Behind the Scenes at Southern Living

The word beautiful barely does justice to describe the Southern Living “Idea House” and test kitchens I had the pleasure visiting in Birmingham, AL. Today I’m going to be sharing behind the scenes at the Southern Living + Delta Faucet event which I attended earlier this week.

If you follow me on instagram (@philiakelnhofer) or snapchat (username: sweetphi) you would have seen lots and lots of behind the scenes of my day spent at the Southern Living + delta Faucet event. The event was held at the Southern Living headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama and consisted of a tour of the Southern Living “Idea House” and a tour of the test kitchens (insanely cool to see how a magazine does recipe testing + photography before it ever reaches the pages). The “Idea House” and the test kitchens have beautiful Delta Faucets installed throughout…they’re the faucets that you touch and they turn on (more on the faucet specifics in the next few weeks).

Ok, first up is the “Idea House” – you might be asking yourself “what in the world is an idea house?” Well, I had that same question. I learned that every year, Southern Living builds a Southern inspired house in different communities.

Different designers, architects, builders, etc. all collaborate to build the “Idea House” and then the public can buy the plans to the house, and, they put the actual, physical, built “Idea House” on the market. Oh, and they offer tours of the Idea House to the public.

While every  aspect, detail and fixture of the house looked like something from a magazine (coincidence? I think not lol) I was drawn to the kitchen, obviously. It was a deep hunter green. Green in a kitchen? I’ve never seen that before, it was very cool.

The kitchen had two beautiful sinks, each with a Delta Faucet. I had never actually used a touch-faucet, it was so cool!

After the idea house, we went to tour the Southern Living test kitchens. Actually, it is the Time, Inc Food Studios. Time, Inc owns Southern Living magazine along with many many more, and all the recipe development, recipe testing, photography, etc. happens here.

We got to walk around and see the different test kitchens, the different photography bays, see style boards, and take a peek inside their insane prop room. If you need me, I’ve moved into the Idea House and am making frequent trips to the headquarter offices and the prop room.

Thank you to Southern Living Magazine & Delta Faucet for showing me behind the scenes at the Idea House and at the Food Studios. As always, all thoughts and opinions are mine alone. Thank you for reading about the brands and partnerships that make the SweetPhi blog possible.