The Summerfield By Tumminello: A Bob Timberlake Show Home

For some time, Vince Tumminello had wanted to build an extraordinary one-of-a-kind show home in rural Brunswick County that would truly capture his company's commitment to the latest in new-world homebuilding ideas with old-world craftsmanship and pure Southern charm - a home so striking that simply entering the front door makes your heart thump and so elegantly simple that being inside puts your mind and senses at peace with the outside world.

This design would have to be different in what he had seen his fellow builders construct along the Grand Strand.

Forever searching for new ideas and better ways to keep Tumminello Builders Co., Inc., and its dream team of subcontractors and suppliers in the forefront of the Brunswick County building boom, Vince is constantly soaking up the latest information he can find in builder and southern lifestyle magazines, trade journals and at home shows. A Grand Strand golf course community had been assembling a group of local builders to "kick off" construction in their new development. TBC was one of the dozen builders invited to hear the exciting plans for these new home sites. The story of Bob Timberlake and his Home Plan Collection was presented to the builders. Vince and the two ideas immediately came together; this appeared to be the "different design" that Vince had been searching for.

The Bob Timberlake Collection is 24 home plans inspired by artist and designer Bob Timberlake, who is best known for his realistic landscapes and paintings that capture the beauty of nature and simple living. Timberlake is also recognized for his lifestyle-inspired line of home accessories and his best-selling line of furniture, which already have passed the $1 billion mark in sales. The hallmarks of the Bob Timberlake brand of home furnishings and home building products are their timeless style and attention to handcraftsmanship, the beauty of wood, and other natural details.

Vince and his family began tossing around the notion of building a show home from the Bob Timberlake Collection on one of the premium home sites in the new development. Here was a real opportunity to meld Timberlake's innovative home-building ideas with Tumminello's old-world craftsmanship and Timberlake's line of home accessories and furnishings into a home that evokes southern charm in every detail.

When Vince traveled to Lexington, NC, to present his thoughts to the Timberlake staff on building a Bob Timberlake Show Home in Calabash, they hit it off from the start. Both teams reveled in each other's attention to detail and quality craftsmanship. Clearly, TBC had the reputation and the means to successfully carry off such a project. After several phone calls and meetings, Vince finally acquired the licensing rights to build The Summerfield, a gorgeous design by Stephen Fuller from the Bob Timberlake Home Plan Collection. The home, decorated by the Bob Timberlake Interior Design staff, embodies the rustic elegance found in the landscape and homes of the South's piedmont region.

Building this dream house would be somewhat of a gamble for the Tumminello family. The home eventually would be sold, of course, but meanwhile, the privilege of showcasing to the public the incredible quality the artisans of Tumminello Builders Co., Inc. are producing in Brunswick County and its environs would require Vince and his family to commit to an investment of approximately $750,000.

The entire Tumminello family was involved in the lengthy planning process. Vince is president of the company, and his wife, Carol, is secretary/treasurer and office manager, while their son Rio is vice president and construction supervisor. Their son-in-law, Norman Barnhart, their son, Vinnie, and other employees all pulled together to organize the massive effort to create this masterpiece home.

Craig Lusby, a brother-in-law who lives in the Mid-Atlantic area, serves as sales and marketing director for the East Coast region and is heavily involved in marketing The Summerfield Show Home.

TBC has assembled one of the finest teams of subcontractors and suppliers in the Coastal Carolinas, and Vince has learned that the best way to come up with ideas for a new home is to turn this dream team loose to create details that truly make a home special.

Arriving at the Summerfield show home, you sense that inside you will be able to enjoy a slower pace - more time with family and friends in a relaxed setting. As you climb the steps to the front porch, you notice a hand-carved stepping stone, a gorgeous stained glass window and the intricate hand-carved details of the welcoming front door.

The Summerfield has two levels totaling 3,300 square feet of heated space. On the main level is the foyer, a comfortable library, a great room with a magnificent fireplace and elegant, hand-made cherry staircase, a breakfast room and kitchen, a wonderful dining room for either formal or casual dining, and a romantic master bedroom with a gorgeous master bath, powder bath, side hallway and laundry room that are as functional as they are beautiful.

Upstairs, the home theater is outfitted with a built-in, rich surround sound audio system, and home theater cabinetry custom made for The Summerfield. It's an awesome place for family members to enjoy their favorite music, movies, or giant screen television programming without disturbing those in the rest of the house.

Guests will love the guest bedroom with its Windsor headboard, Carolina night chest, Berkshire love seat, bedroom entertainment center, round lamp table, South Hampton ottoman and a Sedgefield metal accent landscape mirror.

Bob Timberlake has a special place in his heart for his own grandchildren, so he created an exquisite room in The Summerfield especially for children. With Boondocks headboards, a Napsack nightstand, Bunching storage tower, a dowry trunk, and a beautiful Berkshire chair, this room is fully decked out for when the grandchildren come to visit. The delightful furnishings and accessories are from the Bob Timberlake GrandKids Collection.

The airy upstairs balcony features a Savannah Aspen runner along with two area rugs. A drop leaf lamp table with two tight back chairs finish the ensemble.

Separate dressing areas are thoughtfully provided in the upstairs bath, which connects the guest bedroom with the children's bedroom. The Bear Creek deep blue area rug in the guest dressing room goes perfectly with the washed green wall color.

As soon as you set foot in the Foyer on the Main Level, you see an incredible array of framed prints and posters from the Bob Timberlake Galleries. These Timberlake prints and posters are wonderful, eye-pleasing accents by themselves, but, when they are viewed against the rich wall colors from the Bob Timberlake Color Palette supplied by Coronado Paint Company for The Summerfield show home, and the decorated wallpaper in other rooms of the home, they become even more brilliant and appealing. The Bob Timberlake interior design staff did a magnificent job of placing these prints and posters to carry the Timberlake theme throughout the house.

The wall colors on the main level permeate the upscale elegance of the home, particularly with the use of smoked trout for the trim. The primary colors for rooms on this level include aged wicker in the foyer and dining room, pasture green in the library and powder bath, spring moss in the master bedroom, warm oatmeal in the laundry room, and faux finish in the master bath.

Themed area rugs are found throughout the house: cabin plaid in the foyer, Timberlake houndstooth in the library, forest leaves in the dining room, botanical blocks in the breakfast room and kitchen, and blocked sisal in the side hallway.

This home lacks absolutely nothing in detail. Special architectural lighting does a magnificent job of giving just the right hue and color to the most interesting curios, artifacts, decorative mirrors, art, tabletop lamps and floral designs. Most of the accessories in the home are from the Bob Timberlake Collection, but some were added by Vince and Carol to make The Summerfield even more special.

The extra large great kitchen in The Summerfield, with its custom handmade cabinets, is everything you could ask for. The Tumminello family knows all too well that the kitchen is the favorite gathering spot for friends who come calling and the place where family members spend some of their most treasured times together. With its elegant granite counter tops, double refrigeration, hardwood floor, and plenty of space, this room is everything a kitchen should be.

Of all the features in the home, two of Vince's personal favorites is a magnificent stone fireplace that cascades up to the cedar vaulted ceiling of the family great room, and the elegant American Cherry "L" staircase with the custom cherry box newels, custom-designed cherry handrails and balustrade featuring one-and-three-fourths inch solid cherry balusters. These two additions to The Summerfield came from TBC's dream team of suppliers and subcontractors, who can sell, create and install anything a customer wants.

The Brunswick County area is extremely fortunate to have upscale, knowledgeable suppliers and subs normally found only in larger markets. In fact, Coastroad Hearth and Patio, which supplied the Heatilator ICON 80 fireplace for The Summerfield, has a showroom and staff in Shallotte, NC, that one would expect to find only in a much larger city.

"When you visit as many suppliers as I do," Vince explains, "as soon as you go inside their doors and meet the staff, you get this gut feeling that these people know their business or that it's just another retail store," Vince explains. "Tom Parks and his staff at Coastroad really know their stuff."

Another fantastic specialty supplier that knows its products is Port City Staircase, with manufacturing facilities in Wilmington and Charleston. The company supplies custom-made staircase systems for TBC. Vince gave Jeff King and his staff at Port City Staircase a photo of the kind of staircase he had in mind for The Summerfield. They generated a CAD drawing, then delivered and installed the perfect staircase system to fit the home.

The Summerfield Show Home at Calabash is now offered for sale. For a private tour of the home, interested buyers can call Vince Tumminello directly at (910) 575-5066, or call 1-800-224-1785, ext. 5003 for pricing information and a brochure. Realtors wanting more info can contact Imogene Currin directly at Remax Southern Shores at
(843) 249-5555, extension 3002.