Have you ever watched one of those Bush’s Baked Beans commercials—the ones with the golden retriever always trying to let the family recipe slip out? We haven’t built a restaurant around a secret family recipe, but if we did, this one would sell out every night. This is our family’s cherished Carolina Crab Stew recipe: … Read more

This post has been a long time coming—three years to be exact. Our house is finally finished, or at least mostly finished. (Is a house ever completely done?) There are still a few small projects left—our laundry room, a patch of flooring, and a handful of finishing touches—but I was so excited to pull out … Read more

Some days all you want is to refresh your living room, yet a tight budget often gets in the way. Owning an older house comes with unavoidable, costly repairs — from replacing the water heater to updating electrical work and HVAC systems. Those projects can quickly eat up discretionary funds. The good news: there are … Read more

Find modern vintage-style beds that look high-end for under $1,000 with this curated shopping guide — perfect for achieving a classic bedroom on a budget. When I design rooms, I lean toward investing in large, timeless pieces and using trend-driven accents for color and personality. That approach keeps big furniture useful for years while allowing … Read more

How we packed tons of media and DVD storage into a small under-stairs closet using just a few pieces of lumber in one weekend. Our kids and grandkids will never fully understand the ritual of wandering through a Blockbuster on a Friday night—searching the new releases, hoping you’ll snag one of the few copies of … Read more

To understand where you are, take a moment to look back at how far you’ve come. I truly believe that whether it’s our home, our relationships, or our lives, progress—big and small—is worth acknowledging and celebrating. That’s why each April, since we moved into this house in 2017, I share a before-and-in-progress home tour. Is … Read more

A breakdown of options to upgrade a basic, outdated vinyl liner in-ground pool and ideas to improve a backyard for beauty and function. It’s been two years since we moved in, and only now am I finally sharing our backyard with you. We’ve been focused on interiors for so long that the outdoor space got … Read more

A recipe for the best classic Southern tomato pie perfect for summer. There are a handful of scents and sights that instantly say summer to me: fresh-cut grass, salt on the breeze at the beach, and huge, sun-ripened tomatoes straight from the vine. Every summer my dad plants a vegetable garden and it inevitably produces … Read more

On today’s episode of Bless’er House flops: this deceptively innocent-looking yet treacherous door. That oak-grained, antique-style door may look sweet, but it and I had a long battle. In fact, there were two of them. A couple of months ago, while we were in the middle of our master bedroom makeover, I mentioned finding what … Read more

This summer has been all about freshening up rooms on a budget. We’ve updated the living room, refreshed the breakfast nook, and I’ve been plotting a low-cost, big-impact focal wall for our master bedroom. You don’t need a full demo or a massive budget to transform a space—small, thoughtful changes can make a dramatic difference. … Read more