A Love Letter to Memphis

Design by City Hill Design | Story by Terri Glazer | Photography by Javen Photography

When the 2021 Vesta Home Show opens next month, Mid Southerners will have the chance to tour five spectacular new homes. In the spirit of anticipation, we’re taking a look back at Tiger Hall, one of our favorites from last year’s Vesta show. 

“Go with what you know” is always a good idea. Tiger Hall, one of the homes featured in the 2020 Vesta Home Show is proof. Sisters Amy Mobley and Katie Norrid, owners of City Hill Design, found inspiration for the project’s guiding concept from the city they know and love.

Says Mobley, “If you're from here, you love all things Memphis. I don't care if you're in Collierville, Germantown, you're proud of your city. So we decided Memphis was going to be our theme. What does Memphis entail? It's got art, music, a ton of history and classic design. And so that's where we kept everything, in those parameters.”

The team of sisters and lifelong Memphians sent David Anderson and all the collaborators who would contribute to Tiger Hall that concept and a vision packet. “We gave them color tones, the vibe that we were going for and the keywords that we were looking for,” Mobley says. Their other guiding concept was to create a show home from which guests could take bits and pieces to incorporate into their everyday life. “Kind of like fashion runway shows in New York, how it's outlandish, and just kind of over the top and fun. We wanted people to walk through and be inspired to take parts of it and go with it.”

Mobley was excited to work in tandem with Tiger Hall’s builder, City Hill Homes, owned by her husband Zach Mobley and Jonathan Draper. “People think that because our companies have the same name, we always work together,” she says, “but this was our first full crossover project. It helped that I’m married to the contractor—we could talk him into a lot more. He was a good sport.”

Norrid explains that the design team, which also included Rachel Welch, relished the chance to step outside familiar parameters. “We were like, ‘What can we do, what has Memphis not seen? Can we mix it up and shake up what you normally see at a home show—give people some things they haven’t seen before without being too wild or weird?’” 

Their concepts hit both marks. The house has innovations galore and nods to the Bluff City everywhere, starting with the exterior elevation. In an homage to Graceland, Memphis’ most iconic home, Anderson gave Tiger Hall two symmetrical rows of windows across the front. He also situated a balcony above the front door, a perfect fit for its Spring Creek neighborhood, where families often visit in front yards. Both Mobley and Norrid live in Spring Creek, so they know firsthand how neighbors spend lots of time out in the common spaces and chatting with each other. 

Tuscan Iron Entries fabricated the home’s iron and glass front door, the matching rear door and all the iron work. Light spills into the entryway, illuminating a show-stopping floor that marries wood and marble in a custom pattern that Mobley says was a study in collaboration between the home’s flooring and stone artisans. The open stairway also provided a challenge for contractors, but the result is unparalleled. Anderson designed the staircase facing the home’s rear side, and with open treads, again to maximize light.

Having a game room directly off the front entry is decidedly outside-the-box architecture, but it works beautifully in Tiger Hall. Separated from the foyer by a wall of frosted, ribbed glass, the area features a pull-down projection screen, a full bar and a comfy sectional upholstered in, of course, blue suede. City Hill designed the piece with open sections to accommodate viewing the action both on the TV screen and at the custom shuffleboard table behind it. The “Easy Tiger” neon sign above the bar was a huge hit with Vesta attendees. “We could have sold 20 of those!” laughs Norrid.

Across the entry the formal living room opens to the kitchen to the right and the dining area at the rear, where light floods in through a wall of windows. In the kitchen, handmade cabinetry from BylerCraft in Whiteville, TN, is the star of the show. Norrid calls the kitchen island a labor of love from the craftsmen. “It has reeded detail all along the sides with hidden drawers built in. It’s high-lacquer black and it looks like an antique chest. The top was almost like a table overlay and the legs are all on little brass casters.”

Adds Mobley, “One thing we found is unless you work with somebody who really custom makes everything, it's hard to create a vision—something that's not your normal or typical piece. They literally made every detail come alive.” 

Adjacent to the kitchen, a scullery and butler’s pantry make entertaining a breeze. So much prep space, as well as the home’s effortless flow from room to room and to patio areas both in front and behind create a perfect setup for entertaining. 

Two bedroom/bath suites, the primary and a guest, complete the downstairs.

On the second floor, much of the space is the domain of the homeowners’ teenage daughter. Mobley says she and Norrid had a blast designing the area and took inspiration from decor superstar Kelly Wearstler. The custom upholstered bed and funky light fixture provide a subtle 80’s vibe and the gallery wall is anything but standard. Layered over picture-frame molding, art is attached to chains suspended from the ceiling.

The homeowners requested a home gym and City Hill delivered masterfully. From the mirrored wall to the combination wood/rubberized floor, to the locker-room style closet, the space is the perfect setting for working out, topped off by a custom mural of a stylized Bluff City skyline by Sam Reeves.

That mural is just one of a gallery’s worth of local art pieces Norrid and Mobley placed in the house as a love letter to their hometown. The designers approached a long list of local artists, explaining their all-things-Memphis concept for the show home, and they were amazed by the response. “So many people painted specific pieces just for the Vesta. I was blown away!” says Norrid. 

Tiger Hall is home to art from Leslie Barron, Meghan Hurdle, David Butler, Erika Roberts, Katie Toombs, Pam McDonnell, Maggie Russell, Chelsea Fly, Candace Boatright and Drew Barham, who just happens to be the brother of Mobley and Norrid. Not just local artists, the subject matter is also pure Memphis. It spans the landscape from Skateland to Shelby Farms to downtown trolleys. And there’s a who’s who of local music legends: Elvis, Johnny Cash, BB King and Justin Timberlake. The music itself became art in a downstairs hallway where classic albums and singles line the walls in a fun geometric pattern. 

Winks to the Mid South keep coming, but in subtle ways. The built-in kegerator in the bar sports a tap from Grind City Brewing and crushed velvet on the headboard in the downstairs guest bedroom is a modern take on decor from the home of the King himself. Tigers roam on the dramatic wallpaper in the powder room. Local vendors like Elle Woven rugs and Blue Pencil home organization also put their mark on Tiger Hall to create a true showplace with the best of Memphis.

In fact, Norrid says her young daughter proclaimed City Hill’s Vesta masterpiece so recently. “We were out riding in the neighborhood in the golf cart and we went past the house. My little girl stood up and said, ‘Look, Mama, it’s the best stuffs house!’”

Truer words were never spoken.