“Recycled” Home is Hidden Jewel
Shannon Yarbrough Makes Home a Canvas for Creativity
Shannon Carey
Photos by Shannon Carey and Larry Hood
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Above: Granite medallion steps with radial Black Galaxy tiles leads from the dining room to the living room. |
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Above: Yarbrough worked out a repeating pattern to use six common colors and types of granite remnants. After collecting pieces of the right stone over a period of years, the tile was cut to size, the four edges given a slight bevel and polished, sealed and installed throughout the foyer and kitchen. Similar flooring is used in other rooms. |
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Much of the interior stonework is from recycled or reclaimed remnants, saved up over years. The curved fireplace surround and round cut-out are themes repeated in different rooms. |
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Yarbrough attended the Atlanta Art Institute, giving him an |
From the driveway, Shannon and Judy Yarbrough’s home just north of Knoxville, Tennessee, looks like any other house on the street: a modest, well-loved, single-family home.
But step inside the front door, and it will take your breath away with beautiful custom stone on nearly every surface. Shannon, using collected scrap and pieces he found inexpensively, has turned his home into a work of art. And making the work even more impressive is the fact that Shannon did it all by hand, cutting each piece with a five-inch Scorpion dry blade and hand-beveling all the edges.
“Each piece is its own jewel,” Shannon says.
Judy smiles as newcomers’ jaws drop.
“Everybody who walks through the door does that,” she says.
Finding inspiration
Shannon attended Central High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, and art teacher Bill Lett was the first to inspire Shannon to pursue the visual arts. Shannon went on to attend the Art Institute of Atlanta.
But there was something else in Shannon’s make-up, a work ethic and waste-not-want-not mentality passed down from his father, Oscar.
“My father taught me how to recycle,” says Shannon. “I’d come home from school and he’d say we need to go tear this down and pull the nails out. I watched him build three homes, and I lived in all of them.”
When Shannon came back to Knoxville from Atlanta, he went to work in a wide array of construction trades. He installed aerial and underground electric for Scripps Howard, built sunrooms and additions, and restored homes for real estate companies, subcontracting his services and staying busy for 25 years.
He’s worked around the East Tennessee region in the stone industry with companies like Granite Concepts, Knoxville’s Stone Interiors, Mark 1, Merit Construction, Smoky Mountain Tops and Stone Creek Surfaces. He’s worked on projects like the skyboxes at the University of Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium, major department stores, malls, and many high-profile homes.
Polished and decorative concrete is also on Shannon’s list of trades. He even did the concrete work when the John H. Daniels Suit factory building in downtown Knoxville was converted to condos, a job that holds a special place in his family history as his grandmother sewed suits there for 35 years.
Through all of this fine work, Shannon was building a desire to see the same level of craftsmanship in his own home.
“I’ve been going into the finest homes in town for years,” he says. “I’d never be able to afford to have a place like that unless I did it myself.”
The Ultimate DIY
Shannon and Judy moved into their home 24 years ago. Shannon’s work started that first week and hasn’t stopped since. He harvested timber from their property and milled it for a fence. Ten years later, he took the fence down, planed and resurfaced it for reuse as furniture.
Other materials he rescued from remodeling jobs. With permission, Shannon saves sink cut-outs from stone countertops. Or, when a stone company has closed down locally, Shannon gets permission to collect pieces that are left behind.
The floor in the home’s kitchen and foyer is the result of 15 years spent collecting the right colors of stone, 2,300 pieces in a repeating pattern of Shannon’s own creation. He planned the pattern using paper and crayon, then labeled and numbered each piece.
Another showpiece is the living room fireplace. Shannon calls it a challenge. He did all the welding for the cantilevered ironwork fireplace supports, which extend through the wall, and the decorative granite for the hearth, surround and mantelpiece.
“You have to be meticulous,” he says. “This is basically practice for me. I can’t get enough of it.”
Woodwork and stained glass make appearances in the home, and they are Shannon’s doing as well. Tin saved from a roof job and oak trim salvaged from a remodel of the J.C. Penney men’s department give a rustic look to Shannon’s billiard room.
The master bedroom is palatial in size, decorated with tropical flair and custom stone covering the floor and the adjoining bathroom. In this space, Shannon tried to bring his and Judy’s favorite vacation spot, Jamaica, to East Tennessee.
“We kind of developed this house to where all the things we enjoy, we bring them with us so we don’t have to go anywhere,” Shannon says.
A Bit of Advice
Shannon attributes his success to his willingness to pitch in and do hard work, and he recommends that ethic to everyone.
“I stay slammed all the time. I never stop, and I never waste time,” he says. “You have to be a motivator and a self-starter.”
Shannon buys his stoneworking tools at Braxton-Bragg in Knoxville, and he says they are as helpful to him on a small order of five-inch Scorpion dry blades as they are to big operations placing large orders.
Shannon says home improvement is all about the individual, putting what you like into your home.
“I get all the magazines, but I basically do what makes me feel good, and I don’t let other people’s influence change my mind. Do what makes you feel good,” he says. “Remember, you’re the artist. With that said, I just do what comes naturally to me.”
Shannon thanks everyone who contributed to his career and to his home projects, including Mark Bowman, Gene Hale of Hale Flooring, Kelly Milligan of Knoxville’s Stone Interiors, Laura da Palma of Stone Creek Surfaces and Todd Scott of Smokey Mountain Tops.
And, if you’re going to start any DIY project, especially one that lasts 24 years, “you’d better have a strong marriage,” he says with a grin.
Even so, Shannon is not done yet. He says he’s got “big plans” for the exterior of the house, and he can’t wait to get started... again.
For more information or to contact Shannon Yarbrough, visit his Facebook page, Exodus 30 Woodwork and Art.
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Pictured clockwise, from left: stove backsplash with a 2 x 2-inch granite mosaic wrap-around design, prep sink with five-piece marble bowl; granite shower with cantilevered bench seat; living room fireplace, also using cantilevered iron beams for support — the hearth and mantelpiece use the largest pieces of stone found in the home; master bath vessel vanity sink, repurposing an antique side table, with matching marble wrapping the walls; master bath tub with marble cladding and splash; billiard room fireplace, the walls lined with salvaged tin and mitered wainscoat paneling.
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