Story by Lee Rennick
Photos by Erin Kosko, Lee Rennick and Kristen Taylor
In June 2016, Alex Taylor, M.D. and his wife Kristen moved to Murfreesboro from Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. Taylor, originally from Nashville, had just finished medical school at University of Alabama School of Medicine and completed his residency in anesthesiology at the University of Alabama Medical Center. Upon completion of his medical training, he was offered a position at Murfreesboro Anesthesia Group, Pa. The couple has been here ever since; having found a house they love and a home for their family.
“There weren't many houses for sale when we were looking for one,” explained Kristen, “and even though we knew this house needed a lot of work, we fell in love with the neighborhood and the location. Anyone that knows me, knows that I love a good ‘before and after,’ so home renovations have become a passion of mine and a labor of love!”
This house being the only one the Taylors have owned here, the couple stayed with the original footprint as they remodeled the entire space over the last 10 years. They redid the floors and painted the walls before moving in, then lived in it for two years to get a feel for how they used it before they began remodeling the entire house room by room.
“We have renovated everything in this house,” noted Kristen. “Every bedroom, bathroom, light fixture, everything. Some rooms have seen two renovations. Once we started renovating our master bathroom in 2018, we knew we could make it the home we dreamed of, and that is when I really fell in love with working on home projects.”
Not using an interior designer, Kristen has chosen everything herself. Every wall color. Every finish. And every piece of furniture.
“It was not something I knew I enjoyed when we first started the renovations, but I just love it now,” she enthused. “We have tried to remodel one room a year until we finished.”
“I don’t like too many choices,” she shared. “For example, when I was picking the paint color for the main living space -- we just repainted in the spring -- I bet I had 20 swatches of white on the wall. I was like, I am never going to choose. And so, I narrowed it down to three and then it was very easy. I like three choices. That’s it.”
Remodeling the Kitchen was the Biggest Project
Opening the wall between the kitchen and the living room flooded the once dark space with volumes of natural light, as did removing a glass-paned door and enlarging the opening between the kitchen and the living room. The couple also took out a long peninsula, replacing it with a larger island, offering more space for a breakfast table, as well as lovely views of the back yard and pool. All the floor to ceiling windows at the back of the house were already there, however they were covered up with curtains.
“There were older cabinets in the kitchen then and no backsplash. The cabinets didn’t go to the ceiling before,” said Kristen. “It was outdated so we took it all out and started over. The basic footprint is the same, but we knew we wanted more of an open concept to create more of a natural flow to the house.”
Kristen has added muted gold accents, in the kitchen and beyond. When they moved in, there were a lot of brass fixtures, which she did not care for, and a lot of silver, which was popular in the 90s when the house was built. The warm tones of the muted gold make everything feel welcoming, comfortable and more inviting.
Sources for the Home
“I’ve gotten stuff from all over,” proclaimed Kristen. “I have several pieces from antique stores in Franklin, and I love Arhaus furniture and home accessories. The breakfast room table is from West Elm. I don’t do expensive rugs; I have a dog and kids. That is something I will never spend a lot of money on. But the stuff I know I am going to keep – like art – I will put more money into. All of the art pieces in my house are from painters out of Birmingham, where I am from. I love bringing part of my hometown here.”
The ‘Taters and Onyuns’ box in the breakfast room was her grandmother, Vivian’s. It has always been in her kitchen. It was the one thing she requested when her grandmother passed away.
“I was the youngest grandchild and there weren't enough stools for all the grandkids at the island in my grandparent’s house, so I would pull the tater box up and sit on it with a big pillow on top of it,” Kristen reminisced.
Brown patterned porcelain plates artfully scattered over the door and on the wall between the kitchen and laundry room are a new hobby. Kristen just completed the display. The wall had been bare for 10 years, awaiting the right thing.
“I was like, what do I put on this wall,” she said. “I liked the idea of plates, but all I had ever seen was blue or bright colored ones. So, when I discovered that they made neutral ones, I went a little crazy. There are a lot of bunnies in our back yard, so I had to get at least one bunny plate. A few of them are from antique shops in Franklin, I like to go to antique shops over there. I also found some on replacements.com and Etsy. They tend to have the most.”
Investing in What Matters
Two things Kristen does invest in are custom draperies and art. Kaye Hazzard did all of the custom drapes. Her business is Kaye’s Custom Creations. For the draperies in the kitchen, Kristen found fabric online from Schumacher, but it was on back order for six months. Hazzard told her to wait. That when you find the one you love, it’s worth the wait.
“It finally came in a couple of months ago,” remarked Kristen.
Hazzard has done a lot of work for Kristen, including draperies, pillows, the ottoman in the living room and the bench in the main bedroom. She brought swatches of fabric for the lounge, dining room and main bedroom for Kristen to choose from.
“She brought it over and I said, ‘Oh, yeah, I like that, let’s do that,’” she added. “I like how the drapery in the lounge has the browns and the greens in it that tie everything together.”
While the dining room and main bedroom stay within the light color pallet used in the majority of the home, the lounge and the downstairs powder room are dark and moody, complimenting each other. The colors found on the powder room’s dark floral wallpaper were used for the paint and furnishings inspiration in the lounge, which shows off Alex’s collection of fine bourbons housed in a custom black lacquer cabinet.
“The dark green lounge and the wallpaper in the powder room play well off of each other, providing pops of color against the creamy neutrals of the rest of the home,” explained Kristen. “I used plush grey velvet, warm caramel leather, black lacquer and gold for the furniture in the lounge, to give it a cozy atmosphere.”
The first time she used wallpaper was in the laundry room, but she has since become more daring. Since then, she has used it in the very dramatic powder room and the main suite. Beth Frame has done all of the wallpaper application through her business, Framed Wall Coverings.
As far as art, Kristen prefers abstracts. In the foyer hangs a large canvas by Birmingham artist Carrie Pittman. Another dramatic piece hangs over the fireplace in the living room.
“I don’t know what draws me to a piece of art,” noted Kristen. “I am not drawn to scenery. I am to abstract. I do not know why. Perhaps because I like symmetry a lot.”
Her sister used to do photography. She is the one who took the photos of the Taylor’s children, Parker and Vivian, that are hanging in the dining room. The one of Parker was taken at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham, and the picture of Vivian was taken in front of a friend’s house in Murfreesboro.
Special Family Furnishings and New Finds
Just as the home is a blend of high and low items, it is also a blend of family heirlooms and new furnishings. Her guestroom upstairs has a special headboard made from pieces of wood from when Kristen’s family took her grandfather’s barn apart. The headboard even has one of the original hinges. She, her sister and her mother all took pieces of the 100-year-old barn wood. Her sister had her pieces made into sliding barn doors. Her mother used her pieces as an accent on her kitchen island.
Rediscovered under her grandfather’s barn, daughter Vivian’s bed was once Kristen’s mother’s childhood bed, then it became Kristen’s childhood bed.
“It is solid iron, so it has to be sandblasted and you have to take it to a specialist to have it repainted, my daughter doesn’t really like the color, but it is staying pink,” Kristen chuckled. “I have a lot of fun little family pieces like that.”
Although they have used many different contractors for their various projects, Eddie Linville remodeled her daughter’s bathroom in the fall of 2025. “Vivian loves blue, so we went all in when changing the design for her new bathroom,” said Kristen. “It might be my favorite bathroom in the house.”
Husband Wanted a Tech House
While Kristen has made most of the design choices for the home, one thing that Alex was adamant about was having a techy home. Everything electrical can be controlled from their phones.
“My husband’s big project for this house was turning it into a smart home,” Kristen noted. “He always wanted a ‘robot house’ when he was little. He did all the programming and installation himself. He's extremely good with technology!”
The couple met at Auburn University the summer before their senior year. After getting married, they lived in Birmingham for 10 years while Alex was going to medical school -- and had two babies during that time. It is hard for Kristen to believe they have been in Murfreesboro for 10 years and remodeled the entire house. While the house has officially been completed once, additional changes are always taking place as their family’s needs change.