I was recently invited by Delta Faucet to visit Birmingham, AL to tour the 2016 Southern Living Idea House. After falling off the kitchen chair, rubbing my eyes and showing the email to my husband to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, I quickly responded YES and was on my way!
Since Atlanta is only 2.5 hours from B-ham, I opted for a road trip instead of flying and headed out on Sunday afternoon. Wow, I had forgotten how peaceful a road trip alone can be. But I digress…
I arrived at the adorable Mountain Brook area of B-ham and checked into the Grand Bohemian. There, I joined up with the other 4 bloggers, the Delta Faucet team, their agency and some Southern Living gals for dinner. Of course, I was mostly excited about being in a hotel room by myself for a glorious evening. Again, I digress…
The next morning, we were shuttled to the Southern Living Idea House and given a tour by the Southern Living team. After the tour, we went to the Southern Living Headquarters where we got a tour of their test kitchen. What a fun day! Of course, I took tons of pics so I will share the highlights with you today and tomorrow.
Let’s start with the porch of the Southern Living Idea House 2016. It was love at first sight!
Southern Living Idea House- Exterior and Foyer
Here is a glimpse of the front of the Southern Living Idea House.
Love the colors they chose for the house, porch ceiling and shutters.
Alright, let’s head inside!
We step into the foyer. So welcoming and I love the treatment with the stair runner.
Southern Living Idea House- Family Room
From the foyer, we make a left turn into this expansive family room. I love how they broke the large space into two different areas. I also love how while this room is neutral, it is far from boring with so many patterns and textures.
The wall of bird art would be such a fun thing to recreate at home!
I remember seeing this art above the fireplace. in the Southern Living magazine. I think it could make a very good DIY project.
When you really start to look at the room, you can see so many layers of textures. It’s so beautiful!
OK, clearly that was my favorite room in the house! I guess we must move on.
Southern Living Idea House- Den and Kitchen
Here is the den off the kitchen. Very dramatic with a tented ceiling and hunter green walls.
The entire kitchen was hunter green. It definitely felt like a 1990’s color but somehow still felt modern.
Of course, Southern Living had Sweet Tea out for us.
OK, that covers the first half of the house. Since this post is getting very long, I will be back tomorrow with Part 2 to show you behind the scenes in the Southern Living Test Kitchen. I also did my first Facebook Live which was lots of fun if you’d like to see a live tour. (and a few laughs) I promise I will work on my skills for the next one! Ha.
Have you been to the Idea Home? I’d love to hear your favorite part!
xoxo-
Heather
See more about the day I spent with Southern Living by clicking the images below:
The house looks fabulous! I really paid attention to all the lighting, as I feel I could use an update of lamps and lighting in our house. And that closet…I mean how many cutting boards are there? The shelves of different color dishes must have been fabulous! I have a dish kitchen in my basement where I store some things, I could study the things in this one for a long time. Thanks for the tour!
My favorite part….all the lamp cords that are visible. I always wonder…am I the only one who sometimes just can’t hide the cords? Glad to see what a “real” house looks like!
I thought the SAME thing. Those pesky cords! Definitely could have done a better job hiding them but hey, it is real life so let’s just embrace it!
How can we find out the exterior colors?
Hi Beth! The entire resource guide for the house including all of the paint colors can be found here – http://www.southernliving.com/sites/default/files/media/final_resource_guide.pdf