Inside a Colorful Cashiers Mountain Retreat Designed for Modern Family Living

The eat-in kitchen gleams in green with cabinets coated in Benjamin Moore Secret Path and Woodbridge Furniture counter stools in Sherwin-William Billiard Green.

Residential designer Shannon Hargrove says he strives to craft a home that he hopes clients will pull up to and think, “I can’t believe this is mine.”

Featuring a round table from Century Furniture and chandelier from Alcott Interiors’ showroom, the breakfast area is worth waking up for.

The dining table from Foxglove Antiques Collective is ideal for the large family and is dotted with small hand-carved mushrooms from the Alcott Interiors showroom.

The dining room opens to the great room for easy flow and entertaining.

The great room offers plenty of seating for conversation, highlighting items like an English tufted leather ottoman and zebra side table.

The downstairs guest bath features a custom vanity in Oyster Bay paint by Sherwin-Williams. The mirrors, flanked by Visual Comfort & Co. sconces, were custom designed with Anne Sheeler in Nashville.

The downstairs guest bedroom stands out for its drapery in a Peter Fasano Darta pattern.

The primary bedroom is a relaxing dream with a four-poster faux-bamboo bed from Louis J. Solomon and a chest that serves as a nightstand.

The bedroom’s green and cream hues extend to the primary bath with Thibaut Bethany wallpaper. The roman shades are from Lisa Fine Textiles.

The upstairs guest room stands out for its bed frame from Noir Furniture splashed in Benjamin Moore Country Redwood, which is edged by end-of-the-bed benches from Highland House.

The bunkroom is no ordinary kid’s room—it’s fitted with trundle beds from Classic Upholstery and star, sun, and moon ottomans from Highland House.

The bunk bath pulls in the bedroom’s cobalt hue with custom cabinetry by Advance Cabinetry painted in Sherwin-Williams Loyal Blue. The tile is from Renaissance Tile & Bath.

The Carolina Room blends the sophistication of the great room with the charm of a covered porch. The room is set with durable wicker Kingsley Bate sofas and swivel chairs.

In a town like Cashiers, North Carolina, where classic mountain style dominates, a newly built home by residential designer Shannon Hargrove, interior designer Carolyn Kendall of Alcott Interiors, and builder Logan Custom Homes sets a fresh standard without sacrificing mountain charm. Think saturated colors, rich textures, and patterns galore. “Re-creating what a mountain house is has become really important to my company,” says Kendall, who has shaped the interiors of quite a few homes in the area, including her own. “They live like a full-time home, not as much like a second home like a lot of houses up here.”

The designer’s Nashville clients have visited Cashiers for years, so when it came time to build a retreat of their own, hospitality was essential. “It was their dream to build a mountain home to share with their growing family, as they spend a lot of time with the grandkids,” she says.

For Hargrove, the large, level lot overlooking Cashiers was a dream canvas, where he could create generous spaces for gathering and entertaining. “In mountain terms, this was a rare opportunity. The home is not hanging off a cliff, like so many others, which allowed me to connect the interior of the home to the outdoors with little effort,” says Hargrove.

That intent is most evident in the great room, which showcases vaulted ceilings with beautiful timber scissor trusses and a stone fireplace. It accommodates both living and dining areas and opens via sliding doors to the Carolina Room (covered porch), doubling the size of the great room with its own seating and dining areas. Plus, its epic views beg for lingering. “The Carolina Room offers the wow factor,” says Hargrove of the open mountain vistas. “One step down off that space and  you’re on this wonderful lawn, where the view just keeps getting better.”

While traditional elements are woven throughout, Kendall devised an intentional freshness with a rich color palette, grasscloth wallcoverings, and patterned draperies not often seen in mountain homes. That color saturation is on display in the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry, doused in deep blues and greens, and extends to a guest room with a red and sage green color combo. “The red guest room is one of my favorite rooms of the home, with a neat mix of that sage wall color and the bed that we had hand-painted in a cranberry red,” she says.

For added intrigue, every single room is touched with antiques or European influences. “Every room should have some of these unique pieces so it doesn’t look like a catalog house,” she advises.

Instead of the typical dark stained wood that prevails in the mountains, the designer favors lighter to medium-stained woods, such as the faux-bamboo bed in the primary bedroom. “It brightens it up and doesn’t make it feel quite so heavy,” notes Kendall. The primary bathroom is also a breath of fresh mountain air, with details like roman shades and a floor pattern that resembles wood for a modern rustic look. Adds the designer, “It offers the feel of the mountains but a crispness that makes it current.”

Anchored by bunk beds and two custom daybeds with pullout trundle beds for memorable sleepovers, a high-design bunkroom covered in grasscloth wallpaper and drenched in cobalt blue and cream hues is the grandkids’ paradise. “Eight people can sleep in this room,” says Kendall. “This will be where the grandkids grow up, loving to be in there.”

INTERIOR DESIGN Carolyn Kendall, Alcott Interiors, (615) 385-2873; alcottinteriors.com RESIDENTIAL DESIGNER Shannon Hargrove, (478) 957-7642 BUILDER Logan Custom Homes; (828) 743-5010; logancustomhomeswnc.com CABINETRY Advanced Cabinetry, (912) 367-9663; advancedcabinetry.work