Story by Lee Rennick | Photos by Erin Kosko and Lee Rennick
Eric and Niki Hensley are willing to take chances. They have built quite a life for themselves and their three kids by jumping off the proverbial cliff and believing that the net will appear. When they both found themselves unemployed, they took it as a sign and started buying and rehabbing older houses. Slowly they got into new construction and created a building company, a landscaping company and a pool building company. They have taken chances on their current home, too. Design chances.
“I like bold,” said Niki, “and I like to try new things. Most people are afraid to take risks, but my husband and I are not. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it does not.”
They bought their house in 2020 from a wholesaler. It had good bones, as it had been well taken care of and was built of kiln dried wood, but it was dated. The house was built in 1959 by a local businessman and last updated in the 1980s. The yard was overgrown. It needed some love.
Like many 1950s houses, it was dark and choppy with low ceilings. Being a tall family, the first thing they did was blow the roof off, raise the ceilings and take out a lot of walls. All of the ceilings are now 12 feet tall, with the ceilings in the main living areas, like the kitchen, dining and entry hall, following the roof line. Everything is now spacious and open.
“We gutted it,” explained Niki, “but we worked within the original footprint.”
Using what they learned from remodeling older homes in northern Nashville, the Hensleys have done all of the work on the home themselves. It took two years. Niki acted as the interior designer, and they used their companies Canaan Builders and Coyote Creek to do the construction work.
“Like the cobbler who wears old shoes,” said Niki, “the work on our home was always on the back burner, after the work for our businesses was done.”
They bought a house on the lake in Winchester, which they rehabbed while living there and spent a few months in an apartment, but they got it done. And the lake house has since become an Airbnb.
A Love for Wallpaper and Tile
Niki says that she doesn’t really know what to call her style, maybe ‘eclectic modern rustic,’ although that label seems limiting.
“We’ve done tons of houses,” said Niki.” I have tried [just about] everything…on those houses. I knew what I liked and didn’t like, so all the things I did like I put here. Mostly my style is trial and error.”
One thing she knew she wanted to play with in this house is wallpaper. The bolder the better.
A favorite wallpaper, which she has used in just about every one of the homes they have built for their business, is a popular Art Deco design called “Feather Flock.” She found it on Amazon, and she loves that it comes in many different colors. The pattern in “golden hour” grounds the dining and entry area in this home.
In her daughter Caroline’s bathroom, Niki uses another paper with a bird theme. This time, bright pink flamingos. Bright pink is her boldest accent color. Most of the other colors she uses are nature inspired creamy whites, sage greens, earthy grays and ocean blues.
“I love nature,” said Niki, “bringing the outdoors inside. It is very popular right now.”
She also loves statement tiles, which she has used in her daughter’s black and white bathroom. It is something that they frequently employ in their new builds.
Working with the Original Footprint
Removing many of the central walls on the main level and putting in more windows have made the space airy and light-filled. The once small kitchen is now much more expansive with a large island and plenty of storage.
The closed off entry-way is open and has become known as the “cocktail area” with casual, rounded over-sized seating set around a carved teak table. It can be seen through the glass front door set into a black metal frame.
Gone are the louvered doors that led into the once sunken living room. The wood-paneled family room centered around a fireplace has become the living room, but the wood paneling is now gone and the brick fireplace has been painted black.
The old bright pink primary bathroom, all the rage when the home was built, has become a spa-like pristine white space with a wet room containing a massive walk-in shower and a stand-alone tub. This bathroom, as well as the main bedroom and closet, were expanded by the Hensleys. They now have space for their rustic king-sized bed and a large ensuite seating area.
Pantry space off the kitchen had been a bathroom, and the sewing room has become the family laundry with an adjacent bathroom.
“We were the company that tore down the old mayor’s home, which we got a lot of comment about, but no one else wanted to buy the building and restore it,” said Niki. “In the downstairs bathroom we have hung the marker that was on that house.”
Additional updates included filling in the old swimming pool and replacing it with a new one that is closer to the back of the house and is part of the entertainment area they have created off the back of the home that includes an outdoor kitchen and contemporary landscaping.
Current Trends and Personal Style
Niki has used a number of sources to decorate their home, blending her personal likes, current trends and her husband’s taste. He likes high end. She is budget conscious.
“Eric is a big man, so we have to have quality furniture,” said Niki.
She enjoys the experience of going to Sara Sells warehouse sales in College Grove, Tennessee, to find high end furniture at a discounted price, including having coffee from coffee carts that serve those standing in line and chatting with others waiting their turn to enter. She thinks everyone who loves to shop for their home needs to experience it.
Other resources she uses include Burke Décor, Josh and Main, West Elm and Summer Classic. All of the Hensley’s light fixtures are from Fergusons in Murfreesboro, where they have friends who help them with design choices. Some art pieces are from a little shop in Winchester. And, two favorite online vendors are Wayfair and Amazon.
Much of what Niki has learned from experience staging the homes they have redone has affected her design choices here, including knowing that greens and blues are liked equally by women and men, so she uses a lot of those colors. Of course, it helps that she loves all things green.
“We worked on a lot of homes in North Nashville,” said Niki. “There were no comps there, so we had to make the properties so desirable that buyers would pay over appraised value. We had to not be afraid to do things a little better, like a special hood in the kitchen. Most builders do metal, but we do custom wood. We’ve done that in our own house, too.”
Elevating the look of a home is another thing that Niki has learned through their business, including painting doors black and using black hardware. Other high end finishes she has added to the home include textured wood tones and a move away from an all-white classic kitchen by putting in green cabinets and green painted board and batten wainscoting on the walls.
“Wood tones are coming back as people continue to want to bring natural colors inside their homes,” added Niki. “I love it!”
From Meet Cute to Life Team
While today they work together to run their various enterprises, when the Hensleys met, Eric was playing football at Vanderbilt University and working as a bouncer at Tootsie’s in Nashville. Meanwhile, Niki worked for Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation (Parks and Rec) as a lifeguard while she attended Middle Tennessee State University. They first ran into each other at Stampede in 2008, when she went over to berate him for breaking up with one of her sorority sisters. They have been together ever since.
Eric was headed towards becoming a pro football player, but life put a kink in his plans and he went into real estate instead, working for Ryan Homes and then Bob Parks Realty. Niki continued to work for Parks and Rec, eventually becoming the Aquatic Coordinator, running the pools at both Sports Com and Patterson Park. When their third child came along, she hit a wall and quit. She needed something more flexible to have time to care for their kids. He wanted to get out of real estate sales and into other areas in the field. That is when they started flipping. Also experimenting with developing, wholesale, rentals and more.
It took a few years to refine their business strategy, with some major kinks along the way that they were able to push through. After making necessary adjustments in their business, it actually freed up more family time according to an interview with Eric on Wealthy Way. Eric now coaches his son Christian’s football team. They support their oldest child, Caroline, as she plays three sports. And, their middle child, Averie, is a burgeoning artist, with a studio off of her bedroom.
Avid pet lovers, they have cats, hamsters and they not only have their own dogs, but they also foster dogs. This home gives the dogs and their owners plenty of space to run and play.
“It would have been cheaper to tear the house down and build something new,” said Eric, “but I like a challenge. It was a cup of tea.”