Rising Country Music Star Erin Kirby Flaunts ‘Cozy Grandma’ Aesthetic Inside the Tennessee Home Where She Hones Her Hits

Singer-songwriter Erin Kirby is a young rising country star with an old soul—and just as her music has been influenced by legends from the past, including James Brown and Aretha Franklin, her Tennessee home also houses many a nod to the generations who’ve come before her.

The 22-year-old artist has eschewed modern trends and opted for a “cozy grandma aesthetic” inside her brand new two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in Franklin, TN, which she rents with her best friend. 

The two moved in together last summer, though Kirby revealed to Realtor.com® in the latest Celebrity Sanctuary that she first relocated from her hometown of Jasper, GA, to Nashville, TN, a few years prior when she took a big leap of faith to pivot her career path.

“I have been in music pretty much my whole life and I have jumped around in multiple genres,” says Kirby. “I started out in the pop genre. 

“But as I grew older and I started driving, I realized that country music just fits who I am and so I started jumping into the songwriting aspect of country music,” she shares about first making the transition away from pop music.

“Three months later, I met my team in Nashville and I felt like the Lord was saying, ‘Hey, you're going to be 18 soon, so go to Nashville and just try this country music thing out because this is where you're supposed to be.’ And I said, ‘What the heck? OK, I'm trusting you. Let's do it.’”

Being wise beyond her years has certainly paid off for Kirby. After singing a cover of country singer Kameron Marlowe’s hit “I Can Lie (The Truth Is)” and posting it on TikTok, the video of her version went viral and led to Marlowe inviting Kirby to record the song with him as a duet and perform it together at the iconic Grand Ole Opry.

Kirby has since amassed a legion of fans on the social media platform, where she boasts more than 214,000 followers—gaining up to 2.1 million views per video.

But the social media site has also offered her the chance to open up a more personal side of her life to her fans and followers, who regularly see her posting candid clips from inside her Tennessee home, or fine-tuning her latest song while perched on her couch.

Now, as Kirby officially begins writing her legacy in country music following the Nov. 7 release of her debut collection of music, “In and Out of Love,” she’s also sharing how she’s making her mark at home, particularly in the primary suite.

In this installment of Celebrity Sanctuary, Kirby offers a warm welcome to explore her comfortable personal bedroom where heirloom, thrifted vintage, and DIY decor are the latest descendants of her creative artistry’s lineage.

I fell in love with this apartment complex before it was even built. I was looking into the Franklin area and I found their mockups online. I just fell in love with the landscaping and I loved the apartment styles. It's all very blank canvas, which I felt like would give me an opportunity to just make it my own. 

When I first found this apartment complex, they were only filling on phase one. At the time, it wasn't completely finished. I decided to live in downtown Nashville and grab that experience, but I wanted to move out to this apartment complex that had been on my wish list.

When they were building phase two, I noticed that they had some larger apartment style options, so I just applied online. I was like, “I want a view,” and they showed us this two-bedroom. It's definitely newer. I think it was built maybe within the last three years, maybe even less. It's very modern. 

I actually moved into this specific apartment, probably two months ago, with my best friend. I had never had a roommate ever before, and we decided to just get a place together.

She's my best friend and she ended up landing a job here in Nashville straight out of college and didn't expect it to work [out] so quickly, so she didn't have a place to live. Her lease had ended and she moved into my [previous] one-bedroom apartment with me.

We did that for about a month, searched for the right place, and we were just so excited to get into this place together and decorate together because we kind of have the same style.

For us to be the first people in here is kind of cool because you don't have any, like, holes in the walls already and you're just going for it. You get to really make it your own. 

If you were to come into my apartment right now, I would say it is like your grandma's house. So many people say, "Wow, I feel so cozy," and that's the exact word that I want to hear when people come into my apartment. 

You walk in and the kitchen and the living room are connected. It's a very wide open space with large windows that view out to the patio and out to the zen garden.

Our kitchen is white, but we have put a lot of little touches with antique finds and even family heirlooms. I have a lot of pieces that were my great-grandmother’s that I have put in very specific places just so people can feel the comfort of, like, your grandma's house.

My favorite piece that was my great grandmother's is her old spice rack. It still has some of the spices in the little jars. Obviously, we don't use them, but I do have it hung up and set out, and I love that piece so much.

To the right is my bedroom, which is the primary bedroom. It has a large walk-in closet. I have definitely gone for the pink and green theme while still keeping that cozy cottage kind of look in here, but a lot of pieces are thrifted and antiqued. They're good finds. I have a rocking chair, I have a little cross stitch footstool, so, very niche pieces. 

And then my roommate, she's on the other side of the living room. We say our bedrooms are the same in different fonts, so her room is also very cozy cottage grandma, but it is blue and yellow and white, where mine is pink and green.

My roommate and I, we have the same style. I had some pieces that she definitely wanted to keep and I decided, “Let's get rid of a few of my items just so we could make it your own as well.”

I have a denim couch and loveseat set that she fell in love with as much as I fell in love with, and I was like, “Could we please keep this?” So we kept that, and then we switched out the rugs and the curtains and the pillows.

Now everything is kind of giving this, like, navy and dark maroon coloring. We're going to add some leopard print in there just to make it a little bit more fun and a little bit more chic.

I would say when I moved out of my parents' home and started making my own place, I adopted the grandma aesthetic. I just found myself gravitating towards small pieces and wanting to keep those family pieces.

And then I was like, "I’m just going to go full blown into it. Let's just get all the pieces that make me happy, and if I don't have any space, I'll make some room for it."

My bedroom is definitely my personal sanctuary. I am in music; I'm a songwriter, so it's where I spend a lot of my time coming up with ideas and starting songs, watching my favorite shows, reading my favorite books. So this room, I've definitely made sure to make it cozy and inviting just for my mind.

Sanctuary means comfort and peace to me, somewhere that I can feel fully myself, 110%, and just let my mind rest. I can shut the door and leave the outside world out there and just be myself in this room.

My bedroom is pink and green. I have dark velvet green curtains on a gold curtain rod with these little gold swans on the end. It's all about detail for me.

I have a fun gallery wall with pieces that either I have found at HomeGoods or I have thrifted. Or, even pages of books that I love, I'll just rip them out and put them in a frame because I want to see them more than once.

I have a rocking chair in the corner. I have a large desk that holds some pictures that I have sitting on it—One of my dad and I when I was just a little girl.

I have two bookends that are holding all of my Bible books. Any Bibles, any devotionals, any prayer journals, those pieces are very important to me, so I feel like they deserve to be out and not inside a drawer.

I have two nightstands that I actually found at an estate sale that have these scalloped edges. My neighbor across the hall, she always reminds me, she's like, “I remember when you were bringing these in and you thought it was hilarious, but I called my mom and was like, ‘I want these. How can I get her nightstands?’” I have replaced the knobs on those and they’re gold.

I have a lot of gold accents in my room, and I have a lot of mixed patterns. I have a floral comforter with a striped quilt folded over. I have gingham sheets that are green, so the colors are still green and pink, but there's a lot of mixed patterns going on.

I feel like being a creative, you sometimes have to get your creative self out in other outlets, so I'll pick up small hobbies outside of music—like sewing or painting—and decorating is just one of those things. I love decorating my room. I love helping my friends. My mom has an art degree, so she taught me a lot about coloring and what patterns will go with what. I'm so grateful that I grew up in a home like that.

In my sanctuary, pieces I can't live without, I feel like there’s so many of them: Definitely my guitars. I like to keep them out, keep my guitars shown. I want to hang them on the walls. I just couldn't imagine putting those away.

I also have two lamps on my nightstands that were actually my dad's when he was my age. They’re crystal lamps, and I just said, “I’m going to get some girly lampshades and I'm going to spray paint the brass pink just to make it a little bit more girly.”

Having those pieces that are like, “Oh, this was my dad’s, and these were boyish, but I kind of made them my own,” I love making things my own—Even if that means I'm pulling out a spray paint can or a paintbrush. I’m down to try anything. 

I've only been here a couple months, so most of the songs [on my new album] I had written previously. However, I've carried many furniture pieces along with me, so we will give them credit for the inspiration for this new EP that's coming.

A lot of the content creation and ideas that I get for promotion on this EP have come straight from my bedroom, just being here and just sitting with my thoughts.

I feel like having a bedroom that you love, having a sanctuary that you just love and feel like you can be yourself, it will help you rest your mind. I always say that I'm sleeping better if my sheets and my comforter is cuter. I just feel like if I feel like "Princess and the Pea," then I'm going to be sleeping and resting my best.

I always feel like there are things I want to change in my apartment and in my bedroom. I would love to find an old secretary desk and put it in a small corner just to make a workspace for myself, and maybe find a patterned ottoman just to add some more pattern in here. And, I'm always looking for more pictures to add to my gallery wall—I’m dreaming up so many awards on these walls.