When Charity and Bob Hatfield of Hatfield Custom Homes are building a new residence, they put their heart and soul into its design and construction. The Hatfields, who have lived at Reynolds Lake Oconee for the past 20 years, bring an appreciation for the uniqueness of the community to every project. “We are plugged into Reynolds Lake Oconee; we are our clients’ neighbors,” Charity Hatfield explains.
Hatfield Custom Homes ensures its clients’ particular needs are heard, and its small team focuses on the details that make individual homes perfectly suited to each homeowner. The Reynolds lifestyle is active and includes seven golf courses, boating on the lake and other outdoor activities, as well as dining and cultural performances on 12,000 acres of Georgia’s inland coast.
This three-level 7,200-square-foot home is the Hatfields’ personal bespoke residence, which also serves as a model home for their company. It features five bedrooms plus a bunkroom, six and a half bathrooms, a theater, a home gym, wet bars on two floors, a terrace-level game room and a grill porch—all designed for regularly hosting their extended family and friends. The family’s interests play heavily into the design features of this particular home, but the Hatfields find that these amenities are what most of their clients want in their own homes. “We like to include a stackable washer and dryer on each floor in addition to the main laundry room so when the house is full of visitors, everyone has their own space. It’s a fantastic home to entertain a crowd,” Hatfield says. “This level of home can be overwhelming for homeowners trying to make decisions about finishes and furnishings. Bob and I really enjoy the process of specifying the details, and our team is beside our clients for every single selection—appliances, cabinetry, tile, hardware and furnishings—down to the doorknobs. We want to ensure our clients feel confident in their choices. We intentionally keep the process fun and lighthearted for them. If it’s not fun, then we’re doing something wrong.”
Formerly a police officer in Lexington, Kentucky, Bob Hatfield has worked for more than two decades in custom homebuilding. Along the way, he has partnered with award-winning architects and built some annual show houses. The Hatfields launched Hatfield Custom Homes about five years ago. They added interior designer Ashley Martin of Ashley Martin Home and draftsman Andrea McKenzie of McKenzie Custom Home Design to help create this home for themselves and their family, but it will also perfectly suit another family one day when they put it on the market to sell. The Hatfields’ daughter, Lauren Ramsey, joined the team as selections coordinator, making Hatfield Custom Homes a true family-oriented small company that Charity Hatfield characterizes as “a super fun dynamic.”
“Our optimal lake access lot gives us dock space for our boat, which is always accessible, and a view of Lake Oconee without the maintenance of a shoreline,” she says. “The outdoor spaces are as important as the interior ones when you’re located on the lake. Bob enjoys smoking meat, so we added a grilling porch as part of a full outdoor kitchen dedicated to his passion. Nowadays, about half of our clients request an outdoor kitchen.”
A porch off of the main level, with couches and a low-profile fire table (to not impede the view), is just steps from the living room through a four-panel sliding glass door. It is connected to a covered outdoor dining room accessible through another set of sliding glass doors near the interior dining space, which also has a balcony walkway leading to the grill porch. A terrace on the bottom level provides an outdoor game room and lounge. The Hatfields leaned into the existing topography to create a range of outdoor living vignettes. “The lot was steep, but it is not unusual to have land sloping toward the lakeshore,” Bob Hatfield says. “It gave us an opportunity to build up the land and create a nice backyard and firepit.”
The exterior of the home is brick with stone accents, some cedar trimwork and James Hardie fiber cement trim. “It feels rich and solid, and the exterior materials don’t require much maintenance. We love the traditional feel; it’s in our hearts from our Kentucky roots,” Charity Hatfield says.
While the outside is traditional in keeping with the community’s design standards, the interior is transitionally styled with a neutral color palette of green, gray, brown and white, using Sherwin-Williams “Evergreen Fog,” “Pavestone” and “Natural White” and Benjamin Moore “Gray.” “We repeated the colors in new ways throughout all of the rooms,” Hatfield explains. The blend of colors is warmed in the main living areas and bedrooms by the addition of wide planks of Provenza prefinished hardwood flooring from the Vitali Collection of European white oak in a light, contemporary color that is slightly wire brushed to add character. Clean-lined furniture mixed with traditional moldings and architectural details impart a transitional aesthetic.
The kitchen is one of the most important rooms for the Hatfields. “It’s not a cookie-cutter space but has a mix of textures and cabinetry,” Hatfield says. A Black Diamond quartzite countertop on the island, perimeter cabinets and backsplash; steam oven; and two 30-inch Sub-Zero refrigerators and freezers are functional for their specific needs. A warming drawer keeps the latest grilled recipes warm while the rest of dinner cooks. The wooden vent hood was custom drawn by the Hatfields and built by a local craftsman. Behind the kitchen, a butler’s pantry, accessed by a handmade metal barn door, is where small appliances are stashed and food is prepped for family meals. “Butler’s pantries have become a necessity for homeowners who entertain. They have massive amounts of storage and contribute to a cleaner main kitchen since everything is off the countertops and moved to the back pantry,” Hatfield says.
The family room, kitchen and dining room are open to each other, connected by a color palette that flows throughout, hardwood flooring and nickel-gap plank ceilings. In the family room, the vaulted plank ceiling is painted deep gray. “This grand room is moody and cozy even with such tall ceilings. It feels homey but not small,” says Hatfield. A natural limestone fireplace adds texture and warmth to complement expansive double-level windows that let in light across the living room’s back wall. A balcony overlooking the living room provides a snug reading nook with a comfy chair for the family member who might want to escape the crowd for a few minutes.
The living room’s dark ceiling theme carries into the foyer and stairwell, where the wooden ceilings are stained a medium oak color. “The foyer feels inviting. I love that moment when you first walk in. And the entranceway is functional because it’s big enough for everyone to congregate,” Hatfield says.
The couple is equally thrilled by the movie theater and the game table downstairs on the terrace level, where they can spend hours with family members. The home gym also is a draw for some of the family members when they stay overnight. The terrace bar is the showstopper on this level, where the Hatfields and their designer installed a mixed tile backsplash in a recessed area that encompasses an entire wall of amenities, including cabinetry, an under-counter microwave drawer, a sink, and floating shelves displaying prized accessories. Black tile, black honed granite countertops and a repeat of the “Evergreen Fog” paint on the cabinetry ensures the color palette of the main floor continues downstairs. “We’ve built bigger bars in other houses, but they seemed to be overkill. This one is perfect as a beverage and snack center for the family,” Hatfield says. This area also showcases the rounded wall corners the Hatfields used in this home, a unique feature that is a first for them. “Rounded corners soften the look. It’s a popular feature out West and in Florida but not often seen here,” she explains.
The third level of the home has the best lake views and is where three of the five bedrooms and the bunkroom are located as guest quarters. A morning bar for coffee and quick breakfast items, a sitting room and a small laundry area help visitors feel at home in their own space. If they need the full functionality of the main laundry room, it is equipped with an open cabinet of five pull-out drying racks for hanging wet bathing suits. “We install custom crafted dry-away racks in 70% of the homes we’re building. It is a fun feature that is super functional. I think the lesson here is that functionality can be pretty,” Hatfield says.
Since the Hatfields are in the process of building another family home, this particular custom residence will go on the market in the spring of 2025 and will be available for another family to love and appreciate. “We sell our homes fully furnished because most of the furniture is designed for specific rooms,” Hatfield says. “We find that clients are over the moon to move into a turnkey home. Above all, I may own a homebuilding company, but I am still a mom. Bob and I always design our homes with the thought of how a family will use and enjoy them. We want families to feel comfortable and make memories in their homes.” *
Dana W. Todd is a professional writer specializing in interior design, real estate, luxury homebuilding, landscape design, architecture and art.
