10 Design Trends From The 2023 Southern Living Idea House

For our 2023 Southern Living Idea House, we followed country roads to the Leiper’s Fork area of Tennessee. There, our team of builders and designers built a family farmhouse that honors the region’s agricultural past and looks to the future. From interior designer Laura Hodges’ embrace of vintage and antique finds to residential designers Bill Holloway and Luke Sippel’s appreciation for beautiful utilitarian spaces, our team created a home chock full of timeless trends and creative ideas we can’t wait to try in our own homes. Here are 10 trends from the 2023 Southern Living Idea House that we know we’ll love for years to come.

Vintage and Antique Pieces

While we’ve always loved weaving vintage and antique furnishings and accessories into our homes, there’s been a renewed interest in these pieces from the past given their immediate availability and inherent sustainability. Hodges used such finds in nearly every room of the Idea House, from vintage rugs to antique tables. Beyond being a more environmentally conscious move, these pieces are also especially durable, as they’re often better made and of higher quality than much of the newly manufactured stuff, she notes. “If it’s been around for this long, you’re probably not going to ruin it,” she says.

Nature-Inspired Color Palette

Hodges found inspiration for the home’s color scheme in the pastoral acreage that surrounds it. While the embrace of natural color translated to varying shades of crowd-pleasing greens in the butler’s pantry and breakfast room, Hodges also introduced one of nature’s more polarizing hues to the scheme: red. “It’s not always an easy color to use, but it can be very impactful,” notes the designer, who cloaked the powder room in a deep, rich shade (Sherwin-Williams’ Rookwood Red, SW 2802) for a little drama. “That’s the color you see in this beautiful environment outside once the leaves start to change. It creates this cocoon of lovely indulgent red. I love being able to [replicate] that in this space.”

Intentional Utilitarian Spaces

Workhorse rooms often get the style shaft, but the Idea House team turned that way of thinking on its head, making design choices to add a layer of beauty to these practical areas. “I think it’s important to put a little thought and effort into the spaces you use every day,” says residential designer Bill Holloway. “The mudroom is your foyer; those kinds of daily moments should be functional but also be celebrated and pretty.” They designed the layout to allow for abundant natural light, which Hodges emphasized through her own choices, like the gray-and-white Bardiglio and white Carrara marble she selected for the floor. “What I love is that you’re taking this utilitarian space and elevating it with this really beautiful classic design of a checkerboard floor,” she notes. “It makes the space feel more special. Even the homeowner has a nice little reward.”

Texture on Texture

Because Hodges maintained a largely subdued color palette throughout much of the house, she leaned into an abundance of textures to add dimension and interest. In the primary bedroom, for instance, she enveloped the recessed niche behind the linen-slipcovered bed in a caramel-hued velvet from Phillip Jeffries, then selected concrete lamps from Regina Andrew for the side tables. Together, the contrasting textures make for a space that feels visually compelling without being overwhelming.

Statement Lighting 

Beyond an entry lantern or a dining room chandelier, lighting often tends to be a home-decorating afterthought. Here, though, Hodges treated it as the jewelry of the house, selecting pieces that draw the eye and add a finishing flourish of style and polish. In the primary bedroom, for instance, a glass globe chandelier floats overhead, delivering an effervescent elegance to the design scheme.

Hand-Painted Elements

To infuse the new build with warmth and personality, Hodges filled the home with art, from framed local pieces to ceiling-high murals. She opted for an all-in artful approach in the breakfast room and an upstairs bathroom, commissioning artist Dee Lenehan of Baltimore, Maryland-based Lenehan Studios, to add her handiwork there. Lenehan covered the breakfast room in a mural intended to serve as a softened version of the Tennessee countryside. “When you step into this room, you’re just enveloped by this moment,” says Hodges. In the upstairs bathroom, the artist designed a graphic herringbone-like pattern that mimics wallpaper, but with a more painterly touch.

Rooms That Transition Seamlessly from Morning to Night

Hodges worked hard to ensure that no public space in the home felt like a one-trick pony. While the breakfast room is outfitted with a coffee bar and feels just right for morning pastries, she took care to design the spot in a way that could easily translate to nighttime entertaining, as well. “This room is at the front of the house, which gets the evening sun, so I wanted this space to not feel strictly like a breakfast room,” she notes. “In the evening, you could easily stop into the [neighboring] butler’s pantry, grab a bottle of wine, and this space feels lounge-y. There are beautiful views of the sunset through these windows.”

Space-Saving Built-Ins

Make the most of limited square footage with multipurpose built-ins. In the twin bedroom, Hodges built the beds into the walls, designing them to include drawers for storage underneath and hanging upholstered headboards that wrap around the room’s corners for extra coziness. To keep the focus on the view through the windows at the center of the space, she opted to build in desks on either side, with shelving that reaches nearly the same height as the windows. She took the same space-maximizing approach in the smaller queen bedroom, where a built-in wardrobe and desk eliminate the need for additional furnishings.

Comfortable Outdoor Spaces

Approach outdoor areas, like porches and patios, as extensions of your interiors. “Porches should be cozy, especially one like this that’s covered and has retractable Phantom Screens [which keep bugs out] that come down,” says Laura, who furnished it with plush furniture from Summer Classics’ Havana collection. Beyond providing another retreat within your home, a comfortable outdoor room also expands your home’s square footage, allowing you to more easily host and entertain a crowd. 

Culinary Gardens

Bring the ever-popular farm-to-table movement home with a backyard kitchen garden. At the Idea House, fresh produce is always within arm’s reach thanks to the raised beds curated by Sara Gasbarra of Verdura, a culinary garden design company in nearby Nashville. Flowers planted to attract pollinators and distract potential pests deliver a dose of color to the garden, making the kitchen garden a win on both the practical and pretty fronts.