From Neighbors to Partners: How Two WeHo Residents Turned Frustration Into The Neighborhood’s Most Anticipated New Business

The story of Bower Nail Salon begins, as so many good things in Wedgewood-Houston do, with a community gathering and a conversation that wouldn’t end

Andrea Fishkin and Amanda Soeder Gleaton didn’t set out to open a nail salon. They set out to find one.

For two women who between them brought decades of experience in luxury fashion and high-end real estate, the ask seemed reasonable: a nail salon nearby that matched the standard they held in every other part of their lives. Elevated products. Thoughtful service. An environment designed with intention rather than as an afterthought. A place that felt less like a transaction and more like a ritual.

They couldn’t find it. So they built it.

The Conversation That Started Everything

It began the way so many things begin in Wedgewood-Houston — at a WeHo Social event, the kind of neighborhood gathering that draws the creative, the entrepreneurial, and the deeply local together into one room. Fishkin and Gleaton were both there. They were both neighbors. And within minutes of meeting, they discovered they had been living the same frustration.

“We kept ending up at the same conversation,” Fishkin recalled. “Where do you go? I haven’t found anywhere around here. Neither have I. And then at some point we stopped asking the question and started asking a different one — why don’t we just do this ourselves?”

For Gleaton, whose background in luxury real estate had trained her eye for environments that made people feel something the moment they walked in, the gap in the market was obvious. “There are incredible restaurants in this neighborhood now, incredible fitness concepts, incredible art,” she said. “And then you’d go get your nails done and the experience just didn’t match any of it. It felt like an opportunity hiding in plain sight.”

Makers, Not Just Consumers

What distinguishes Bower from the beginning is the word both founders keep returning to: makers. They weren’t interested in simply opening another nail salon. They were interested in building something from scratch — the product selection, the service menu, the physical environment, the name itself — with the same rigor that a boutique fashion house or an independent gallery would bring to its work.

The name Bower came early and stuck immediately. By definition, a bower is a private, sheltered retreat — a shaded enclosure, a quiet place apart. It was the feeling they wanted guests to carry with them from the moment they walked through the door. Not a quick stop on an errand run, but a deliberate pause. A place that acknowledged that an hour spent taking care of yourself was worth designing around.

The product approach followed from the same instinct. Bower works exclusively with non-toxic, clean polish lines — a decision that reflects both a personal conviction and a growing client expectation. Every tool, every product, every material in the space has been chosen with the same deliberate care. Nothing is there by default.

“We were the customer we were designing for,” Gleaton said. “So we knew exactly what we had been missing, and we were very specific about not making any of those compromises.”

Designing the Space — Jillian Downham Brings It to Life

When it came time to bring the physical space to life, Fishkin and Gleaton were deliberate about who they trusted with the work. They found their answer in Jillian Downham, a Nashville-based interior designer and co-founder of the newly launched Clifford Downham Hickerson Interiors. With a background that spans nearly a decade working alongside prominent Nashville designer Roger Higgins and a tenure leading the design team at Blackberry Farm in East Tennessee, Downham brings a depth of experience matched by a distinctly personal touch. Her approach centers on curated, personality-driven design — spaces that feel tailored rather than decorated, and that reflect the specific character of the people and businesses they’re built for.

For Fishkin and Gleaton, that instinct was exactly what Bower called for.

“We wanted someone who understood what we were reaching for,” Fishkin said. “A space that feels curated and personal, not decorated. Jillian thinks that way instinctively. The conversation was easy from the start.”

The result is a space designed to feel residential in its warmth and editorial in its precision. The room doesn’t announce itself loudly. It draws you in quietly — soft materials, considered light, a sense that every element was placed rather than defaulted to. It photographs beautifully, but it was designed to be experienced. The difference is something you feel the moment you sit down.

Now Open in Wedgewood Village

Bower is open now at 1214 Martin Street in Wedgewood Village — next door to Culture Club, between Humphreys and Houston Street, in the heart of the neighborhood both founders call home. It’s the kind of address that feels right: tucked into a block that is becoming one of the most vibrant stretches in Nashville, within a development built to be lived in rather than simply visited.

The location positions Bower alongside some of the most talked-about restaurant and wellness concepts in the city. For a business built around the idea of a private retreat embedded in a living community, the fit is exact.

“This neighborhood has so much energy right now,” Fishkin said. “There’s Pastis, there’s Aba, there’s Forza, there’s Framework. The level of the concepts that are coming in — it raised the bar for what we wanted Bower to be. We wanted to be worthy of this block.”

What to Expect

Bower offers a focused, curated service menu built around manicures and pedicures — done exceptionally well, with no dilution of attention into unrelated services. Appointments are the standard, though walk-ins are welcomed based on availability. Exclusive product offerings — some available only at Bower — are a signature of the retail side of the business, giving guests a way to extend the experience at home.

“We want people to walk in and immediately understand what we’re doing,” Gleaton said. “And we want them to walk out and already be thinking about when they’re coming back.”

A Neighborhood Built by People Who Live Here

There’s a particular pleasure in a business founded and designed by people with genuine investment in the community around it — who care about the neighborhood’s character, its texture, its future.

Fishkin and Gleaton are both of Wedgewood-Houston in that way. They didn’t move here to open a business. They opened a business because they live here, and because they decided that waiting for someone else to solve their problem wasn’t their style. In selecting Downham, they extended that same sensibility to the design — choosing a collaborator whose approach is personal, precise, and deeply considered.

In a neighborhood that is, at this particular moment, being built by makers — of music, of art, of food, of design, of community — Bower fits right in.

Bower Nail Salon is now open at 1214 Martin Street, Wedgewood Village, Nashville — next door to Culture Club, between Humphreys and Houston Street. Interiors by Clifford Downham Hickerson Interiors. Book appointments and follow updates at bowernails.com or on Instagram.