An Idyllic Southern Home in Mountain Brook, Alabama
Some homes have good bones. Others have undeniable curb appeal. And then there are homes like this one in Mountain Brook, Alabama—a gracious Southern residence that feels as though it has stepped straight from the pages of a magazine.
While the home was always beautiful, the homeowners envisioned something even more personal: a home that reflected their travels, embraced Southern hospitality, and felt effortlessly collected rather than perfectly decorated.
The result is a home that went from pretty to truly extraordinary.
As a travel enthusiast, the homeowner finds endless inspiration in the destinations she visits around the world. Whether it's a charming European boutique hotel, a centuries-old English estate, or a thoughtfully designed coastal retreat, she has an eye for the details that make a space memorable. Bringing those influences home, she partnered with Birmingham landscape designer Todd Dorlon and Melanie Pounds Interior Design to thoughtfully reimagine both the exterior and interior of the property for their family.
A Front Elevation That Makes a Lasting First Impression
From the moment you arrive, it's clear every detail was carefully considered.
Towering white columns frame the stately brick façade while manicured hedges, lush lawns, and oversized planters create a warm, welcoming approach. The crisp white exterior paired with classic black shutters gives the home timeless Southern elegance, while layered landscaping softens the architecture and makes the property feel established and inviting.
One of my favorite details is the front entry.
The custom door knocker from Birmingham-based Agatha Studio is equal parts functional and sculptural, offering the perfect finishing touch to the handsome front door. Flanking the entrance are beautiful copper lanterns from Brandino Brass that will only become richer with age, while coordinating brass door hardware throughout the home creates continuity from room to room. Oversized planters from Elegant Earth complete the front porch, adding texture, greenery, and a welcoming sense of scale.
It's these carefully selected details that quietly elevate the entire home.
Before
A Home Filled With Personality
Before
Inside, the home embraces a beautifully restrained neutral palette, allowing architectural details, layered textures, and collected furnishings to take center stage. Rather than every room feeling identical, each space has its own personality while still flowing effortlessly into the next.
The family room is one of my favorite spaces in the home. Both sophisticated and comfortable, it's thoughtfully arranged into two distinct seating areas, creating natural places for conversation, entertaining, or simply relaxing as a family. A Samsung Frame TV hangs discreetly above the fireplace, blending seamlessly into the room without competing with the home's classic architecture.
Around the corner, the dining room offers a more intimate atmosphere. Anchored by a striking Visual Comfort chandelier, the space feels refined yet approachable—a room equally suited for holiday dinners, casual family meals, or gathering friends around the table long after dessert has been served.
Throughout the home, layered textures, timeless furnishings, and subtle nods to the homeowner's travels create spaces that feel collected over time rather than designed all at once.
Thoughtful Design That Tells a Story
Pictured: Homeowner, Mary Pat, and Garden & Grace founder, Crystal Moore with a framed photograph from the family’s beloved vacation destination
What makes this Mountain Brook home so memorable isn't simply its beautiful finishes or impeccable styling.
It's the story behind it.
Every design decision—from the landscape and exterior architectural details to the curated interiors—reflects the places that have inspired the homeowners throughout their travels while creating a home that feels deeply rooted in Southern tradition.
The result is a home that's elegant without feeling formal, timeless without feeling predictable, and beautifully designed for the way this family lives every day.
If you love classic Southern homes, timeless interiors, and thoughtful design details, check out these curb appeal renovations in Mountain Brook. They each have their own stories and are a beautiful reminder that the most memorable homes aren't just well-designed—they're deeply personal, layered with meaning, and created to be lived in.
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Timeless Landscape Design with Millhouse Howell
Some of the most beautiful landscapes don't rely on elaborate gardens or dramatic transformations. Instead, they embrace thoughtful details, restrained planting palettes, and materials that feel as though they've always belonged. In these two Mountain Brook garden tours, landscape designer Adam Millhouse of Millhouse Howell shares how intentional design can elevate a home's curb appeal while honoring its architecture. From classic boxwoods and pea gravel to historic brick and understated lighting, these landscapes offer timeless ideas that can inspire any home.
A Functional Front Yard with Timeless Appeal
At this traditional limewashed brick home, Millhouse Howell reimagined the front landscape to better serve a young family without compromising its classic character. The redesign introduced additional parking with a permeable pea gravel drive that feels both practical and beautifully understated.
Simple boxwoods, generous hydrangeas, and the home's original brick pavers create a layered landscape that is elegant without feeling overdesigned. Copper landscape lighting, cobblestone edging, and carefully selected materials blend seamlessly with the home's architecture, creating a landscape that feels as though it has evolved naturally over time.
Perhaps the greatest takeaway is that timeless curb appeal often comes from restraint—repeating classic plantings, choosing natural materials, and maintaining a cohesive color palette that complements the home rather than competing with it.
Preserving the Character of a Mountain Brook Landmark
Built in 1940, this historic Mountain Brook residence is a masterclass in honoring the past while thoughtfully updating a landscape for modern living. Every improvement was approached with respect for the home's enduring architecture, resulting in a landscape that feels authentic, established, and effortlessly elegant.
As Adam walks the property, he shares how subtle hardscape enhancements, structured evergreen plantings, and carefully placed lighting quietly strengthen the home's presence. One of the home's most distinctive features is its beautifully weathered brick façade, originally painted white and naturally softened over decades, giving the exterior its unmistakable patina and sense of history.
It's a reminder that truly timeless landscapes aren't built around trends—they're built around thoughtful craftsmanship, enduring materials, and an appreciation for the character that develops over time.
A Garden Tour South of Broad with The Itinerant Gardener
Quiet elegance, rooted in history. A garden tour with The Itinerant Gardener slows you down and has a way to make you see new beauty.
Charleston's South of Broad neighborhood doesn't reveal itself all at once. It unfolds slowly — down cobblestone lanes, past pastel-painted facades, through gates that hint at what lies beyond. On a warm summer afternoon, I joined Mary T of The Itinerant Gardener for our second tour together, and this particular garden made the case, quietly but convincingly, that true elegance is almost always rooted in restraint.
The home itself set the tone: a charming two-story brick with a generous double porch on the back that seemed designed for nothing more urgent than a glass of something cold and a long look at the garden below. And that garden delivered. A private courtyard unfolded beneath the porch — proper and structured, anchored by wintergreen boxwoods and Pringles dwarf podocarpus clipped into tidy, considered form. It was the kind of bones that give a garden its permanence.
But it wasn't all structure. An arch draped in bergia vine and cross vine brought a softness to the space, the bergia's gorgeous blue blooms threading through alongside the cross vine in a combination that stopped me in my tracks. And tucked throughout, white caladiums — luminous and cool — caught the light in that particular way white things do in a Southern summer garden, making everything around them feel a little more alive.
What struck me most wasn't any single plant or design decision, but the feeling the whole space created — ordered without being stiff, lush without being wild. It had that quality the best Southern gardens always have: the sense that it has always looked exactly like this, and always will.
A visit with Mary T has a way of slowing you down and making you see. This one was no exception.
For a closer look at this garden, catch the tour on Instagram — and if this one spoke to you, I have a feeling you'll find yourself equally smitten with this tour of a stately home and its formal gardens that are nothing short of swoon-worthy.
Charming Gardens & Welcoming Outdoor Spaces Trending For 2025, Pros Say
It’s hard to believe we’re settling into the last few months of the year. And as the leaves begin to fall, it’s actually the perfect time to start thinking about your 2025 garden. Here's what the pros from our Garden & Grace directory suggest.
It’s hard to believe we’re settling into the last few months of the year. And as the leaves begin to fall, it’s actually the perfect time to start thinking about your 2025 garden. To get inspired, we reached out to landscape designers from our Garden & Grace directory.
Jeff Boyum is the senior landscape architect at From The Ground Up, a Dallas-based company that typically works in zones 7A-8B. Adam Millhouse and Will Howell are the owners of Millhouse Howell Landscape Co. in Mountain Brook, Alabama. They typically work in zones 8A and 7B
Here’s what they shared with us.
What are the top features your clients are requesting right now?
Jeff: There is a growing demand for social front yards and courtyards at the front of homes and provide a more interaction with neighbors and guests. These areas often include seating, fire pits, and even small garden spaces to create a welcoming vibe.
In addition, Nantucket-inspired gardens remain popular for their charm and romantic appeal, often featuring curated plantings, meandering pathways, and cozy nooks.
Adam: The request for good design is inevitable, but also in conjunction with delivering a landscape that is practical to maintain. Clients often take inspiration from English-inspired gardens. To achieve such a look we'll suggest climbing roses to soften walls, perennial plantings contrasting against a clipped hedge, and container groupings that feel as if they have been a part of the home for years.
For 2025, what landscaping trends do you expect or hope to see more of?
Jeff: For 2025, I expect to see an increased focus on multi-functional outdoor spaces that cater to both relaxation and social interaction.
Adam: During the peak of COVID pools and outdoor places to entertain small groups quickly became priorities. Moving into 2025, we believe — and hope — this trend continues. Creating functional outdoor spaces has proven to increase property value, and our favorite feedback is when clients tell us how much more time they are spending outside.
Is there anything people should do now to prepare their yards for spring? Is fall a good time to start thinking about your 2025 landscaping?
Jeff: Late fall and winter are actually the best times to plant new shrubs and trees. Start thinking about your 2025 yard now.
Adam: The fall and winter months are a great time to begin conversations about landscape opportunities for the upcoming year. It is not uncommon to underestimate how much time can go into the planning process, and starting early helps navigate potential challenges on the front end.
In regards to existing landscapes, our maintenance crews are applying pre-emergent to lawns to prevent winter weeds, performing very light pruning to shape plants before the winter months, and preparing to change out seasonal plantings for the upcoming season.
What are some landscaping features that never go out of style?
Jeff: Outdoor features like pergolas and arbors provide shade and add interest to any garden. Fountains, which create a tranquil environment and drown out surrounding noises, never lose their appeal. Fire pits and fireplaces complement any outdoor setting.
Plant wise, boxwood hedges are timeless for creating clean, structured borders. Their evergreen foliage adds year-round greenery and can be trimmed into formal shapes. Hydrangeas have large, showy blooms and thrive in various climates. Their ability to shift between pink, blue and purple hues depending on soil pH adds beauty to any garden.
Adam: Natural stone such as moss rock, bluestone, flagstone, and pea gravel are hardscape materials that evoke a timelessness to the environment.
Plant pallets that incorporate boxwoods, hydrangeas, azaleas, ferns, and a mix of understory and hardwood trees are always in style. To add seasonal interest to the landscape, we encourage the use of garden containers to create fun arrangements; this provides a big punch and is practical to maintain.
Tour James Farmer's Small Town Georgia Gardens
Tour James Farmer's Small Town Georgia Gardens
No matter the angle or the season, nationally recognized interior designer, James Farmer's gardens have a way of sparking joy
With the help of Atlanta-based, Greg Busch Architects, and Macon-based, SDH Design Solutions, James' vision came to life to create a one-of-a-kind cottage in his hometown of Perry, GA. Broadly shared and photographed, this tin roof, rich in character home embodies understated beauty and southern charm.
His beloved garden has been tended to and nurtured over the years. It has walking paths, places for sitting and enjoying, a mixture of brick pavers, pea gravel, mulch, blue stone and plant ground covering. The garden includes large raised beds surrounded by cream brick and edged with boxwoods. The green and white landscape palette provides the right amount of contrast with the rich brown and cream exterior.
Last Spring, James invited Garden & Grace to Perry, GA! We worked together to host an event at The Courtyard on Carroll where women came from all over Georgia and South Carolina to hear James speak, teach and even create their own spring floral topiary.
My sister joined me on this trip which made it even more special! We stayed up the road in Macon at 1842 Inn, ate at Oliver's Corner Bistro, and shopped our hearts out at MeMe's, Sugarplum Tree Children's Boutique, A Place to Call Home (James' home decor shop) and Poppy's of Macon.
If you haven't heard James speak, it's a real treat. He is not only incredible knowledgeable but he makes you feel like you are too! I left feeling more confident in my hosting and floral arranging abilities. The town and people of Perry, GA were so welcoming and truly embodied the meaning of southern hospitality.
I even got a private tour of his interior design studio where so much creativity and beauty is created. We were already huge fans of James' work but after this trip to Perry, we are amazed by his talent and kindness. Thank you, James, the entire James Farmer team and Perry, GA for welcoming us with open arms. See my full tour of James' gardens on Instagram.
Inspiring Timeless Gardens
Think boxwoods, aged brick pavers and espalier pear trees.
Like a lot of us, I’ve learned a lot about gardening and landscaping this past year thanks to gardening giants like Carmen Johnson and James Farmer sharing tips on Instagram.
One day, I found myself searching for boxwood hedges and garden gate designs, and like a lot of days, found myself lost in the beautiful images of Instagram. When I came across an account called, The Itinerant Gardener, I thought I had found a hidden gem.
I quickly reached out, set up a call and the next thing I knew I was driving down to Columbia, SC for a tour of a backyard made of dreams.
If you haven’t come across Mary T and India Dial yet, let me introduce you! I’ve loved getting to know this dynamic mother, daughter duo who have designed some of the most beautiful gardens I have seen.
Mary T and her daughter, India, primarily work in Charleston, Columbia, Cashiers and Charlotte, and this past year I toured four of their projects in Columbia and Charleston. I was so impressed I asked them to design my own yard (another blog for another time)! So, grab a cup of coffee and get ready to save and store for inspiration. Whether you have big or small landscape plans ahead of you, there’s inspiration in these images for us all.
