Italian Villa Meet Texas Hill Country in Tennessee

What do you get when your home design combines both Texas and Italy? Great views and fantastic outdoor spaces.

The ambitious goal for this project, located in Nashville, Tennessee, was to create a contemporary home influenced by both the Italianate and Texas Hill Country style. Alan Looney, owner of Castle Homes explains, “Our client shared photos with us from homes she had admired in the hill country of South Texas, as well as photos from her childhood memories of Italy. The home needed to be stucco and take advantage of as much natural light as possible.”

Italianate home style, sometimes called Tuscan Villa style, became popular in the United States in the 1840s. Italianate homes are known for low-pitch roofs, prominent eaves and even the occasional tower. Texas Hill Country style homes are recognized for expansive views, often made possible by floor-to-ceiling windows. Texas Hill Country style homes are more commonly seen in a rural setting, and can assume either a more traditional or more contemporary look.

The success of this project required thoughtful, and often difficult, decisions on which design elements to feature and which building materials to include to make this marriage of design styles a reality.

Castle Homes paid especially close attention to the sourcing of building materials on this project. “The homeowner herself is originally from Italy,” Alan says. “It was important for her to capture that feel of a real Italian villa, so a lot of the materials in the home were made in Italy, and some of the tile, door hardware, interior finishes, and trim profiles were inspired by Italian homes.”

These Marvin Ultimate Casement Inswing windows are adorned with Crémone hardware. Crémone bolt hardware was invented in Cremona Italy and is still popular in France today.

This home features distinctive indoor spaces like a stand-alone art studio, and several welcoming outdoor areas like the loggia, which is positioned between the stunning portal and main entry. “We wanted to physically connect the many unique indoor spaces with the outdoors wherever possible,” Alan says. “We accomplished this by creating covered walkways leading from one part of the home to another along with glass paneled doors.”

“In addition to the glass doors, floor-to-ceiling windows allow light to filter in naturally, complimenting the architectural integrity,” Alan says. “The biggest challenge in building this home was figuring out how to position the home on the lot to achieve the most amount of natural light while taking advantage of the outdoor views that the hillside provided.

We chose Marvin because of their dependability and ability to deliver unique and custom sizes for easy installation. We felt like they were a natural fit to achieve the multi-architectural styling of this contemporary home.”

With multiple scenic doors and floor-to-ceiling windows, energy efficiency was important to both the builder and the homeowner. More glass does not have to result in higher energy bills. “The use of Marvin windows and doors was very important because we wanted those large expanses of glass for natural light while still maintaining the energy efficiency that we were looking for,” Alan says. “All of our homes are built to Energy Star and Green building standards.”

Among the Marvin products used in this project are Ultimate French Doors, Narrow Frame Casement and Narrow Frame Picture windows. “Dale, Inc. is our Marvin dealer in town,” Alan says. “They were very accommodating in helping us designate the custom windows and doors to fit within the homeowner’s budget. And our Castle Homes trade partners appreciate working with such well-made windows and doors. They all rose to the occasion in helping to deliver such a special and beautiful home, which exceeded our client’s expectations.”