Home on the Range

Tom and Vicki Smith have long been collectors of Southwestern art, and the detailing of the home's interior includes rough-hewn posts and beams, warm wood moldings, Mission-style stained glass and oak floors. Photo by Ray Strawbridge

Tom Smith always wanted to be a cowboy. He grew up in rural South Carolina and is a born-and-bred country boy, who has ridden horses all his life, loves country music, small towns and looking after his own place. After two decades spent living, working and raising a family in the more urban environs of Raleigh, Tom and wife Vicki and family are now realizing their dream of looking up from their morning cup of coffee to a panoramic view of rolling pasture, a sturdy barn that the whole family helped to build and their own lazily grazing horses.

Tom and Vicki decided a few years back that, as much as they loved their inside-the-Beltline location — especially with four kids to be shuttled to myriad schools, practices, lessons and the like — they wanted something different. But their vision of a dream home included more than a house and a little patch of yard. They were looking for room to spread out, with space to raise horses along with their children and the kind of small-town, do-it-yourself lifestyle that Tom and Vicki had grown up with.

The couple spent months searching for the right location and the perfect property. “We really looked at more barns than houses,” laughs Tom. They settled on 50 acres in the little Chatham County village of Silk Hope and began construction in 1998 of the 4,000-square-foot- house, horse barn and assorted outbuildings that would become Merry Band Farm (named for their merry adventures, and misadventures, during a family vacation out West).

The couple envisioned a rustic home, in keeping with its rural setting and settled on a transitional style, with a Southwest flair. Masonry siding is accented by natural elements of stonework and brick. An ample front porch invites afternoon rocking, and a broad verandah upstairs offers sweeping views of the property. Foregoing any pretentiousness, the home’s front door opens directly from the wide porch into a large great-room space — no grand foyers for this down-to-earth homestead.

The Smiths wanted an open floorplan with a relaxed and casual feel and worked with Erich Wilkinson of Winstead Wilkinson Architects and Duff’s Building and Design to plan and build this distinctly family oriented home. “We both love to cook,” says Vicki, “so a kitchen that would accommodate the two of us was a given.” It was also very important to the Smiths that the kitchen be the heart of a large open area where family and friends could easily gather to share a meal, music and conversation, where kids could do homework and guests could relax and sip wine.
Tom and Vicki have long been collectors of Southwestern art, and the detailing of the home’s interior includes rough-hewn posts and beams, warm wood moldings, Mission-style stained glass and oak floors.

As you enter the house, on the immediate right, glass-paneled doors open to an office, outfitted with rich cherry built-ins, custom crafted by Hillcrest Cabinets. Opposite this burnished wood and leather space, an open airy dining room features a bank of tall windows overlooking the barn and pastures. Southwestern and equestrian-themed art adorns the walls throughout this room and a Craftsman stained glass light fixture hangs over the simple oak and wrought iron dining table.

A long counter, bumped up on the dining room side, serves to conceal cooking clutter without closing off the space. In the kitchen, Tom and Vicki rolled up their sleeves and laid stone-textured, earth-toned ceramic floor tile themselves. Natural maple split-panel cabinets with hand-hammered iron hardware continue the rustic Southwest theme. In the center of the kitchen, a keyhole island offers ample food-prep space (with room for dual chefs to work on each side), as well as a semi-circle of bar-stool seating for supervising the cooking, or just visiting with the cooks.

Opposite the kitchen, the focal point of the family room is a Tennessee fieldstone fireplace. Daughters Jillian and Casey hand-washed the stone before it was installed by stonemason Bill Green, and Tom and son Jordan milled the massive rough-sawn mantle themselves from a downed cedar on the adjacent property. The vaulted two-story ceiling and abundant windows in this space give it a wide open feel, while the natural materials — the stone fireplace, wood floor and trim, leather furnishings and iron railings — maintain a warm, hearth-like ambience. The soaring ceilings also allow plenty of wall-space for the Smith’s extensive art collection, including one of their most recent additions, a rendering of Merry Band Farm by noted North Carolina artist and long-time friend Bob Irwin.

The family room overlooks a courtyard pool, terrace and summer kitchen — additions completed by Dreambuilders. Wrapped on three sides by the house, the garage and music room and a poolside cabana and hot tub, this hacienda space offers lovely vistas of green down the long end of the pool. Decking, trim and cabinetry are of mahogany and Ipe (an exotic Indonesian hardwood with the rich graining and exceptional durability of mahogany). Tom and Vicki cook many a meal on the outdoor kitchen’s stainless steel gas grill.

Casey Smith vistis with on of the family's horses. All members of the Smith family enjoy riding and caring for the animals. Photo by Ray Strawbridge.

Room for All
Beyond the family room, a downstairs master suite is a secluded enclave for Tom and Vicki. The bedroom overlooks the pool area and is filled with family photos and artwork (including Vicki’s own sketches). A spacious master bath leads to an exercise room that features a wall of glass for beautiful views of the property from the cycling trainer and the weight bench.

From the family room, stairs, with a custom wrought iron banister (hand-finished by Vicki) lead to the children’s quarters. “With four kids,” says Tom,” what we needed was a dormitory.” Indeed this upstairs space offers not only four bedrooms (girls to the right, boys to the left, each wing with its own Jack-and-Jill bath), but also a cozy central gathering room, with space for computer desk, game table, seating area (with extra-comfy, overstuffed furniture) and entertainment center. This casual kids’ gathering room opens onto a wide covered verandah with wrought iron railing and perhaps the best view in the house.

But the home itself is only half the package at Merry Band Farm. The horses and their quarters were every bit as important in the Smiths’ plans. (And horses aren’t the only critters roaming this ranch — a band of Australian Shepherds and a brood of laying hens are also part of the merry band.) A horse barn with classic crosshatched doors and window shutters is a picturesque focal point in the view from the house, with fencerows and riding rings radiating out toward the pasture and pond beyond.

For the barn, Tom had Terry Ellington of Ellington Builders pour the floor and set the poles and roof. And then the entire family pitched in, building out the six stalls, tack room and hayloft themselves—even making the name plates for the horse stalls. “To me, that’s a big part of this lifestyle,” says Tom, “taking care of your own stuff, making your own order, just doing it yourself.” 
Everyone rides at Merry Band Farm, Vicki and Casey competitively. “What we like best, though,” says Tom, “is to take off down the trail somewhere — ride out all day and spend the night.” The Smiths have begun breeding and raising horses, and their yearling Oldenburg, Dante, earned top rankings for his breed.

This horse-loving family is also passionate about its music. Tom has long played guitar and vocals with the local Country-Western-Blues-Fusion band, Hell & High Water. Son Eli is accomplished on drums and guitar — all of the children are musically inclined. So the latest addition to Merry Band Farm is a state-of-the-art music room, built by local builder Richard Hedgecock. This soaring space, mounted over a double carport — “the treehouse” — offers outstanding acoustics as well as exceptional views.  Oak floors and a cross-vaulted tongue-and-groove pine ceiling set the warm, rustic tone for this wide-open room. Banks of windows overlook the pool to the west and frame the pasture-flanked, winding gravel drive to the east.

A Roland digital recording console and wide array of instruments fill the far end of the room, along with a custom-designed hand-distressed entertainment center, complete with wide screen TV for watching the big game. Oversized, weathered black leather sofas and chairs enhance the Ponderosa ambience of this space, and a pool table and custom cue-rack feature the same espresso finish as the entertainment center.

Nearly 10 years ago, the Smiths set out to make a home that was more than just a house, but a place that embraced everything they loved — the horses, the countryside, the small-town lifestyle, the sound of music — and in Merry Band Farm, indeed they have created their own little slice of heaven. 

Kelly McCall Branson is a freelance writer