Gay Dawson had just one request for her interior designer after looking at a home located at Heritage Landing, “Gut it.” “I took one look at the view and I didn’t care what the inside looked like; I knew this was my home,” says Dawson, who formerly resided in Atlanta and London, England.
Gay had looked at houses in Florida and along East Coast beaches, but when she saw the view of the Tennessee River from the Heritage Landing home, she knew she had found her “beach house.” Aside from the fact that the home was situated on the riverfront, the Heritage Landing locale had everything Gay was looking for: a home on one level that was convenient to downtown and NorthShore. Another selling point for Gay was that she would only be a few minutes away from her daughter and family on Lookout Mountain - Ali and Rick Bowers and their two children, Hud and Dawson.
And so began the long process of redesigning the two bedroom, two bath home with kitchen, living and dining areas. Gay has a second home, a 250-year-old farmhouse in Virginia near Bunker Hill, where she spent time while the Heritage Landing home was undergoing renovation.
Gay’s real estate agent introduced her to interior designer Hank Matheny of Haskell Interiors in Cleveland, Tennessee.
She was impressed with Hank’s presentation and eventually came to look forward to his packages, which would arrive almost every Friday with fabric swatches and samples.
With the exception of some pieces with sentimental value from Gay’s Atlanta home in Buckhead, and items purchased while she lived in Europe, everything was chosen and designed with the Heritage Landing home in mind. Like the ugly duckling becoming a beautiful swan, the home was transformed into an elegant yet comfortable home that makes the most of the river views.
Nowhere is the home’s transformation more apparent than in the elegant, cozy kitchen where three small “dark and dreary” rooms were opened to create a small dining area furnished with antiques at one end and a corner sitting area with views of the river at the other end. The color scheme of the sitting area was pulled from a large oil painting of Gay and her daughter, which is placed over the sofa.
As for the kitchen, Gay wanted an elegant, rather than industrial kitchen. The soft sage green walls and custom cream-colored cabinetry were inspired by Gay’s china and give the French style kitchen a light and airy feel. The kitchen island, used for entertaining, is painted the same sage green as the walls. At either end of the island are display shelves capped with walnut tops.
Other French-inspired accents include a large vent hood over the electric stove, flanked by acanthus leaf corbels; crackle finish porcelain cabinet knobs, small chandeliers over the island, and two decorative newel posts placed on either side of the cabinet below the sink. The countertops are made of Cambria natural quartz.
The living and dining rooms on the back of the home have 180-degree views of the river, visible from either the bay window in the dining area or from a bank of windows and a door opening to the rear patio from the living area.
The living and dining areas are one continuous space, separated not by walls, but by a sideboard in the dining area which backs up to the sofa in the living area. This creates an effective visual separation of the two areas. However, it is the harvest color scheme of persimmon, terra cotta, soft browns and cinnamon, used for the upholstery and draperies, and the butternut-colored walls, that unite the two spaces.
The living room is dominated by a large sandstone fireplace surround, carved with Greek motifs. Black and gold Oriental lanterns sit at either end of the mantel and encase two antique vases made of caramel-colored blown art glass. Flanking the fireplace, and adding visual balance to the wall, are two black and gold console tables with inlay tops that Gay found in Virginia and over which hang two tiled mirrors.
One of the sentimental pieces that Gay brought from her Atlanta home is a large, antique wooden desk in the living room, which had been in her late husband’s study. It now holds several framed family photos.
There is no room in the home that does not have some framed photos of Gay and her family. Nowhere is this more evident than in the hallway, between the wallpaper and gold ceiling foyer and master bedroom, where a montage of family pictures is proudly displayed.
Pictures of children and grandchildren, weddings and family vacations are interspersed with pictures of Gay from childhood up through her career as a meteorologist and weathercaster. Gay, the first female weathercaster on The Weather Channel, worked there from 1982 to 1987 and enjoyed a long career in meteorology and commercial work.
The handsome guest bathroom, located between the living area and hallway, is dominated by a mirrored serpentine-shaped vanity, over which hangs a Venetian mirror. The upper portion of the walls is papered in a creamy serpentine vine motif; the lower portion is tiled using cream-colored tiles with a small raised bead in the center, which provides a tufted texture. Separating the upper portion from the lower is a three-dimensional pyramidal-shaped railing made of chocolate pen shell and mother of pearl. Silver accessories, monogrammed towels and a brown velvet shower curtain complete the look.
Soft greens were used for the guest bedroom color scheme, carried through with the celery walls, silk shantung bed cover and silk plaid draperies. Decorative bed pillows and hand-painted porcelain flowered plates, displayed on the wall along with paintings by Gay’s late husband, come together to add cheerful accents to the room. The pewter bed is painted a soft white, and a knotty pine armoire adds a charming, provincial touch to the guest room.
Tiffany blue walls, with a textured metallic sheen, form the backdrop for the master suite, which is dominated by a rice-carved four poster bed brought from Gay’s home in Atlanta. The bedcovering could almost pass for a French Aubusson rug or tapestry, as it has similar pastel colors and delicate flowers. On either side of the bed are two hand-painted framed silk Chinoiserie fabric pieces. The red armoire facing the bed also has Chinoiserie motifs.
At the far end of the bedroom is a sitting area that looks out toward the river. Blue and beige toile draperies frame the windows. There is a custom chaise lounge for relaxing and two square-backed arm chairs with brown embroidered crewel upholstery. The fabric was inspired by a small occasional table that sits
between the two chairs and features two oval-shaped glass shelves etched in a motif similar to the crewel fabric.
Above the chairs are two watercolor prints of seaside venues that once belonged to Gay’s late husband; each has been reframed and brought back to life. Gay especially likes the prints, as they remind her of her waterside Chattanooga home.
The Tiffany blue walls and blue toile fabric were used in the white marble bathroom to provide continuity between the bed and bath. To the right are custom double vanities with marble countertops and a lower connecting dressing table in between. A custom-made oval back chair, with Gay’s initials woven on the back of the chair, sits in front of the dressing table. Pen and ink prints of English scenes that Gay purchased while living in England are framed in burl walnut and hung over the dressing table. A silver-footed soaking tub sits in front of a wall that has a decorative arch made of small blue and green tiles. The tiled blue and green arch design was also used in the walk-in marble shower. A mirrored chest of drawers complements the white marble and silver fixtures in the very elegant bath.
After a successful career in broadcasting and living in London and Atlanta, Gay feels very fortunate to have found her “beach house” in Chattanooga. Her son Joey, a professional UTPC tennis player and coach, made the family transition to Chattanooga complete when he relocated to Chattanooga a few months ago. Gay thoroughly enjoys living in Chattanooga and especially enjoys her new home - so much so that when she recently had to stay in a hotel while having a new HVAC system installed, she realized how much she missed the views of the bridges, Bluff View and Lookout Mountain.
“I feel like I have the best of all the places I have lived,” Gay reflects. “Living in Chattanooga, I have the four seasons of my farmhouse in Virginia, the bridges and river of the River Thames when I lived in London, and the boutiques, shops and quaint restaurants of Atlanta. It really is the best of everything.”