Susan Sully – författare

The words Southern hospitality conjure up a wealth of welcoming images, from breezy porches with white colonnades and the seductive scent of magnolia blossoms cut from the yard to fill heirloom vases to tables laden with fine china on embroidered linens, illuminated by candles. Southern Hospitality at Home showcases the special qualities of graciousness and charm that define the American South's way of living. Learn from Southern style experts how to make your home an inviting place for sharing with family and friends--from designing welcoming entrance halls and inviting living rooms to comfortable kitchens, pretty guest rooms, and shady garden rooms--and weave your spell of hospitality. Featured are an array of exceptional houses including an eighteenth-century dwelling in Charleston with a bold, contemporary palette and a rustic plantation where high and low styles mix in perfect harmony. In Savannah, interior designer Chuck Chewning brings modern sophistication to a Greek Revival townhouse. In Georgia, textile artist Susan Hable Smith injects bright color and pattern into an old-fashioned cottage and a collector offers fresh ideas for displaying antiques. With tips for decorating and accessorizing, arranging flowers and setting tables, caring for silver and serving authentic Southern recipes, this beautifully photographed hospitality resource is practical and inspirational, true to tradition, and relevant for today.

The Southern Cosmopolitan looks at the tradition of style shaping the South’s architecture and interior design. A selection of luxurious houses from Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, Atlanta, Natchez, Georgetown, and Alexandria celebrates the sophisticated side of southern style with a mix of modern art, antiques, and exotic textiles. Featured in tantalizing color photographs are select residences decorated by leading southern tastemakers, including Thomas Jayne, Amelia Handegan, Nancy Braithewaite, and Hal Williamson.An immaculately restored mansion in Natchez and a collector’s treasure trove in Alexandria reveal the South’s love affair with historic European and American architecture, art, and antiques. A classic re-do of a Colonial Revival home in Georgetown and a modern Atlanta condominium decorated with French antiques and contemporary art showcase the southern blend of old and new. A Greek Revival house filled with exotic textiles in Charleston and an Italianate townhouse in Savannah display the South’s fascination with foreign and exotic decorative objects. A perfect summary of southern taste for those charmed by both the grandeur and intimate details that make these homes so hospitable.

Flanigan looks at the home on a room-by-room basis, identifying common design challenges, offering solutions on how to create rooms that are aesthetically pleasing and efficient. With examples chosen from her work, she shares seasoned wisdom and creative approaches to every decision ranging from building materials and architectural details to furnishings, color, textiles, accessories, and organization. While her first book The Beauty of Home spelled out her philosophy of design, this new tome provides illustrated examples of design ideas and applications for each room in the house, inspiring readers to create spaces that exceed expectations. Her firm collaborates on projects from Jackson Hole to Miami. Rooms from contemporary to traditional-style homes are featured including the sun-drenched great room of a Shingle-style house in the Hamptons, a rustic-chic dining room with stone floors and a weathered wood ceiling in Texas, and a paneled living room in Manhattan. For those passionate about interiors and architecture, this wealth of design ideas is a great resource.

The work of renowned firm McALPINE has always communicated the power of romanticism, speaking directly to the heart through the beauty and poetry of the home. Tapping diverse influences, the residences draw from architectural languages ranging from Elizabethan and Dutch to colonial Caribbean and agrarian American. The book opens with Bobby McAlpine s own newly designed house, featuring exquisite spaces that are modern in expression but classical in order and balance. Other projects include a white-on-white neoclassical pavilion-by-the-sea in the Bahamas; a masonry dwelling in the rolling hills of Virginia; a quintessential American country house in Tennessee that combines the familiarity of a farmhouse with crisp minimalism; and an exuberant house sited on the edge of a pastoral golf course in Alabama. Freely choosing from architecture s treasury, the assembly of houses is familiar, bold, and surprising, all at the same time reflecting the complexity of the human experience.