boots or wet tennis shoes.
Hanging in the mudroom are antique pictures of castles that once belonged to Emily’s mother, and more pheasants.
There is also a downstairs laundry room close to the mud room so dirty items can make their way into it, instead of being dragged through the house. An additional laundry room was built upstairs, which John calls “critical.”
An elevator helps move things up to the three floors of the home, including a large attic. It is just about the only place that is off limits to their sons and the dog.
Fabrics, Wallpaper, And Paint
“Ross did all of the fabrics and all of the papers,” said Emily. “He’d have us pick out fabrics, and then we wouldn’t see them for a year. When we came in and saw everything done, we had forgotten what everything looked like.”
“He’d have us choose things in sections,” explained John, “so he’d have us do like the mud room, the laundry room and the scullery one time, and then something else the next time we’d meet with him. We got started really early in the process, but by the time the house was framed up and all the things we chose were put into the house, we couldn’t remember what we had selected.”
Another place heavily influenced by Ross is the color of the paint in the rooms of their sons, Jack, George and Charlie. Here he chose earthy tones, like brown.
Emily was nervous about the colors. Each of her sons’ rooms are a different shade of brown, starting with her oldest’s room, which is chocolate brown. The older of the twins has a dark tan, and the younger twin’s room is a medium tan. Each room also reflects their individual interests, including, of course, framed pheasant feathers in their youngest’s room.
Their en suite bathrooms follow with the woodsy theme. One of the bathrooms even has wallpaper that looks like the rings of a tree when cut in a cross section.
Browns and creams dominate the second floor, including the room they call the “speakeasy”. There are also splashes of blue from Emily’s collection of blue and white porcelains scattered around the house, and found especially in the outside areas, both by the pool and in the sitting area on the second-floor balcony that overlooks the backyard.
Facilitating The Margaritas In May Event
Having been asked to open their home once before for an event, it was, unfortunately not a good time, so they were happy to open it to Margaritas in May. They love to entertain.
“We want to give back to the hospital for all they do for our community,” said Emily. “It is the least we can do.”
Suzanne Martin and Dana Lyons are co-chairing the event, which will feature Mexican themed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres since it takes place so close to Cinco de Mayo. The tasty treats will be provided by Goodness Gracious and the beverages are from Stones River Total Beverages.
“We are just here to facilitate them,” added John.
For more information about the Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Ambassadors and their events, visit their Facebook page at https://rutherfordfoundation.org/events/ambassador-events/. It is a 300-member group that was created in 1989 to support the Saint Thomas Rutherford Foundation. The primary purpose of the Ambassadors is to promote Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital and help raise funds for various projects, including $30,000 for new x-ray equipment for the Saint Thomas Rutherford Saint Louise Clinic, and over $40,000 to support the Dr. Jim Boerner Nursery-Pediatric Fund and the Lee and Susan Moss Family NICU.