A Merry Manor

Brittany and Steve Clyne want their guests to feel cozy

- Lori K.Tate

IT ALL BEGAN with basketball.

Growing up in Greensboro, Brittany and Steve Clyne played the game in their respective backyards. Though they didn’t meet until they were undergrads at Duke University, their fond memories of shooting hoops until the stars came out stayed with them. So when the time came to custom build their dream home in Myers Park, it was imperative that they give their daughters, Camryn, five, and Hannah, three, the same opportunity.

When the couple discovered a flat lot on a quiet street, they opted to tear down the existing structure to create a home that would grow with their family, as well as provide endless games of pickup. They enlisted residential designer Christopher Phelps, Bryan Gerrard of Gerrard Builders, and their longtime interior designer, Tom Holley of Crazy Jane’s, to help execute their game plan.

Holley, who the Clynes’ daughters refer to as “Uncle Tom,” was in on everything from the beginning.

“Honestly, I think from looking at things and being with Tom for as long as I have, I knew that he understood what we wanted. We’re not frilly. We’re very linear, but comfortable and soft,” explains Brittany, a physician with Southeast Anesthesiology Consultants. “I think working with someone who knows you very well definitely helps.”

As the Clynes sit with Holley on their back portico, facing a basketball hoop and a lush green yard, it’s obvious that they indeed know each other very well. Memorable stories accompany almost every design decision they’ve made together. “I think we scared the painters when we bickered over paint colors,” recalls Brittany with a laugh. Water Chestnut, by Benjamin Moore, won for the living room walls, by the way.