6 Tips to Create a Classic Southern Home
Creating a classic Southern home is all about charm, comfort, and timeless style. Whether you’re designing from the ground up or giving your space a Southern-inspired refresh, these six tips will help bring that elegant, sophisticated style into your own home.
1. Nothing says Southern Hospitality like Welcoming Porches A Southern home isn’t complete without a welcoming porch. It’s a place to sip sweet tea, greet neighbors, or simply relax. Consider rocking chairs, swings, or wicker furniture to create a cozy spot for socializing. Add hanging ferns, a stylish lantern, or a front door in a bold color (think deep red or navy blue) to really give it that warm Southern touch.
2. Use Classic, Timeless Furniture Pieces Southern design favors timeless over trendy. For the right balance in any home, there is absolutely nothing like a well-placed antique.An antique instantly grounds a room and gives it a sense of place and history. Whether it’s a find shipped back from a once-in-a-lifetime trip, a unique accessory like this gorgeous chest that adds a one-of-a-kind feel, there is absolutely no substitute for the perfect antique.
3. Incorporate Soft, Inviting Colors Southern homes are known for their inviting, warm color palettes. Soft, neutral tones create the perfect base for accents of soft blues, greens, and pinks. These colors will create a calm, relaxed atmosphere throughout the home.
Source: Atlanta Homes & LifestylesInterior Design Anna Booth InteriorsLandscape Architect: Bill Caldwell, BCLA DesignBuilder: Paces Builder GroupPhotography: Jeff Herr
4. Mix Textures for Cozy Elegance Texture is key to creating a Southern home that feels both elegant and lived-in. When it comes to making a living room feel cozy and inviting, textures are everything. Layering different textures, from velvet throws, pillows and cozy blankets to linen curtains and woven rugs, creates a sense of warmth and comfort. Mixing these materials adds richness to the space, making it not only visually appealing but also tactile. After all, beauty isn’t just in what you see—it’s in what you can feel, too and your Southern home should feel approachable yet refined.
5. Focus on Family and Tradition Southern design emphasizes family, tradition, and a love for storytelling. It could be signed books, family silver,favorite, irreplaceable photos taken during a time when clouds lived in the sky, not on our cell phones and laptops. Collections, if you will, that don’t fall into the “it’s just stuff” category.
6. Add Greenery and Floral Arrangements A Southern home wouldn’t be complete without fresh flowers. They infuse life and vitality into any space from the dining table to a small vase of flowers on your guest bathroom sink.
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With “her signature warmth and Southern charm” (E! Online), the New York Times bestselling author of The Summer of Songbirds and the Peachtree Bluff series presents a tender and touching novel about a young woman who discovers the family she has always longed for when she spends a life-changing summer in North Carolina.
Present Day: Keaton Smith is desperate for a fresh start. So when her mother needs someone to put her childhood home in Beaufort, North Carolina, on the market—the home that Keaton didn’t know existed until now—she jumps at the chance to head south. But the moment she steps foot inside the abandoned house, she’s confronted with secrets about grandparents who died in a car accident before she was born. And as she gets to know her charming next-door neighbor, his precocious ten-year-old son, and a flock of endearingly feisty town busybodies, she soon finds she has more questions than answers.
1976: After meeting her adoring husband Townsend, Rebecca “Becks” Saint James abandoned the life she knew and never looked back. Forty years later, she’s made a name for herself as the best hostess North Carolina has ever seen. Her annual summer suppers have become the stuff of legend, and locals and out-of-towners alike clamor for an invitation to her stunning historic home. But she’s struggling behind the façade. Becks strives to make the lives of those around her as easy as possible, but this summer she is facing a dilemma that even she can’t solve. And as the end of the season looms, she is brought to a decision she never wanted to make.
As both Keaton and Becks face new challenges and chapters, they are connected through time by the house on Sunset Lane, which has protected the secrets, hopes, and dreams of the women in their family for generations. For fans of Summer of ‘69 and The Notebook, A Happier Life explores the power of family, the bonds of friendship, and the boundless nature of love.
