Home Tour

I just toured the Southern Living Idea House in River Dunes, NC and I gotta say…..well maybe I shouldn’t say anything. But then what’s the point of a blog?

First off, as with everything we look forward to for a long time, I built this up in my mind a lot, and I do mean a lot. I took a notepad expecting to see things I had never seen before, and I thought I had read that there would be new technology and “ideas”, I mean it’s in the title, right?

My friend and neighbor invited me to see the home and I took her up on it immediately. We drove to River Dunes which is a beautiful waterfront community and were greeted by a beautiful front door decorated for Christmas. When we opened the door I noticed that the lockset was askew, it wasn’t straight up and down as it should be, but I brushed it off, I mean who cares? (I tend to notice the details, probably to a fault.) We entered the foyer and there was a beautiful wallpaper covering the foyer walls and stairwell up to the second floor.

We walked through the living room with it’s holiday decor and beautiful artwork and Margaret noticed the “seashell appliqué” that adorned the casing around the built-in bookcases. This is not my thing but kudos for stepping outside the box. In actuality I thought it was hideous but again, I’m trying to remain open-minded.

We then made our way to the screened porch which was enormous and also decorated for the holidays. It had 2 designated spaces, one for dining and one lounge area with a wood fireplace. I loved it! The small outdoor courtyard was also well done.

Onto the kitchen and dining room. Unfortunately the dining room had a rather smallish chandelier also decorated with seashells, I mean what is going on here? The kitchen was fine, standard white countertops with black veining, and they were honed which is my favorite finish. The refrigerator was an enormous GE Monogram that took up a city block, just kidding, but it was big! The downstairs bathroom also had seashells so I made my way in and out quickly. I was noticing a trend.

We walked upstairs to find 3 bedrooms, all wallpapered, with plaids, florals and stripes. Okay, wallpaper is back, I get it, but they matched the headboard, rugs, and draperies to the wallpapers, (you’ll see in the pictures). Again not my favorite style, but styled nonetheless. But it also gets a bit weird, the lighting was not only inexpensive looking, it didn’t match the decor and wasn’t centered in the space. The main bath suite had 2 hand-painted vanities which were tiny and not very functional. The tub was beautiful but there was just something missing. And then it hit me, I haven’t seen a bit of new technology anywhere. Well no wonder I haven’t made a single note.

So I guess, it was a nice excursion for a lazy afternoon but for me it was lacking the “ideas”. I didn’t see anything new. Maybe a homeowner would find it interesting, but I could pick up any magazine or go to any design website and find cutting edge design, new tech and decorating tips that would be more useful to me. I was just really hoping to see this kind of thing in person.

Now remember when I said, I notice the details……well there were a lot of details missed in this home. Some of the workmanship was lacking and the wallpaper in the stairwell was completely wrong, or they just ran out and couldn’t get anymore, I’m not really sure what happened but it looked like a big mistake to me. I didn’t take any pictures of all these issues, really, that would just be mean, but for me it was hard to miss. I couldn’t “unsee it” which was a bummer. Maybe if they served champagne on the tour I would have missed it all together………nope, probably not.

Anyway, that’s just my opinion, it may be y’alls cup of tea and thats’s okay too. And like I said, it was a beautiful setting and a gorgeous day for a ride, and I could have sat in that screened porch all day.

Nancy Bradley photo

Nancy bradley

I consult, design, and remodel spaces that reflect the homeowner’s lifestyle and budget by getting the cost question out of the way and really listening to what my client wants and how much they have set aside for their project.