Southern Living Style

It has been almost seven years since our big remodel (we added a second floor to our home, nearly doubling the square footage), and after seven years of use, certain areas are starting to show wear and tear, notably the kitchen, the living room and the guest room. The walls could use a fresh coat of paint, the living room sofa needs upholstering, our kitchen cabinets need refacing, and so on. It's the perfect opportunity to revamp and refresh these areas, so we've turned to some books and magazines for inspiration. One great book is Southern Living Style. Even though our home is in the Craftsman style, I've found lots of inspiration for how we want to update the look of our home!

About the book:

Introducing the most comprehensive design book from Southern Living magazine, the arbiter of all things Southern. Southern Living Style is the definitive guide for creating unique, but approachable spaces infused with Southern sensibility.

Gracious hospitality, warmth and effortless elegance signify great Southern style. Like the consummate host, the well-appointed Southern home embraces guests and draws them in to linger. Tour the most inspired rooms that have graced the pages of Southern Living magazine in this 288-page guide and learn how to adopt a similar air of timeless ease, based on your personal style and budget.

Key features include:

• Defining Southern Style: From heirlooms to monograms, discover new ways to celebrate traditional icons.
• Reclaim It! Tips to turn grandma’s attic finds into updated treasures.
• Solutions: Top Southern designers offer solutions for design dilemmas.
• Style on a Budget: Identify individual style and build a room around a single inspiration—the color of a scarf, the pattern of a fabric, even a tag-sale relic.
• Why it Works?: A piece-by-piece deconstruction of rooms to show the key components required to achieve a particular look. From family friendly to classic, discover what to start with, top with and add to make a room personal, stylish and functional.
• Southern Style File: A black book of editors’ favorite designers, retailers, and more.
• Defining Southern Style: A glossary of helpful “decorator speak” terms.

I love this book. I could leaf through its pages again and again, and here's why:

* The photos. The photos alone are a great reason to buy this book. They are absolutely gorgeous! Every room featured looks like it came straight out of a magazine -- which, of course, it was, since they have all graced the pages of Southern Living magazine.

* This book is not just for show: it's a great reference for anyone planning for a decorating project, no matter how large or small. It's filled with practical tips and advice for pulling together the Southern look.

* The authors deconstruct each of the rooms featured in the book and point out some key components in the room, so you can do the same with your own rooms.


My favorite sections are the kitchen, bathrooms and kids' rooms because even though our home is by no means Southern (we have a Craftsman home), there are so many ideas we could apply to our own home (like decorating the walls of your bathroom with antique paintings!). Southern Living Style is the perfect idea book as well as the perfect coffee table book, especially if your home is also decorated in the Southern style. But even if you don't you'll want to spend time browsing through the book. That casually elegant, comfy, shabby-chic mix of classic and modern is so inviting, it makes me want to jump into the pages and move right in!

Disclosure: I received a review copy of Southern Living Style to facilitate my review. Book synopsis is provided by the publisher and is indicated in italics. The views and opinions expressed here are my own.