Inside Kristin Cavallari’s Peaceful Nashville Home Complete with an Indoor Basketball Court, Podcast Studio, and No Curtains in Sight

The 130-acre home acts as a one-stop shop for the reality TV star and her familyKristin Cavallari, like the rest of us, is just trying to make her busy life as efficient as possible. “I’ve tried to set it up so that I'm not running around constantly. The less often I have to leave my house, the better,” she says.Kristin Cavallari with her dog Quinn among the raised garden beds of her home outside Nashville. She’s currently growing cucumbers, butternut squash, tomatoes, and okra. The project’s interior design is by April Tomlin, the landscape design by Maple Hills Landscape and Design, and the pool design by Basin Pool Designs. JOSEPH BRADSHAWHer dream home, then, should operate as a kind of one-stop shop for her and her family, which is what sold her on the secluded 130-acre property south of Nashville.Cavallari with her (other) dog, Teddy. “I love whites and creams, but I learned at my old house that dogs and kids absolutely trash everything,” says Cavallari. “So with the living room, we knew we needed to go darker. That was one thing I really leaned on April for. I never would’ve been able to pick out basically an orange couch.” The sofa is from Verelen and upholstered in their Tobacco Ariduvet Teint fabric. JOSEPH BRADSHAWAside from being reality TV royalty, having spent her teens and early 20s on MTV megahits Laguna Beach and The Hills, plus two E! network series of her own, Cavallari is an entrepreneur. She’s the founder, CEO, and designer of jewelry brand Uncommon James and its sister skin care brand Uncommon Beauty. She also hosts the weekly podcast Let’s Be Honest. Oh, and she’s a single mother of three tweenagers.The light in the open living space made Cavallari fall in love with the house. While she and Tomlin used many pieces from her old house, the living room set is new. The chairs are the Celine wingback from Verellen, and the coffee table is the Keilani cocktail table by Baker furniture. JOSEPH BRADSHAWShe wasn’t even in the market for a new place, having bought all new furniture and having done a full redesign of the house that she moved into in 2020 after her divorce from former NFLer Jay Cutler. Still, she decided to indulge a call from her friend and real estate agent who asked her to come check out a new house 10 minutes down the road.“Kristin utilizes her kitchen, and her kids are involved,” says Tomlin. “She’s a terribly busy mom and needed a no-fuss house that still feels warm and cozy.” The counter stools are from Baker McGuire, and the dining chairs are from Four Hands. JOSEPH BRADSHAWFour Hands Ferris Dining ChairCrate & Barrel Marin Oversized European Linen Tablecloth“I completely fell in love with it,” she says. “I loved that it’s really private. I loved how open it is with the floor-to-ceiling windows.” The convenience was a selling factor, too. “And I loved that it’s one floor. This house is really manageable, which is important, because it’s just me and the kids.” She got the keys in 2024 and set to work on a few important updates. “I loved everything down to the light fixtures, so there wasn’t a lot design-wise I wanted to change.”As a counterpoint to the light-filled main living area of the house, the moody family room where the kids gather to watch TV was done in a dark, cozy style lit with a Spencer Arc floor lamp from Soho Home. JOSEPH BRADSHAWFor the interior, Cavallari teamed up (again) with designer April Tomlin. The two have been friends for over 10 years, and this would be the fourth house they worked on together. “Because I know April so well and I love her work so much, I just give her free rein to do whatever she wants because I know it’s going to be amazing,” says Cavallari.Keeping most of the furniture from Cavallari’s old home was a priority, including the arc canopied bed. Many of the materials and details, including the wood bead board in the bedroom, were original to the house, which made moving in easy. JOSEPH BRADSHAWParachute Organic Cloud Cotton Duvet Cover SetArhaus Ombra Table Lamp“Kristin’s a terribly busy mom,” says Tomlin, “so a no-fuss house that still feels warm and cozy was our top priority.” To pull it off, Tomlin played off of Cavallari’s own fashion aesthetic and her self-sufficient, country girl personality—Cavallari grows her own vegetables on the property—by furnishing the modern space with neutrals and organic shapes and many of the pieces from her previous home.Cavallari didn’t want to change much of the interior of the house upon moving in, save for two things: “There was no bathtub. And the closet was also pretty small. So I knocked out a wall and I added the tub, and I was able to double the closet in size.” JOSEPH BRADSHAWFour Hands Sophie End TableMelange Pendant by Kelly WearstlerAmong the new pieces, though, Tomlin nudged Cavallari a step beyond her penchant for neutrals with a kid- and dog-proof rust-colored couch from Verellen. She also leveraged marble accent pieces to contrast the creams and beiges, including a Baker Furniture coffee table, and commissioned a large artwork by Mckenzie Dove.Cavallari included room for an en suite vanity between the bathroom and the closet that she doubled in size during renovation. The chair is from Crate & Barrel. JOSEPH BRADSHAWWith windows as walls in the living room, Cavallari decided to forgo window treatments and let the view act as decor. “That’s the one thing I pushed back on April about,” says Cavallari. “She initially wanted to get curtains in there, and I said, absolutely not. I don't have neighbors, so I have no need for curtains. The windows and the light are the selling point of the house. And I love how the light changes throughout the day.”Cavallari brought some lessons from her old home to the new. One of them: Don’t insist on decorating the rooms of young boys. “April had designed adorable rooms for them, and my boys could have cared less.” But the room of a 10-year old girl? “Saylor appreciates beautiful things. Her room was an opportunity to still be really girly but make it young and soft and sweet.” JOSEPH BRADSHAWThe big projects were more structural updates to make the property cater to convenience: an expansive closet and a bathroom with a massive tub were added onto the primary suite, and a home gym was built. “Working out is how I stay sane,” says Cavallari. “For me to drive to the gym would be 25 minutes. That’s an entire morning for me. So it was worth it to have it built.”She converted a barn on the property into an indoor basketball court for her hoops-obsessed sons. And Cavallari flipped an extra bedroom in the guesthouse into a studio, outfitted with mics and cameras, from which she can record Let’s Be Honest.“I think Saylor’s bathroom is so beautiful,” says Cavallari of her daughter’s space in the house. JOSEPH BRADSHAWFrench Round Wicker MirrorAvery Sconce by Julie NeillAs would befit someone who we all watched spend her formative years gossiping poolside on Laguna Beach, Cavallari wanted a pool added to the property. She enlisted Nick Buchholz of Basin Pool Designs to come up with the plan. “Kristin’s very quick to make decisions, and she’ll tell you if she doesn’t like what you’re talking about, which actually made my life easy,” says Buchholz. He set about designing a tranquil pool area that acts as a connective thread among the property’s buildings: the main house, the barn, and the guesthouse. “My goal was basically to create a sense of calm with the water, so there’s no delineation between the pool and the rest of the house.”Designed by Nick Buchholz of Basin Pool Designs, the pool acts as the outdoor centerpiece, connecting the property’s buildings. The recessed dining area, furnished with a Restoration Hardware Lagos table and chairs from Dedon, is laid with custom-cut and milled Tennessee limestone in a herringbone pattern. JOSEPH BRADSHAWArhaus Hamptons Outdoor End TableHarbour Newport Teak Sun LoungeAfter two years of renovations and design refreshes, Cavallari is finally settled in, name-checking her podcast as she says, ”I’ll be honest with you, I came home the other night from a dinner when it was dark and the house was all lit up. I sat at my kitchen countertop and looked outside and felt really proud and really grateful. I was just like, I can’t believe I was able to make this happen. I’ve never felt that before as far as a house goes.”“I, of course, do not need a barn for tractors, and my boys are obsessed with basketball,” says Cavallari of the outbuilding that came with the property. “So I knew before I moved in we’d convert it to a basketball court. Basketball coaches even come out to the house, which makes it really easy for me because, again, we live in the middle of nowhere, so even getting them to a basketball coach is sometimes 40 minutes away. It’s been a game changer.” JOSEPH BRADSHAWPerhaps the most recognizable space in Cavallari’s home is the podcast studio, which she converted from an extra bedroom in the guesthouse. “I had a pretty low-budget setup at my last house. Here, I had a guy come in and set up my cameras and my lights. So all I have to do is just press a button when I go in, which has been awesome for me.” JOSEPH BRADSHAWWith huge floor-to-ceiling windows, the line between the outdoor and indoor spaces are blurred. The indoor living area leads straight onto an outdoor living space with chairs from the Four Hands Portia collections and pillow covers that designer April Tomlin sourced on Etsy. JOSEPH BRADSHAW“I had a garden and a chicken coop at my last house, so having them here was very important to me,” says Cavallari. Colby Jenkins devised the layout of the raised garden-bed area that sits just beyond the pool. JOSEPH BRADSHAWCavallari and her kids, Saylor (10), Jaxon (12), and Camden (14). The next project at her new home: cutting hiking trails through the woods of the 130-acre property. JOSEPH BRADSHAWNot a subscriber? Join AD for print and digital access now.Sign up for our daily newsletter to get the best of design in your inbox.