Behind the 2023 Southern Living Idea House: The Artwork
When Laura Hodges called me about the 2023 Southern Living Idea House, I knew it was going to be something significant. What I did not fully anticipate was how much the experience would teach me about what original art does in a designed space when everything around it is made with the same level of intention.
The Southern Living Idea House is one of the most recognized projects in American interior design. Each year, a home is designed from the ground up by a team of talented designers and then opened to the public and featured in the magazine. Every element — architecture, furniture, textiles, art — is chosen deliberately. Nothing is filler. Nothing is there because it was convenient.
Being commissioned to create work for that project was one of the most meaningful professional experiences of my career. And I want to tell you about it — not as a credential to list, but because what I learned from it applies directly to how I think about every commission and every piece I put into a room.
The conversation that started everything
Laura Hodges is a designer who understands that great art and great design are in conversation with each other, not in competition. When we first spoke about the project, she did not give me a brief that felt like a paint-by-number. She told me about the feeling she wanted the rooms to carry — warmth, depth, a sense of living in color without being overwhelmed by it.
That kind of trust is rare and I do not take it lightly. When a designer gives you that kind of latitude, the responsibility is to honor the vision they have for the space while bringing something to it that could not have come from anywhere else.
I made several pieces for the project. The one that has stayed with me most is “Euphoria” — a 36x48 inch work on panel using liquid inks, and iridescent pigments. This artwork captures the quality of light at that specific moment when a sunset shifts from warm to extraordinary. What started as an exploration became one of the pieces I am most proud of.
What I learned about art and designed spaces
Working on the Idea House confirmed something I had already suspected but now know with certainty: great art does not need a neutral room to perform. It needs a room that is equally intentional.
In spaces where every decision has been made with care — where the proportions are right, the light is considered, the furniture is in genuine dialogue with the architecture — original art does not compete. It completes. It becomes the element that makes every other element more itself.
“Euphoria” in that room looked different from how it looks anywhere else I have ever seen it. The room made it more luminous. The piece made the room more alive. That is the relationship between great art and great design when both are operating at their best.
The lesson I brought back to my own studio: do not make work that is afraid of a strong room. Make work that is confident enough to hold its own anywhere.
The press that followed
The Southern Living Idea House project was featured in Southern Living Magazine's 2023 Idea House issue — one of the publication's most widely read and shared editorial features each year. My work appeared in the photography alongside the design details, which led to additional coverage in other publications and significant new exposure for my practice.
Architectural Digest's "In Focus" feature, which appeared around the same time, deepened that visibility further. What I noticed in the months after those pieces ran was that the collectors and designers who reached out to me had done their research. They were not just responding to a single image on Instagram. They were responding to a body of work they had seen in multiple editorial contexts, which gave them confidence in the work and in me.
That is what editorial placement does for an artist. It is not just exposure — it is validation that travels with the work.
What this means for collectors and designers
If you are an interior designer sourcing art for a significant project, the Southern Living Idea House experience is directly relevant to what I can bring to your work. I know what it means to make pieces for spaces where everything is at the highest level of intention. I know how to work within a design vision while contributing something that is genuinely mine.
I work with interior designers by providing private studio previews, commission priority, and high-resolution images for client presentations. Email hello@glenyse.com for details.
If you are a collector who wants a piece from the same body of work that appeared in the Southern Living Idea House, “Euphoria” is available at glenyse.com/original-art. It is one of the most significant pieces I have made, and it is looking for the room it belongs in.
The work continues
The Southern Living Idea House was a milestone, not an endpoint. Every commission I take on — every piece that goes into a home or a designed space — is an opportunity to do what I learned that work could do: complete a room, honor a vision, bring something into being that could not have come from anywhere else.
If you are working on a space and wondering whether original art is right for it — I promise you it is. The question is just which piece, at which scale, for which wall.
Come find out. My studio is open every second Saturday at the ArtsXchange in St. Petersburg. Bring the dimensions. Bring photos of the room. Let's figure it out together.
Browse available art, giclée's at glenyse.com/original-art. Open studio takes place every second Saturday of the month at the ArtsXchange, 515 22nd Street South, Studio 109, St. Petersburg, FL. To get on the advance new-work list, subscribe at glenyse.com. or contact hello@glenyse.com to discuss a commission made specifically for your space. For direct inquiries, 312-725-6066.
Glenyse Thompson is a Florida-based contemporary abstract artist whose work has been featured in Designer Today, Aspire Home and Design, Architectural Digest, Southern Living, Town and Country, and Martha Stewart and placed in private collections and commercial spaces across the country. She collaborates with brands, interior designers, collectors and enjoys working with companies on licensing opportunities.