The Ultimate Southern Home...

The ultimate Southern home for me, at least.  Take a looksie at this.  

Wow, what a front entrance...huge front doors and a large, wide front porch.

Welcome to my favorite kind of Southern house.  This low country, dogtrot design is featured in Southern Living magazine's website here.  All of the pictures in this post come from there.

When I had to choose a floor plan for my house back in 1999, I initially chose a design similar to this one.  Unfortunately, I changed my mind at the last minute.  I love my home the way it is but when I see pictures like this, I can't help to feel some regret.  

This home is open in the center from the front porch to the back porch.  Look at the front doors.  They fold out of the way to totally open up the central hallway.  I can just feel the air flow through the middle of the house.  The South's heat and humidity would be slightly more bearable with this design.

This is the view from inside the central hallway looking out of the front doors.

The wide central hall also serves as the dining and living rooms.  I love that.  The white walls and rich, mahogany stained molding can easily be viewed from here and look perfect together.  Especially with the warm heart pine floors.

At the end of the central hallway is a large screened in back porch.

Isn't that gorgeous?  The porch runs the length of the back of the house.  The doors that open to the back porch from the central hall are also wide, folding doors.  

This is what the back of the house looks like from the outside.

Did you notice those skylights in the porch ceiling?  I bet the lighting on the porch is amazing.  Even in a heavily wooded lot.  I could just live on that porch :)

Another amazing room is the kitchen.

There are so many things about this kitchen that I like. First, the combination of colors...again, dark wood stain with light gray.  I just love that light gray color.

Second, the refrigerator doors are painted in chalkboard paint.  Write your grocery list right on the fridge!

Third, and my favorite part, the windows on each side of the oven look out onto the central hall,  inside the house.  Windows that connect rooms inside of a house are so great!

If you go to the link above, you can find a list of all of the products used in this house.  I just know that you want to know the name of that gorgeous light gray color like I did, lol.  There, you can also find more pictures of this stunning home.

One last room, the living room.

How warm and inviting.  I love the cherry wood mantel  and the wood cabinets combined with the light gray walls and sofas.  This room is also in the central hall (towards the back of the house).

  

And because I love looking at floor plans, here is the floor plan of this house.  

This is the first floor plan.  The second floor has a game room above the dog trot and two guest bedrooms on the side.

Looking at the floor plan of a house helps me tie everything together, especially after viewing pictures of each room. 

I'm past the "new home" stage of my life but if I ever have to pick out another floor plan, this is it!