The Whetsels bring a Fourth and Gill beauty back to life, again

Knoxville Magazine

Inside the Whetsels' Fourth and Gill home.

Knoxville Magazine

Inside the Whetsels' Fourth and Gill home.

As an artist and former art teacher, Melynda Whetsel isn't afraid of blank canvases, heaps of raw material, or the prospect of a colossal mess. As an interior designer, she understands that every home begins as an empty shell and that the process of filling it requires equal part vision and patience.

But in 2005, when she and her husband Bob purchased a run-down 115-year-old fixer-upper in the historic Fourth and Gill neighborhood, Melynda felt like she'd met her match.

At the time, the Whetsel family, which also includes son Jackson, already inhabited a house across the street. They'd been living in the neighborhood for almost 30 years and were long-time supporters of its transformation from decaying historical area to pastiche of painstakingly-restored Victorians and flower-lined sidewalks. But their new purchase at 1015 Luttrell Street was showing its age in a serious way.

"When we bought it, it was a four-plex," Melynda recalls. "The porch was enclosed, and the whole house was wrapped in vinyl."

The interior was in worse shape, its expanses haphazardly cut up into multiple apartments crammed into a relatively small space. "It was a maze, just room after room," she says. "Dropped ceilings, shag carpets, it smelled, it was depressing. All I saw was work."

But Melynda had faith in Bob, and Bob had a plan. The house was gutted—walls knocked down, everything stripped to its core. The demolition gave Melynda a new perspective. "Once you could see the bones of it, you could see that there was something there," she says.

As the layers were carefully peeled away, the house's true character emerged. A floor-to-ceiling Jefferson window beside the front door was discovered beneath layers of plywood. A staircase's ornate woodwork surfaced from beneath 15 layers of smothering white paint. Beautiful floors of heart pine and virgin timber were uncovered as rugs were pulled up.

Over the following year, the Whetsels worked to restore the house to its glory, staying as true to its original identity as possible. The biggest deviation from that plan was the addition of a modern kitchen, sunroom and living room on the back of the house. Though it is new construction, however, its design melds seamlessly into the old.

They searched antique stores and flea markets for period-appropriate furniture pieces and returned with several gems: an 1890's French vanity for the downstairs bath, a 1940's Drexel dresser for the master bedroom, and grand four-poster beds. When the right fit couldn't be found, the Whetsels created it—like the hand-carved mantel they commissioned for the front sitting room, using sketches from other historic homes in the neighborhood.

Simultaneously, Melynda carved out a place for her own artwork, a unique style of collage that contains layers upon layers of mixed-media material. Other art, a colorful combination of family heirlooms and the work of local artists, colleagues and students, brings the walls to life.

In the sitting room, for instance, a portrait of Melynda's mother as a young woman hangs above an upright piano, across the room from a former student's self-portrait, a jazz-era inspired work by local artist Cynthia Markert, and an old-fashioned painting of a Victorian woman. Upstairs, Melynda continues work on her own projects in her quiet studio.

Throughout the home, large windows casting sunlight from east to west give the feel of an open, airy gallery. A pale shade of yellow was chosen as the interior's primary wall color. "It's a fabulous color," Melynda says. "It goes with almost everything. And it looks different in every room because the light hits it differently."

"I love old things and traditional things, and then I like to whack something in there that's totally off the wall," Melynda says of her eclectic style.

The exterior of the home is a work of living art, shrouded in vibrant flowering plants and shrubs. Those who live in Fourth and Gill seem to take pride in keeping up the neighborhood's appearance, as they take pride in the neighborhood itself—preserving its history while working toward a healthy, thriving future. The Whetsels are friends with their neighbors and a sense of camaraderie pervades the area.

"We love it here," Melynda says. "We moved here for the architecture, but we stayed here for the people."

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