High school sweethearts Paul and Jill Pierce had always dreamed of returning to Vicksburg one day to be near family, and in 2007 that dream became a reality. The couple returned home and moved into the house that had belonged to Paul’s grandparents with the intention of one day building their own home.

“When we first moved back to Vicksburg, we knew it would be several years before we could afford to build,” Jill said. At the time, Paul had just started his medical practice as a cardiologist at River Region.

Paul’s father had bought three lots in the newly developed Turning Leaf subdivision, and the plan was for the couple to eventually build on one of them.

Ground was broken for the house in 2012, and a year and half later the family moved into their Southern Acadian style home, which features unique architectural features, including an elegant winding staircase in the entryway and a groin-vaulted ceiling in the breakfast room.

For Jill, her favorite feature of the home is its spaciousness.

“My favorite thing about the house is that I have the space to have tons of kids over here all the time, and they have their space and we have ours,” she said. “I enjoy them being here so much, and I feel like they know they are always welcome here and there is always room for them.”

Family friend and architect Sam Coker drew up the plans for the Pierce home, but Jill said, “I had been collecting pictures and articles for years. I took Sam a million pictures, and we just talked about the general ‘feel’ I wanted the house to have. I wanted a very Southern home with big porches and windows. I wanted tall ceilings and warm usable spaces we could really live in. I wanted a few small spots for formality, but for the most part I wanted warm and cozy and a house that centered around our children and their lives.

Tight spaces, close family

The first home the family lived in was an 1,100 square foot bungalow in Jackson, Jill said, and in order for the house to function for the family, she said they had to get creative.

The couple transformed the largest living area of the house into a makeshift playroom for their three young children. The formal dining room was turned into a study since Paul was still in medical school.

Jill laughed when she said the house looked more like a daycare center than a family home, but it was these early beginnings that influenced the couple’s priorities.

“We learned at that point, with having three children so close in age, how important it was to have space,” Jill said.

With that in mind, Jill said, Coker made suggestions of how spaces and rooms in the Turning Leaf home could function for the children while continuing to meet their needs as they grew older.

For the boys

Will and Jake, the couple’s sons, each have their own bedroom and bathroom, taking up one of the upper levels of the home.

“I like having my bedroom on the second floor,” Will said. “And I like having a balcony and my own bathroom.”

Jake liked having his own porch and bathroom and has enjoyed the privacy his room allows.

“I like having a quiet place to study and a big closet to hold all of my hunting clothes,” Jake said.

All her own

Being the youngest and only girl, Sarah Jane has an area of the home that is exclusively for her.

Located above the spiral staircase in the front entrance of the house, her space includes a bedroom, bathroom and a small sitting area outside the bedroom.

“I love that my room is separate from the boys’. There can be lots of boys here, and I never see them,” Sarah Jane said.

With interests in dance and voice, a small studio was also designed for Sarah Jane’s space.

The room has floor-to-ceiling mirrors and a dance bar so she can practice her ballet stretches.

As an active ninth grader, Sarah Jane has many girlfriends, and to accommodate all her spend-the-night guests, an extra deep window seat runs along the wall of her room.

Two of her friends can sleep comfortably on the quasi bed, and there is even storage underneath for extra pillows and blankets.

For the family

Jill said another must-have for the home was ample hangout areas that would provide space to draw family and friends together.

A large den in the rear of the house definitely meets that requirement. The room has vaulted ceilings accentuated by antique heart pine wooden beams.

The furniture selections include an oversized leather sofa to withstand the ruckus and roistering of teenagers, and a coffee table was constructed from reclaimed lumber and is topped with a slab of slate sturdy enough for a teenage boy to sit on.

Light floods the space with the floor-to-ceiling windows and doors, located on opposite walls of the room, and when the weather is conducive, the retractable glass doors along the northeast wall can be opened making the room completely open to the backyard and swimming pool.

Of course, no family room would be complete without a big screen television, a must for viewing sports, and with a fully equipped kitchen also in the room, snacks are close at hand.

Will and Jake both attest this room is their favorite space to get together with friends.

“There is a lot of space in there, and it has a big TV,” Will said. “You can get lots of guys in there too,” Jake added.

A guest room and bathroom sit adjacent to the den, and Jill said the entire living space is technically deemed the mother-in-law suite.

Requesting that the guest bedroom remain off-limits to her sons’ over-night friends, Jill confessed there have been mornings when she discovered a boy snoozing in the four-poster bed.

Breakfast is served with a Gothic theme

Anyone visiting the Pierce home will probably find the breakfast room is one of the most unique spaces in the home.

With its groin-vaulted ceiling, one might think they have been transported across the pond.

“Originally you would see this type of architecture in Europe in Gothic structures and French chateaus,” Coker said.

The arched ceiling is constructed from the same reclaimed brick that was used on the floor, which Robbie Cowart, the contractor for the home, said was a challenge to build.

“We had never done anything like this before, and my bricklayers weren’t sure they could figure out how to get the brick to stick on the roof without it falling on their heads,” Cowart laughed.

But the mission was accomplished. Concrete boards were installed like ceiling tile, and bricks were cut to mimic pavers making it more conducive to be held up by the mortar.

“I like the groin-vault ceiling height, and I used it in the Pierce home to break a large space into three rooms, trying to make it a cozy, warm family spot,” Coker said.

Custom-built cabinets were used throughout the kitchen, butler’s pantry and Jill’s office, which is located just off the kitchen.

Marcia Speer, out of Charleston, worked as the kitchen planner, said Marianna Field, the interior designer for the Pierces.

The same brick used for the ceiling and floor in the breakfast room extended into the kitchen flooring, creating a stark contrast to the formal Carrera marble counter tops, another example of Coker using a few clever and unexpected twists in the design, Jill said.

The appealing touch of variety

“One of my favorite things about the house is the unpredictable aesthetics from room to room,” Jill said. “Sam designed ceilings with interesting shapes as well as original moldings for each room, and the staircase next to Paul’s study is made from rugged, dirty top pine boards from an old barn.”

A very soft color palette was used to highlight all these architectural features, she said, and with the help of Field, fabrics based on the purpose of the room were selected.

“In every room we started with either a rug or a piece of art to dictate colors,” Jill said.

Durable fabrics were used in living spaces, washable linens in kids’ rooms and silks in less used spaces.

“We went room to room until each was complete. We used many things that we already had and then had to add to fill up rooms much larger than anything we had ever had before,” Jill said.

Field said a few of the furniture pieces in the home had been purchased while the couple was living in Lakewood, but even those purchases were made with the Turning Leaf house in mind. Field says she has a saying, “If you buy the right piece of furniture the first time, it will carry you through.”

Most of the furnishings for the home came from Batte Furniture in Jackson, Field said, with a few special pieces found during a trip to Atlanta.

All the rugs in the house came from Charles Tinnin located in Jackson, said Field.

“He (Tinnin) also found her a large antique mirror,” Field said.

The ornate piece rests behind Jill’s cast iron, double-ended pedestal soaker tub reflecting the room’s panache.

Alas, work must be done

Paul said his favorite room in the house is his office, which is located just outside of the master bedroom.

“There are a number of things in there that have great sentimental value, things that my mother, father or grandfather gave me,” he said, adding he also appreciated what Sam did with the wood in the room.

Floor-to-ceiling wood planks retrieved from an old house were used on all the walls. Built-in shelving is nestled beside the fireplace, one of five in the house, and a handcrafted gun cabinet lies along one of the walls giving the room a masculine feel.

Tony Kolb, a local cabinetmaker, handcrafted the one-of-a-kind furniture piece from heart pine.

At the end of a long day …

Surely coming in as a close second to the study for Paul would be his super-sized shower.

“It is one of the coolest features in the house,” Coker said.

With the vaulted ceilings and skylights, “it’s as close as we could get to having an open-air shower,” he said.

A custom fitted teak bench was made for relaxing, and multiple showerheads offer massage and solace after a busy day at work.

Jill said her husband spends a minimum of 12 hours a day, seven days a week at the hospital, and that doesn’t even account for his continuous phone calls.

“The idea behind the shower,” Paul said, “was to have a place to relax and unwind after working … all day.”

A welcoming home

Always gracious, the Pierces have already hosted more than seven parties in their home, one of which included a church-wide picnic for the entire congregation of Crawford Street United Methodist Church.

Jill gives compliments and the credit to the design, construction and aesthetics of their home to what she calls her “dream team” of Coker, Cowart and Field.

“All were friends, all had my very best interest at heart, and I was blessed by this throughout the whole process,” she said.