By Virginia MacDonald
This year’s Inspiration Home, sponsored by Birmingham Home and Garden Magazine, showcases a national trend of returning to classical and traditional decor.
The overall design of the house is timeless and classic, and the décor features a return to antiques and tradition.
“It is interesting to see how design architecture and building trends show through the house,” said magazine editor Cathy McGowin.
Building and designing the Inspiration Home, which this year is at 2211 Chestnut Road in Vestavia Hills, takes about a year and begins with a lot of planning on the front end, McGowin said. Several decorators for this year’s house have worked with the magazine’s showcase homes before.
This year’s house was constructed by Mitch Bradford, owner and operator of Saunders Bradford Building Company. Tier 1 Inspiration Home sponsors this year are AllSouth Appliance Group, Southern Sash Supply and Triton Stone Group. There are about 30 other sponsors for this, the magazine’s 11th featured home.
Top vendors and designers bring innovative and exciting style to the house, which features fresh designs from Birmingham favorites as well as newcomers to the design scene.
“Some interior designers are featured every year, because they know the home is a professional extension of their shop or showroom,” McGowin said.
All furnishings and items in the home are for sale, McGowin said, although the house itself has been sold.
Each room of the Inspiration Home is decorated by a different designer.
“What makes it unique is that it flows together as a home,” said BH&G Magazine Publisher Walker Sorrell. “We usually do one home a year, but the big thing is that all ticket sales go to charity.”
This year all ticket-sale proceeds will benefit The Bell Center, which offers early intervention programs for toddlers and infants at risk for developmental delay.
For the Sake of Flow
Britney Bradford of Neylan Design served as the interior design liaison, coordinating with each of the designers to ensure the rooms flowed with one another.
“I was so impressed with the designers and their dedication to establishing a cohesive feel from one room to the next,” she said.
“The design of the house has a more traditional look, and the designers leaned into that by choosing timeless items accented with contemporary pieces to give the house a collected feeling.
“There was very much a team mentality amongst the designers in their desire to have continuity from room to room,” Bradford added.
McGowin said another beauty of the home is that everything is locally sourced, from hardware to vendors.
“This home is the way the pages of the magazine come to life. Those who tour the home can get a sense of what it is like to live in a room. Designs featured come to life, and it becomes touchable.”
The Inspiration Home sits in a tree-filled neighborhood off South Shades Crest Road and was designed by Adam Gerndt of Adam Gerndt Design Group.
It features a family-friendly plan, with the master bedroom on the main level, three bedrooms and three baths upstairs, and an open-concept living space.
Other features include a wet-room shower, two fireplaces and beamed ceilings in the den.
There is also a full basement with bath that could serve as guest quarters or a media room.
“The house brings authentic scale to the neighborhood,” Gerndt said. “It’s not overblown, but it’s not a small cottage. It’s designed to grow with the family.”
Gerndt’s firm strives to maximize investment, selecting materials and processes that will ensure longevity and developing innovative designs.
The team’s use of regional materials and vernacular forms, along with a sensitivity to the site, lead to timeless designs.
Landscapers for the Inspiration Home were Craig Smith & Fletcher Smith.
At The Bell Center, children from throughout Central Alabama can receive programs for a wide variety of special needs and diagnoses, ranging from cerebral palsy and Down syndrome to autism and rare genetic disorders.
The center’s programs have provided dramatic results for more than 1,500 children since its inception in 1984.
