A Green Hills Before & After Transformation: From ‘Shindigs’ to Kirna Zabête
If you're a Nashville native, you likely have fond memories of the old Shindigs & Celebrations building in Green Hills. But did you know it's now a high-end retail destination? Wait until you see the transformation! Image: Daniel Meigs
If you’re a Nashville native, you’ve likely heard of the longtime Green Hills party supply mecca, Shindigs & Celebrations. That name may even elicit fond childhood memories of picking out paper decor and custom balloons. A family-owned-and-operated business for nearly 30 years, it’s still going strong in Green Hills Court. But it’s the shop’s original storefront that has many Nashvillians waxing nostalgic — and the location has taken on an entirely new life as high-end clothing boutique Kirna Zabête.
We got the inside scoop on the building’s makeover and snagged some before-and-after pictures. The transformation is incredible.
The history of 2001 Warfield Drive in Green Hills boasts a festive narrative, to say the least. As Kirna Zabête owner and founder Beth Buccini sums up, “I loved that I was taking on the karma of a place called Shindigs & Celebrations. Now, instead of getting your balloons for shindigs and celebrations, you’re getting outfits for shindigs and celebrations!”
Beth loves sharing the story behind her new shop’s location. “Every Nashville native just loved that and knew exactly what I was talking about!” she explains. “They would say, ‘Oh! I used to get all my balloons there for my birthday parties when I was a child!’ Everybody knows about it; I think that’s so much fun.”
But let’s start at the beginning.
If you aren’t familiar with Shindigs & Celebrations, take it from us: It has been a Nashville staple for years — one of the old-school, mom-and-pop treasures that make Nashville’s retail lineage unique and memorable. And when the iconic store moved locations a couple of years ago, it left behind a physical legacy in the mid-century retro 1960s building it had once inhabited. “When I went in there and toured it for the first time, on some existing columns, you could still see balloon strings wrapped around,” says Beth of her first visit.
She found the building on a bit of a whim. Her husband was in Nashville for business and knew she would love the city. He encouraged her to check it out.
“I’m from the South originally, and I hadn’t been to Nashville since high school,” she says. One visit had her sold. “We had such an amazing time,” she recalls. “At the last minute, we got tickets to see Garth Brooks at the Ryman, and every woman around me was in this fabulous outfit with a designer handbag. I was like, ‘What is happening in this town?’ It was amazing!”
That observation launched Beth into a frenzy of research. “I felt there was a void,” she explains. “Where I’ve been most successful with opening stores is that I try to go where there’s not a lot of noise. It makes it easier to be impactful. So, I started looking and found this space and went for it!”
Since then, the building has transformed into a stunning display of chic, elevated apparel and accessories. “They had cleared everything out, so it was basically just an open rectangle,” Beth says of the pre-renovated space. “We did a full cosmetic redo — new AC systems and all the mechanics. We put in bathrooms, brought it up to code, and did all those logistical, boring things that needed to be done. We went with the bones of the building and did what we could to make it very Kirna Zabête.”
If you’re curious about what that entails, no one knows the design aesthetic better than the space’s interior designer, Steven Gambrel. “Kirna Zabête is a playful, irreverent take on bespoke shopping with a casual and relaxed atmosphere,” says Steven, “and I’ve enjoyed creating interiors that reflect that energy.”
While all of the Kirna Zabête stores differ from one another, they have recurring elements. “We have the same design elements in all of the spaces, but we’ve tweaked them for each location,” explains Beth. “For instance, the Madison Avenue store has incredibly high ceilings, so we were able to put some really big bold chandeliers that hang low in that space. In this [Nashville] space, the ceilings are not that high, so we’ve redesigned the chandeliers a little bit — keeping that same element of a 1940s chandelier silhouette, except it’s lacquered in red and a little bit closer to the ceiling.”
Additionally, you’ll find that all the stores have pink marble floors (imported from Italy) and Venetian plaster walls in a warm shade of pink. A few stores — including Nashville — have plush wall-to-wall carpet that creates a cozy ambiance for trying on clothes.
But Kirna Zabête’s Nashville location also offers a unique feature you won’t find at its other locations … a bar. Beth tells us, “For Nashville, we also put a bar in the store because … it’s Nashville, and we had the space to do it! We lacquered the bar in this dreamy peacock color.”
Though an interior bar installation is undoubtedly a far cry from its earlier days of custom balloons, the building was ready for its new life — even if it took a while to get there. “I think the biggest challenge was how long it took,” says Beth of the renovation process. “The contractors were incredible and did such a thorough, amazing job. But I had to laugh and readjust my timeline expectations … This city is so busy and booming! But once we got into the space, everything was pretty straightforward, and we are thrilled with how it came out.”
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Jenna von Oy Bratcher
Jenna von Oy Bratcher is StyleBlueprint's Associate Editor and Lead Nashville Writer. The East Coast native moved to Nashville almost two decades years ago, by way of Los Angeles. She is a lover of dogs, strong coffee, traveling, and exploring the local restaurant scene bite by bite.