Each year for more than 35 years, Southern Living magazine has partnered with builders, architects, and designers to create custom “idea houses.” In 2024, the home was in South Carolina; in 2023, Tennessee.
In February, the magazine announced that this year’s Southern Living Idea House would be just down the road—in Keswick. The selection marks the second time Southern Living has built a home in the area (the last was in 2015, in the Bundoran Farm community just south of Charlottesville), and the second time it selected Rosney Co. Architects to design.
In collaboration with builders Alexander Nicholson, designer Charlotte Moss & Co., and landscape architecture firm Waterstreet Studio, the 2025 home will ”highlights the beauty and tranquility of the Charlottesville region,” according to Rosney partner Julie Dixon.
“It is built around the concept of homesteading—of a peaceful retreat in the country,” she says. “I can’t help but tie that to Jefferson’s original vision for our country at large.”
Dixon says that when the Idea House opens to the public for walkthrough tours on August 14, visitors can expect something unexpected: actual rooms.
“This is a real departure from the ‘open concept’ which has defined so much residential design of late,” she says. “You can also expect smaller spaces than what we’ve grown used to over the years. There are intentional adjacencies—both inside and out—that allow for larger gathering, but these rooms are sized for daily use by the occupants. I like to say they are human scale.”
