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By: Karen LeBlanc, all photos taken by Karen LeBlanc
Step inside the 2026 Southern Living Idea House, from a laundry room with marble tile and an antique table to solid cedar chairs carved from a single piece of wood, plus what to know before you tour.
The most stylish room in the 2026 Southern Living Idea House might be the laundry room.
That’s not where I expected to land on my first visit to Fredericksburg, Texas. Hill Country towns usually announce themselves with wineries, peach stands and German limestone storefronts. But the 2026 Idea House, a 4,000-square-foot modern farmhouse in the Friedën community about three miles from downtown, makes a quieter argument: that good design belongs in every corner of a home, especially the ones nobody photographs.
As a Design Tourist, I wanted to know how a showhouse built to impress could also teach regular homeowners something useful. So I asked the designers. Their answers changed how I think about the back door.
Aspirational But Achievable
Architect Andrew Bray of Mustard Architects designed the house, and Kurk Homes built it. The exterior pairs dark vertical and horizontal siding with Lueders limestone, and the house is oriented to catch breezes and shade, a nod to how Hill Country homes have always worked with the land.
Three Texas interior designers split the rooms: Jean Liu took the kitchen, living room, butler’s pantry and wine bar; Paloma Contreras designed the primary suite, office and casita; and Marcus Mohon of Mohon Interiors took the guest wing, utility spaces and garage.
Mohon explained the brief in one line. Southern Living, he says, wanted the house to be “both aspirational and accessible.” The whole point of an Idea House is that visitors leave with ideas they can actually take home.
“What can the average reader of the magazine both aspire to and achieve in their own homes?” he asks.
The designers met at the start to coordinate a cohesive palette, with a shared rule: every room should reflect the architecture.
The Laundry Room Gets The Marble
Mohon has designed for Southern Living before, but this time he took on a different challenge, the parts of a house you pass through all day.
“I want to teach people that you can live elegantly in every space you’re in,” he says.
So the laundry room gets marble tile, detailed cabinetry and an antique table. The idea is simple: if you spend time in a room, it shouldn’t feel like the dregs of the house. The back entry gets the same treatment, because that’s where you begin and end every day.
He’s also not a fan of the open drop zone, the wall of hooks and cubbies that tends to collect everything. His fix is enough closed cabinetry to hide the clutter. “Let your drop zone be in a cabinet,” he says. “Put your stuff away.”
Then came the confession every honest designer eventually makes. Sometimes, he admits, he thinks about posting the real mess in his own laundry room on Instagram. I appreciated that. It’s easier to trust advice from someone who admits the dryer lint is real.
Big Furniture In A Small Space
The guest lounge is, in Mohon’s words, “essentially a wide hallway.” Most of us would fill a small space with small furniture to make it feel bigger. He does the opposite.
“I think you should max out a space with furniture,” he says.
A sectional runs wall to wall, so the most people can sit in one spot to watch TV. It sounds counterintuitive until you’re standing in it. The room doesn’t feel claustrophobic or overstuffed. It feels like a place you’d actually stay awhile.
He’s also particular about shelves. Books and sculptural accessories stay together, without a scattering of knickknacks.
Family photos and kids’ art get their own flexible gallery wall, because, as he points out, everybody has them.
Wallpaper On The Ceiling
In one guest bedroom, a hand-painted design, digitally printed as wallpaper, swirls with abstracted leaves in charcoal and cream. The two-color palette keeps the pattern from tipping into chaos. Then Mohon did something I’d call brave: he carried the wallpaper all the way up onto the ceiling.
It works. In a room that’s not especially large, the pattern blurs the edges and makes the space feel expansive.
The bed has a Fredericksburg story of its own. It’s a lean, modern take on a canopy bed designed by Carol Hicks Bolton, a longtime Fredericksburg antiques dealer and designer. Mohon and his wife, Autumn, who runs the business side of their firm, both worked for Bolton in the 1990s, before they knew each other. Mohon had earned an economics degree, and it was Bolton who encouraged him, in his mid-20s, to go back to school for design. Putting her pieces in this house was personal.
Outdoor Living Carved From A Single Tree
Outside, landscape designer Melissa Gerstle of Melissa Gerstle Design shaped everything custom: the water features, hardscape, planting design and containers. She also owns Plein Air Atelier, a Dallas showroom whose name translates roughly to “outdoor workroom” in French. It represents European luxury lines for outdoor furniture, fabrics and features.
Gerstle built an organic, modern hardscape from native limestone to tie the garden to the Hill Country. At its center is the Rocco fire feature by moróro, a Belgian firm. It’s designed for year-round use, with inserts that turn it into a grill, a charcuterie board, a coffee table or a wine chiller. Toasting s’mores is optional but encouraged.
Around it sit the Maui swivel chairs by Riva 1920, an Italian company that uses wood harvested near its headquarters. Each chair is carved from one solid piece of cedar, so no two look the same; the grain and bark of each tree show through. They’re sculpture you’re allowed to sit in, and Gerstle says they’re built to live outdoors.
Know Before You Go
Book Your Tour.
The 2026 Southern Living Idea House is open for tours through December 20, 2026, at 518 Interlaken Street in Fredericksburg. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Buy tickets in advance online.
Listen As You Walk.
This is the first Idea House to offer audio tours by QR code in each room, so bring a charged phone and headphones.
Give Back.
A portion of ticket proceeds benefits local charities, including the Pioneer Museum.
Look In The Back Of The House.
Don’t rush past the laundry room, back entry and garage. That’s where some of the smartest, most livable ideas are.
Make A Day Of It.
Shop the antiques and design stores in downtown Fredericksburg, including Carol Hicks Bolton’s, to see where some of the house’s pieces come from.
Elegance Is A Habit
The best idea in the 2026 Southern Living Idea House isn’t a paint color or a product. It’s the belief that the room where you fold towels deserves the same care as the room where you host Thanksgiving.
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