Southern Living September 2020

BACK IN THE FALL of 2019, when restaurants and bars were packed to the gills, hotels were booked months in advance, and nobody knew how to use the word “quarantine” in a sentence, we had the idea of bringing some of the South’s most enterprising cooks together in our Test Kitchen. We didn’t want chefs, necessarily, but cookbook authors, entrepreneurs, bloggers, and working moms who were creating recipes that caught our attention. (Mee McCormick’s gluten-free fried chicken? That we wanted to try.) The plan was essentially to have a potluck supper in Birmingham with each attendee sharing a dish that represented her region, background, and unique approach to cooking. If it went well, we’d have great conversations about where Southern food was headed, make some new friends, and hopefully have…

EJ AND Whit Brown aren’t afraid of a challenge. The intrepid do-it-yourselfers had recently restored a 5,600-square-foot historic home in Florence, Alabama, when a cabin around the corner went up for sale. “I looked at it and fell in love, but it was not move-in ready. It was a disaster,” says EJ. Tucked away off a back road on a secluded 3-acre property, the 1,400-square-foot cabin had been vacant for several years and was less than livable. However, the home’s atypical-for-Alabama saltbox-style design and woodsy location were worthy of a downsize. “I’m drawn to fixer-uppers,” she says. “If I can see the potential in a house and if we put a lot of sweat equity into it, I know we can make it amazing.” The renovation tag team got to…

MOVE OVER, mums—there’s another colorful perennial that’s taking center stage in containers. While fiery red, orange, and yellow mums are classic pot fillers for fall, every other front porch on the block will likely have a similar look. We suggest loosening things up with free-flowing asters. Mix purple ones with spiky Mexican bush sage and ornamental cabbage to create a moody, mono-chromatic display. Pick the Plants Aster, ornamental cabbage, Mexican bush sage, purple waffle plant, lamb’s ears, and ‘Purple Prince’ alternanthera Make Them Last Planting directly into the container makes watering easier and helps your selections last longer. Drill holes in the bottom for drainage. Provide full sun, and water daily. If your porch gets partial shade, be sure the pot receives at least four hours of light per day.…

GARDENER’S REMORSE › I’m a native of North Carolina now living in Alabama. I’m pretty great at killing plants, but now I’m interested in changing my ways. Our front flower beds have a lot of thick clay, and that has made many of my bushes develop root rot. Do you have any suggestions for what I could plant in an area that gets morning sun about five to six hours a day? —LEAH » Well, the first thing you have to do is improve the soil. Then you’ll have more choices than quince, holly, and nandina. You can do this by loosening up the dirt to a depth of around a foot and working in LOTS of organic matter, such as soil conditioner, composted cow manure, ground bark, and chopped leaves. Then the…

MEET THE DECORATOR Make an Asheville Escape Lauren Liess, our 2020 Idea House designer, gives us a sneak peek into our North Carolina mountain home THE INSPIRATION “The location really was my starting point. My vision came from the views outside the windows of the house.” THE PALETTE “People choose to live in the North Carolina mountains because of the natural beauty of the surroundings here, so I emphasized the different shades of green (which I pulled from trees and other plants) as well as the texture of the wood.” THE FEELING “This is a space for exhaling, relaxing, and not worrying about anything else.” THE ROOM YOU’RE MOST EXCITED ABOUT “It’s too hard to pick just one! Two of my favorite spots are the main living/kitchen area, because that’s where families spend quality time together, and the library, because…

“I HAD NO INTENTION of living in a condo when I first started house hunting,” says Atlanta-based interior designer Anna-Louise Wolfe. But a 1929 Colonial Revival condo in Buckhead caught her eye. Its hardwood floors, original millwork, and old-school glass doorknobs checked off the items on her list. “It had all the historic charm I was looking for,” she says. Twenty years of renters had turned the 810-square-foot, one-bedroom place into a dirty, dated hangout spot. “It was a nightmare,” Wolfe recalls. First step: Repaint every inch. Decorating with her favorite things—chinoiserie, bold animal prints, vibrant fabrics, and cherished rose medallion porcelain—she turned the blank space into an ultrafeminine home in the city. Here, Wolfe shares her favorite small-space decorating ideas. Design a Happy Room “The sunroom (shown at left) is the…