In Fine Form

A Southern Living House Plan lays the classic groundwork for a young family's Albany, Georgia, home

- BETSY CRIBB WATSON

FOR MALLORY Mathison Glenn and her would-be clients, the 2009 Southern Living Idea House in Dahlonega, Georgia, proved to be something of a meetcute. She was the home's interior designer, and Katy Lyall was smitten with the place. So Katy snagged Mallory's card and tapped her to decorate her family's Atlanta house. Eight years later, when a desire to live closer to relatives pulled Katy, husband Andrew Hunt, and their two children to Albany, the couple reached out to the designer again-this time with the Southern Living Cedar River Farmhouse (SL-1954) by architect Brandon Ingram in hand. "We had decided on the plan and bought the lot with that in mind," says Katy of their approach to finding the property, which had a sprawling oak tree in the backyard and featured lake views.

For Brandon, the design was a chance to celebrate those details that define a traditional Southern farmhouse, like the metal roof, the board-and-batten siding, and the cupola. "The architecture itself is quieter and more subtle. There's a simplicity of rooflines and a lack of what we call 'architectural gymnastics," he notes. "It's a much more straightforward house."