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"View Slideshow\n\nAs with other things in life, building a house can actually be more wonderful the second time around. In 1998 the home that Sam Beall and his wife, Mary Celeste, were constructing at Blackberry Farm\u2014the gastronomically driven world-class inn owned by his family near Knoxville, Tennessee\u2014was already at the framing stage when opportunities uprooted them to the West Coast for two years. In addition to enrolling in the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, Sam had been offered a training position at the Ritz-Carlton there, followed by one in the kitchen at Thomas Keller's French Laundry in Napa Valley. And the chance to peel carrots at Keller's acclaimed restaurant isn't something you turn down lightly, even if it is nonpaying and you have just poured the foundation of your dream house on the other side of the country.\n\nIn the end it was Sam's parents, Kreis and Sandy, who followed through with construction of the house at Blackberry, happily making it their own. When the junior Bealls returned, with an eye toward taking over running the inn, they began considering other sites on the Blackberry property. As it encompasses some 4,200 humbling acres in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, there were plenty of spots for the young couple to try again.\n\n\"We started thinking of it in terms of our \u2018forever house,'\" Mary Celeste says, \"the house we would raise our children in and pass on to them.\" (The Bealls have four children, ages three to 14, with a fifth expected in December.) When it came to enlisting collaborators for the project, the choices were obvious: The architecture firm of Spitzmiller &amp;amp; Norris and decorator Suzanne Kasler, both based in Atlanta, had previously done work for the Beall family, at Blackberry and elsewhere.\n\n\"The property offered an embarrassment of siting possibilities,\" Rick Spitzmiller says. \"We finally settled on a scenic rise overlooking a meadow, with the mountains in the distance.\" Spitzmiller and Robert Norris's design\u2014 a two-story central block flanked by single-story wings with front-facing gables\u2014pays tribute to Andrew Jackson's Hermitage, in Nashville, as it was after improvements were carried out in 1831. Triple-hung windows and a Doric portico reference Fairmont, another historic Tennessee mansion of the same period. Clapboard siding and cedar roof shingles are also vernacular. Fieldstone for the central bay's fa\u00E7ade as well as the chimneys and fireplaces was harvested on the property, while hardwoods felled to make way for new accommodations at the resort were milled for interior trim and paneling.\n\n\"The fact that everyone on the team had a history with our family counted for a lot,\" Mary Celeste says. \"We felt confident in Rick and Robert because they have a traditional firm and shared our commitment to using as many local artisans and materials as possible. Suzanne understands Southern hospitality but does not do what you might call fluffy, classic Southern homes. Her style is tailored, handsome\u2014not froufrou.\"\n\nSam recalls how, when he was growing up, his family lived in \"a silly number of places,\" his favorite being an 1850s house right on the bay in Mobile, Alabama, with a dining room located just inside the front door. \"I loved the focus that put on food and entertaining,\" he says, \"so we did something similar here.\"\n\nView Slideshow1 / 13Sam and Mary Celeste Beall and their four children outside their home at Blackberry Farm, in Walland, Tennessee, which was designed by architecture firm [Spitzmiller &amp;amp; Norris](http://www.spitzmillerandnorris.com) and decorator [Suzanne Kasler](http://suzannekasler.com).\n\nIt certainly makes for an arresting entry. Beyond a narrow gallery that eases the transition from outdoors, the sprawling dining room is outfitted with hand-painted de Gournay wallpaper patterned with birds and blossoms, a stately oval table, and a suite of chairs with tall, gently curved backs. The latter's linen slipcovers have a graceful pleated hem, an example of the dressmaker details Kasler favors.\n\nAdjoining the dining room is the home's hub of activity: an all-in-one kitchen/family room/dining area that's casually appointed with a banquette, painted Windsor chairs, and a sturdy trestle table. Off to another side is a warm, paneled living room, where Biedermeier pieces mix effortlessly with a Saladino Furniture sofa and a Rose Tarlow Melrose House table, while lush curtains hang from hand-forged iron rods.\n\n\"Suzanne's a great editor,\" Mary Celeste says. \"She knew that we wanted every piece of furniture to be used, that everything must have a purpose.\"\n\nKasler's job, of course, was also to wed purpose to style. In the study, an intimate parlor space off the first-floor master suite, Sam sits down to work in an antique armchair covered in a velvet tiger stripe, pulled up to a circa-1900 leather-top bureau plat that once stood in the Banque de France. The room's soft color, a subdued greige, typifies Kasler's palette. Rift-sawn white-oak paneling was finished via an elaborate ten-step process that included first treating the wood with alcohol to lift the grain, then staining, liming, sanding, and glazing it.\n\n\"Collected rather than decorated\" is how Kasler describes the overall look of the house. She adds that \"there's a feeling of legacy, of heritage, as if it's always been there.\"\n\nThat sense of seamless integration into the setting perfectly suits the couple, who devote their days\u2014and sometimes nights\u2014 to overseeing the Relais &amp;amp; Ch\u00E2teaux resort just up the road. \"We figured we could spend the rest of our days trying to keep our personal and professional lives separate, or we could just accept the fact that it's all one life,\" Sam says. \"That's where we are today.\"\n\nClick here to view the slide show of this Tennessee home with built in feeling of heritage."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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