Looking at it now, it’s hard to imagine this Tennessee home as a simple dwelling, but that’s how it all began for the family that still owns it today. What was once their grandmother’s modest home has now expanded to become a gathering place for the entire family, which has grown to fill it.
“It is an old family retreat that has been handed down generation after generation,” says Hugh Cobb, owner of Cobb Home Innovations, which was the integration company brought in to handle all technology needs on the project. “They decided as three brothers to redo the entire home venue. It has the original family house, and they added a second building called the Pavilion that they use for family gatherings, and they have a pretty big family. They also rent it out for weddings and other events.”
The Cobb Home Innovations team was originally brought on for audio/video pre-wiring and to create a sizeable home theater that could accommodate the family in the main house, but after the clients attended a session in the Cobb showroom, the job expanded to the whole property, including the Pavilion.
A Grand Opening
Though the exterior of the home is impressive when you first drive up to it, the great room that greets visitors as they enter the front door is even more inspiring. With its high, wood-paneled ceiling, stone fireplace, and massive chandelier, it creates an impactful first impression, which is how Joyce Cobb, wife of Hugh and the interior designer on the project, envisioned it.
At the center of the room is a 75-inch Samsung Frame television attached to a MantelMount 860 Pro Series mount that includes a heat sensor that will move the TV out of harm’s way if the fireplace gets too hot. Attached to the 860 is a Sonos Arc soundbar.
“The client didn’t want speakers in the ceiling for aesthetic reasons, but we used MartinLogan in-wall custom speakers and two subwoofers to provide a 9.2-channel surround sound system,” says Cobb.
Cobb Home Innovations did the lighting and shading throughout the home, including the great room and all seven bedrooms. Lutron shading is used throughout, hardwiring them in the majority of the locations and using battery power when wiring was not possible.
“We used iPort wall tablets running Home Assistant for automation throughout the home,” Cobb explains. “The reason we used iPort is for simplicity, because that way the customer can add an app if he wants. Home Assistant is a self-serve system that you just drop into the existing smart home, and then it knows everything that is in there. It makes it very simple for the consumer. These are removable stations, so you can sit down with it and operate the TV, the cameras, the security…whatever you choose to do. Plus, it is easy for guests and those who rent the property to operate.
“We have a mechanical room downstairs where everything goes into a central panel for networking, control, and shading. The theater room has a separate rack.
“For lighting control, we were originally going to do Lutron Radio RA3, but the owner chose to go with the Lutron Caséta Pro. Now, the house is so big, and you can only do 70 items on Caséta Pro, so we added a second hub, and now we can control 140 devices — and we’re just about at the threshold of that!”
Inside the Home Theater
The home theater takes up a considerable amount of space on the lower floor of the home, but not all of it, as there are a few bedrooms on that level that share a wall with the theater.
“We’ve soundproofed the heck out of that room because we’ve got bedrooms on one side,” says Cobb. “We did double-drywall with Dynamat-type material in between to deaden the sound.”
Before you get to the theater, there is a welcome area that includes a popcorn station, a refrigerator, a sink, and a few cabinets — including one for the dedicated home theater rack. The entrance to the theater is unmissable, with its door handles that resemble an empty film reel.
The theater itself has 12 seats in two rows — five larger seats in the front and seven narrower seats on a riser in the second row. All are illuminated with toe-kick lighting strips. There is an open area on one side that has a small dining room table and a window that is covered in a blackout shade, but can bring in daylight if wanted.
“For AV, we used a Sony projector and the MartinLogan Motion Series in-wall and in-ceiling speakers,” says Cobb. “One of our signature things is to put the subwoofers in the floor under the seats. We built chambers in the platform and tuned the crossover networks about 120 down, and then we tune that cavity at around 30 Hz. We have dual 8-inch subs in the floor, and we also put two 15-inch subs in the wall at the front of the room. We have six MartinLogans in the ceiling, plus three in the front and two in the rear.
“For control, we’ve got it simplified with the iPort and Home Assistant system, where they can operate the Yamaha receiver and all the other audio-video gear. It’s been a two-year process, and in two years technology changes, so we’re adding in another remote. We just picked up AVA, so that is likely the remote we will add in there.”
Gather ’Round
The job took more than two years for various reasons, including the fact that one of the brothers was doing the woodwork himself, so the grand opening for the family kept getting pushed back until they were finally able to gather there this past Fourth of July — all 40 or so of them!
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The project has been a big success for both the family and Cobb Home Innovations, although you have to wonder what Grandma would think of what her home has become — and all that it can do!
For more information, visit cobbhomeinnovations.com.
