Tour the Vibrant Nashville Sanctuary That Extreme Makeover ’s Joanna Teplin Calls Home

Sarah Lyon

February 14, 2025 at 8:00 a.m.·9 min read

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Nashville resident Joanna Teplin was eager to get in touch with Rebecca Robinson, the owner and principal designer of Monarch Lane Interiors, when she decided to build an entirely new home from the ground up. After all, Robinson had worked on Teplin’s prior home’s addition.

Teplin, who is both the cofounder of The Home Edit and the cohost of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition on ABC, wanted to play an active role in the design process. While she relied on Robinson’s professional expertise, she very much enjoyed weighing in on fabrics, color choices, and beyond for each room within her new home. “I thought, ‘Please let me pick out every single item because it’s the most fun thing I can do,’” Teplin reflects. “It’s such a creative outlet for me.” Taking this route ended up working out seamlessly for the duo. “She was so accommodating and wonderful,” Teplin says of Robinson.

A purple Nickey Kehoe sofa adds a burst of color to the sizable, airy living room, painted in Farrow & Ball All White. Custom art by Ann Marie Coolick hangs above the marble fireplace.

The primary sitting room features a plush sectional from Lee Industries, which is covered in a navy velvet. Farrow & Ball’s Brockhampton Star wallpaper adds a playful touch to the ceiling, while the remaining walls are adorned with the same brand’s Closet Stripe paper.

Moving from a semi-custom home to a fully custom one, Teplin had a strong vision about the feelings she wanted the new space to encompass. “What I really wanted was to create a vibrant, cozy, timeless house,” she shares. The space had to feel like a sanctuary and evoke a hotel-like vibe, given that Teplin travels so much for her job. “The experience of being in a beautiful hotel… it transcends all things,” she says. “It feels luxurious, and there’s an escapism there.” While incorporating a relaxing element was key, it was equally important that the home didn’t feel stark in any way. “I wanted to have a really warm, welcoming house for my family and friends, but also make it just this elevated, fun jewel box of crazy colors and timelessness,” Teplin adds.

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Picture frame molding contributes to the elegance of the entryway. “Wherever there wasn’t wallpaper planned, I wanted to make sure to have picture frame molding,” Teplin says. “That was really important to me.” Robinson installed a custom mosaic tile on the floor and sourced the oval-shaped mirror from Perigold.

Though they had worked together recently, Teplin and Robinson started fresh design-wise in this home, carrying over only a couple of pieces from the previous house. Robinson describes the design vision for the new space as “very clean and classic, but with some pattern play and color.” Being able to color drench—“drenching is her vibe,” Robinson says of Teplin—was especially exciting. From the moment visitors set foot into Teplin’s home, they’ll notice a bold Farrow & Ball Radicchio red greeting them in the entryway. Further inside the house, Gucci wallpaper pops in both the dining room and in Teplin’s office. The homeowner isn’t afraid that she’ll tire of these vivid choices. “When something’s beautiful, I feel like it’s always beautiful,” she adds.

Wallpaper in Gucci’s vibrant New Flora print dazzles on the walls of the dining room. Robinson covered six chairs from Lee Industries in a custom green velvet and sourced the round dining table from Garde.

Of course, being that Joanna Teplin has built her career around home organization, allowing for proper storage systems was another paramount component of the design journey. “The goal was to have utilized every square inch for maximum storage,” Robinson says. “That’s definitely who [Teplin] is in real life.”

The kitchen is “the family hub,” Robinson says. The custom beaded inset cabinetry by SC Brown Cabinet Company and island are painted in Sherwin-Williams Evergreen Fog, and the barstools are covered in cheerful lido stripe fabric.

Ogawa Green Manganese tiles from Heath Ceramics covers one of the walls in the pantry, which once again features custom cabinetry by Seth Brown Cabinet Company.

The focal point of the breakfast nook? Roman shades made from Lemon Grove fabric by de Gournay. Robinson flanked the Chaddock table with soft dining chairs from Maiden Home.

Teplin shares her home with her husband and two children and was passionate about designing communal areas as well as individual spaces for her family members. She isn’t a fan of open floor plans—“I think everyone does well having a door”—but was instead inspired by British design, and enthusiastically incorporated “snugs,” or small, one- to two-person sized rooms, throughout the house. “I really like things broken up into little, tiny, bite-sized pieces,” she says.

Teplin and Robinson chose to divide the second floor of the house into two separate wings, one for the adults and one for the children, each with its own separate staircase. The adult wing features a home gym with a wet bar, a private bathroom, and his and her home offices, and the children’s wing features a movie room, game room, art room, powder room, and laundry room. Down a hallway are the private kids’ suites, each with their own bathroom.

The media room, painted in Farrow & Ball’s Stiffkey Blue, is an example of one of the snugs that Teplin and Robinson incorporated into the house. A rug from Stark covers the floor, and a pair of Maiden Home ottomans double as a makeshift coffee table.

In the end, Teplin’s vision of a vibrant yet cozy sanctuary came to life in a way that perfectly balanced luxury with warmth. Every design choice—from the bold color drenching to the thoughtfully divided spaces—reflected her personality, lifestyle, and deep appreciation for both beauty and functionality. With Robinson’s expertise and Teplin’s creative enthusiasm, the home became more than just a place to live; it became a personal retreat, a hub for family connection, and a testament to the joy of intentional design.