5 Design Details I Can’t Stop Thinking About in This Year’s HGTV Dream Home
Every year, HGTV builds and gives away a home with tons of bells and whistles in a lavish location, aptly dubbed the HGTV Dream Home. This year, it’s a fittingly dreamy three-bedroom home with a media room, game lounge, and garage that fits a golf cart and golf simulator (and don’t worry — the home is located on a golf course), and you can enter to win it — plus the furniture inside it, plus a 2025 Mercedes-Benz GLC — until February 14.
It’s in Bluffton, South Carolina, a Spanish moss-covered town in the low country that’s totally brimming with charm — and I can personally attest to that, as I got to visit the HGTV Dream Home this year (and pretend I lived there for an afternoon). Here are the design details I can’t stop thinking about from my trip, which will appeal to homeowners and renters alike.
Soothing blue-green was the dominant color.
HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams’ 2025 color of the year is Quietude, a serene green-blue. It covers the dramatic, super-tall walls of the living room and continues in the dining room and upstairs. There are also blue-grays used on the exterior of the home, and the result is totally calming, and totally appropriate for the coastal area.
Color-drenching was a go-to in the bedroom spaces.
Speaking of paint, the upstairs bedrooms used the same color paints (Quietude and Convivial Yellow, respectively) on the walls, trim, and ceiling, creating a totally enveloping feel. One takeaway? Color-drenching can help a slanted-ceiling room feel a bit more continuous yet cozy.
One of my favorite kitchen details was actually in the butler’s pantry.
Although the entire kitchen is gorgeous, I particularly loved the food prep pantry — which is about the size of my actual kitchen in New York — just behind the kitchen. And if I were designing a small kitchen, I’d totally steal this backsplash tip. (Ignore the slight mess in the close-up; as I mentioned, I was getting the full lived-in experience!) A ledge or little shelf just atop of a backsplash creates an extra spot to store things. Choose the same stone as your backsplash, or paint a shelf the same color for a seamless look.
Scallops are the new rectangles.
Perhaps 90-degree angles are out for 2025? Three of the four bathrooms in the house had scalloped-edged mirrors. This one in the photo of the upstairs bathroom is from Wayfair, and I also love this one in the main-level bathroom.
The laundry room’s contractable clothing racks are ingenious.
One of my favorite rooms in the house was the laundry room — simply because I’m envious. (Again, this room was larger than my kitchen, and I actually don’t have a laundry room at all. NYC living!) One thing that I could totally squeeze into my apartment, though, are these wall-mount expandable clothes drying racks. You can find something similar on Amazon.
I’m totally copying vertical board games.
I love to play games, and I loved that the HGTV Home used board games as artwork. Not only are these colorful and patterned, but they’re also interactive. A magnetic board game on a picture ledge — or mounted to the wall — could be a super-fun ongoing activity for a family or roommates.