Story by Emily Robertson | Photography by Harris Visual Media

For Bryan and Amanda Downing, family is everything. So it only makes sense that when they decided to build their forever home, family played a significant role in every aspect of the build: from location, to design to construction and how they laid out their home. Now, the family of four gets to enjoy all the amenities of farm life, but with the added bonus of being minutes from all
the activity of Bowling Green.

The Downings chose a piece of property on the 150-acre Downing Farm, purchased by Bryan’s grandfather, Dr. Downing in the 1970s. The couple enlisted Bryan’s uncle, Neal Downing, to draw the plans for the home.

“We sat down and had a 20 minute conversation about what we wanted and needed for the house to work for us,” Amanda says. “He came back with a drawing for us about a week later and we barely changed anything. He completely nailed the design.”

Construction on the four-bedroom, five bathroom home began in June of 2021 and took all of 13 months to complete. For Bryan and Amanda, it was important that their home reflected and accommodated their life with their two young daughters, but was also a home that could work for the family for years to come. A large living area on the main floor helps the family host gatherings, and the home features everything the couple would need on the main floor as they age, with wide doorways and hallways.

“We entertain, mostly family,” Amanda says. “We host my husband’s whole family at Thanksgiving. If everyone is here, it is about 35 to 40 people. So we wanted a space where we could accommodate everyone easily.”

The couple opted for an eat-in kitchen without a formal dining room. The kitchen features both stone and butcher block counter tops and blue accents. There is a large pantry right off from the kitchen. “I didn’t want cabinet doors in the pantry because it makes me keep things tidier than if I had doors I could shut and not look at all the time,” Amanda says. “We also brought in the butcher-block counter tops in here as well for some continuity. We love having this space because the pantry in our last home was much smaller, so this is so nice to have.”

The home is also full of little pieces of history. A bourbon shelf space features wood from Bryan’s great-grandfather’s woodshed and the slate shelf holding the bourbons comes from old chalkboards from the old Tompkinsville High School, where Bryan’s grandfather graduated from in 1955. Another nod to history is the weathered spindle and railing from Beth and Brent Harris of Westwind Horse Farm, which sits across the road from the Downing’s property. The spindles and rail are one of Amanda’s favorite parts of the home.

“They contacted us when we first started making plans for the house and they had a staircase that was taken out of the original farm house on the property,” Amanda says. “The house
had been torn down in the early 1990s and they kept the staircase in their barn for 30 years.”

When the Downings got the staircase spindles and railing, it was covered in dirt and they had planned to clean everything and paint it black to install in the house. As Bryan and his family members began to work on the old pieces though, Amanda’s father-in-law sent her a picture of the cleaned off spindles.

“He said ‘look at the crackle on this’ and I realized I couldn’t paint over it, so we just sealed them and worked very diligently to get it put back together. The original rail sits on top and all of the wood that surrounds it came out of my husband’s great-grandfather’s woodshed he had in Tompkinsville.

Everyone always asks about it because it looks different than the rest of the house, but we love the story behind it.”

The home’s primary bedroom also features lots of natural light, with a large sliding glass door that opens to a private back deck area. The primary bathroom includes a beautiful soaking tub, along with a large walk-in shower.

“We have a ton of light,” Amanda says. “I really don’t care a lot about looking at what’s in the house, but we chose this lot for the views. I don’t want a lot to distract from the views and they are ever-changing. Sometimes there’s cows or horses, or we could have corn, beans or alfalfa growing in the fields. We love that this is where we get to live.”

Special Thanks to these local vendors:
Davenport Custom Cabinets – CABINETS
Shop at Home Carpets – FLOORS
Inari Granite – QUARTZ COUNTERTOPS