Houzz Interview: Rhoda’s Southern Hospitality

If you've ever been down south, you are probably familiar with southern hospitality. Folks in the south are very warm, friendly and happy to welcome visitors to their homes.
Rhoda was raised in the South and Southern Hospitality is what she aspires to practice in real life as well as on her blog. Yardsales are a passion of her, as well as thrifting of any sort. Rhoda adores old pieces of antique furniture, which she used as the bones of her home. She is also a big fan of DIY projects, which she loves to share with her blog readers. And of course, we can't talk about Southern Hospitality without mentioning Rhoda's tasty southern recipes…

So, in Rhoda's words, "please make yourself at home" and enjoy Rhoda's houzz interview and her southern hospitality blog.

Please tell us about your "first meeting" with your house to be

We moved to Birmingham, AL about 3 1/2 years ago. After my hubby was commuting from Atlanta for a few months, we decided to make it our permanent home, so he began looking at houses after work and during lunch for a month or so. We both came over and looked a couple of different times and he actually found our house and neighborhood and told me about it on the phone. He had looked inside the house already and told me all about and I was able to look online at the realty pics, but I wasn't overly impressed to begin with. When he brought me in here for the first time, I was underwhelmed to say the least and it wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but it grew on me after we decided to buy it. I didn't like the wall colors and I hated all the carpet.

The first step of your remodeling process

There were hardwoods in the kitchen, diningroom and foyer originally, but none going up the stairs and into our large living room. One of the stipulations I had from the get-go was that the main living area upstairs had to be hardwoods too (that carpet must go), so we decided to get that done first, as well as painting the main rooms of the house before we moved our furniture in. That was the smartest thing we did. The new hardwoods made all the difference in the world to the feel of the house and I slowly started to fall in love with it. I had all my furniture arranged before moving day and luckily, all my furniture fit in the right spots just perfectly. After over 3 years of working on our house and making lots of changes, it's finally our place. I did a lot of DIY projects myself to bring about many of the changes and that has been very rewarding too.

The biggest renovation challenge you faced

I'd say getting rid of the carpet was the biggest change in our house. Once that expansive room of carpet went, the whole feel of the house changed. The other changes I've made have been mostly cosmetic, adding new lighting, painting every room a color that I love, and all those finishing touches with decorating and accessorizing. The house is only 10 years old, so didn't need a lot of remodeling, thankfully and it has a good layout and great molding, so I was happy about that.

Your favorite style and colors

I'm for the most part a Traditional decorator, with a little sass thrown in for fun. I don't like stuffy Traditional, but like to kick it up with some fun things and plenty of color. I am drawn to more warm colors and the main color throughout our home is Sherwin Williams Whole Wheat, but once you go in the bedrooms, office, laundry room, and other spaces, you'll quickly see
that I love color. Not in your face color, but I love how our space transitions and moves to different colors, yet it all flows together in my eye. Throw in a little animal print with leopard or zebra and I'm a happy girl.

A spot in your house that makes you very happy/proud

I spend a lot of time in my office nook and am so proud of this space. When we first looked at the house, I saw this little nook outside the laundryroom and knew it would be perfect for my office and it has been. I thoroughly enjoy my girlie space and made it my own and it's been very comfortable for me, with its lime green, black and white palette. It's SO me and so
comfortable and the perfect size office!

Your precious accessory/furniture/art

Being an antiques lover, I have collected many furniture pieces over the years and have some beautiful pieces that I just treasure. I would much rather buy old than new and spend a lot of time browsing antique markets, estate sales, and yardsales and manage to find all sorts of treasures out there to bring home to my house. I find so much that I have to rotate things in and out and I even trade "up" if I find something better that can work in a certain spot. My goal lately has been to only buy things that really speak to me, older vintage things and to pass on the mass-produced pieces that are everywhere. Not that I don't have any of those things still around, I do, I'm just trying to be more particular about what I bring home and surround myself with. I have a lot of artwork that is original, yet not expensive at all and enjoy those pieces too. I'm definitely not a fine art collector, but rather love the shabby and simple, if it's pretty. I'm not
known as being a minimalist, but love to play with my accessories, displaying them in an artful way on a table or bookcase. That's fun to me, playing house!

Your next house project

We don't have any huge plans around the corner, but I'm always tweaking things in my house. I have some outdoor landscaping plans for the backyard, and hope to add a flagstone walkway, along with lots of shrubs and plants in a certain spot. I've always got some sort of project on my "to-do" list, like playing with more beadboard wallpaper that I recently used in my kitchen. It turned out so great, I want to do more of it in some other strategic spots in the house. My big wish list down the road is to some day get our deck screened in for a nice porch. That's my dream!

5 things that houzz readers need to know about your blog

The biggest message I like to share on my blog is that you don't have to spend a lot of money to have a beautiful home. I'm very much a budget decorator and many things in my house came from yardsales, thriftstores, or antique shops for very little money. And I love to encourage women to try things they never have before, since I do that all the time myself. I didn't know how to wire light fixtures until I tried it, now I do it all the time! My hubby is not a handy guy, so I just jump in and try things that I've never done before.

I love DIY projects and accomplishing these myself. Such a great feeling of accomplishment.

I love to encourage women to try things they never have before, since I do that all the time myself.

Decorating is such a passion for me, really a fun thing that I enjoy so much and I also offer decorating consultations on my blog for my readers. That has been so much fun for me too, helping others with their decorating dilemmas.

I'm a GRIT, girl raised in the South, love the South, we celebrate our heritage and are proud of where we live. I share my Southern family on my blog too.

Best tip for the remodeling beginner

Don't be afraid to try something new, something you've never tried before. I have had to learn a lot of things by myself, since I'm not married to a handy man and it has given me a lot of confidence that I can do things by myself and do them well. And If I can do it, you can too! It gives me a lot of satisfaction to step back and look at a project I've just completed.

Last but not least: as a houzz friend, you get to choose a giveaway gift to one of the lucky readers that will share their thoughts about your house and interview.

I would like to choose this vintage clock for a giveaway.

This is one of my advertiser's stores (Hudson Goods), but he has some really nice things. I think this clock would appeal to everyone and it's vintage and so pretty.

Thank you for sharing your delightful home Rhoda!

For your chance to win the vintage lemonade clock, selected by Rhoda, comment on this interview by Sunday, August 16th at 5pm EST.