A Home Filled with Hope

Since 2001 the combined efforts of a custom builder and a group of professional decorators have annually created a show house to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The resultant homes have been incredible showcases highlighting major builders, vendors and decorators in the Triangle and brought $1.5 million for blood cancer research, patient and family support groups, patient education programs and much more.

Teaming up for a Cause

Hasentree, a private golf course community in Wake Forest, was the site for this spring’s Showcase for a Cure home. The upscale community with its resort style amenities has been recognized for its environmental stewardship as an Audubon International Gold Signature Member.

Thomas Gipson of Thomas Gipson Homes, Inc. built the 4,500 square foot contemporary residence. Gipson is well known not only for his high-end custom homes, but also for his charitable work in Wake County, including the Homebuilder Blitz for Habitat for Humanity which has spread beyond the Triangle to become a national phenomenon. The three-story house features a stone and cedar exterior, but the interior is filled with contemporary details that blend with the traditional structure.

This home was beautifully decorated by local interior designers who volunteered their time and talents to create a show home worthy of Gipson’s structural efforts. The decorators included Carnela Renee Hill of Interiors by Renee, Denise Whitley of Interior Concepts, Sally Williams of Colorful Concepts, Emily Barrett of Porto Homes, Sally Medicke of Tres Belle Designs, Interiors by Decorating Den, Summer Phinney of Home Fitness, and Pat Cashman of Today’s Interiors.

Lead designer for the team, Carnela Renee Hill has been contributing to showcase homes for three years. Starting in February, Hill met with the design team and determined the basic colors and styles to be displayed in the home, and then Hill states, “I turned them loose. They have been a great team to work with: Tom Gipson has been awesome, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has been wonderful, and Creedmoor Partners (Hasentree’s developers) have been great. It truly has been a labor of love.”

Entering this home through the stunning oversized doors, you find yourself in a light-filled foyer where you can look through French doors into the study, up the sweeping staircase, or into the dining room with its beautiful dark Brazilian cherry floor bordered with light bands of cherry.

Designing a Complete Solution

Through the foyer you glimpse the family room where tall windows provided the background for the contemporary pieces selected by Renee Hill of Interiors by Renee. An aqua area rug in front of the fireplace defined the conversational area with its two curved armless couches upholstered in gold bracketing and an oval coffee table with exotic veneer. A contemporary armless chair covered in brown ultrasuede with gold swirls completed the circle. Iridescent aqua silk panels sizzled at the tall windows, bordered with gold, red and aqua swirls, a fabric found on throw pillows in the room as well. Local artist Willie Green-Aldridge’s paintings were featured throughout, showing her style of communicating through color and texture.

A short hallway leads off the family room to the master suite and its bath. In the other direction the family room flows into the adjoining kitchen and breakfast area where cherry cabinets with chrome hardware combine with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances to create a warm gathering place. A butler’s pantry complete with cherry cabinetry and a wine cooler connects the kitchen and dining room.

Hill added drama to the dining room with its Flower Pot Red walls and the Metallic Lush Brown tray ceiling reflecting the light of the contemporary chandelier. Eclectic furnishings from Kirk Imports fill the room. The contemporary dining room table was paired with two chairs covered in brown leather and two upholstered in gold velour. A display cabinet (whose light is controlled by touching the upper hinge) and a marble-topped chest displayed exotic accessories.

Hill chose Ralph Lauren’s Evening Slipper silver metallic paint for the powder room off the foyer, a color that provided the perfect background for the black fixtures and the stunning red glass sink and faucet.

A staircase leading to the third floor leads to a home theater which also was decorated by Interiors by Renee. Half of the room focused on an oversized screen with leather chairs and benches for viewing or conversation. Behind a serving counter are shelves with a bar refrigerator where Hill added a bistro table and chairs. Wonder film accessories completed the ambiance of the room, a great place to send teens for their partying or for adults to view the latest film.

Making the home more beautiful, one room at a time

Two second-floor bedrooms highlight the attention to details that exemplify the talents of the team of decorators that make up the members of INTERIORS by Decorating Den (IDD) serving the Triangle. Ann Jaeger of Durham, Laura Koshel of Chapel Hill, Jeanette Blankenship of Cary, and Fabiola McGuire of Raleigh make up the IDD team who combined their efforts to create the “Tween” Bedroom and a Guest Bedroom.

Decorated for a preteen boy, the “Tween” bedroom decor overcomes its disadvantage of a long shape and slanted roof lines to include three functions: the sleeping area, the study nook and the entertainment alcove. Shades of brown and cream underline the masculinity of the room, as does the frequency of dogs in the décor (including original artwork by Dana Marope), while splashes of aqua popped in the faux ostrich headboard, the shag area rug, and the cushions on the window seat.

In the Guest Bedroom IDD designer Laura Koshel stated, “Art Deco meets contemporary.” The mink walls and crisp white trim provided the background for the Walter Zanger Emperdor marble tile headboard, a stunning focal point in the room. The beautiful chocolate shades of the marble were scored into 5/8” squares, creating a unique “forever piece.” Inlaid mahogany chests bracketing the bed and a silver dining room buffet serving as a dresser provided much needed storage, but could serve in any number of other rooms in future furniture arrangements. Soft stationary drapery panels with hand sewn French pleat skirting framed the double windows, their warm chinchilla tones softening the starkness of the contemporary décor without detracting from it.

Not only did IDD want the room to have beautiful décor, but they also wanted a direct connection to the purpose of the Showcase for a Cure project. For this reason they featured paintings by artist Katie Truemner, herself a cancer survivor, in this room.

The Jack and Jill bath with its whimsical silverleaf feathers painted on the chocolate walls connects to an exercise room. Across the hall is the second master suite. “This is becoming increasingly popular,” stated builder Gipson. “It’s a perfect solution when aging parents or adult children move in.”

BARBARA HOBBS IS A FREELANCE WRITER

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About Tom Gipson, Thomas Gipson Homes, Inc.

Tom Gipson, of Thomas Gipson Homes, has demonstrated a lifetime of commitment to volunteerism and public service in his home community, Wake County. Many of the charities he has chosen to partner with are building related, while other relationships have developed from commitments to the arts, his family, and his faith.

Over the past 20 years Tom has made major financial contributions to a list of causes, including Habitat for Humanity of Wake County (Habitat), Food Bank of North Carolina, Muscular Dystrophy Association of Wake County, Hurricane Floyd Flood Relief, and Baptist Home for Children.

Gipson was also instrumental in the Builders Blitz on a local level and in early 2004, he convinced Habitat to take the Home Builder Blitz national. During the build 459 homes were built throughout the nation in June of 2006, as well as dozens of homes before and after that week. The value of these homes was in excess of 25 million dollars resulting in the largest gift to affordable housing in history. Habitat recently built 260 homes the first week of June 2008.

Gipson's latest philanthropic effort is teaming up with Showcase for a Cure to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Eastern North Carolina Chapter. With the money raised, LLS is able to fund research, patient and family support groups, patient education programs and much more.