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A few weeks ago I had the good fortune to spend the day with the talented folks at Homeworthy, the wildly popular blog and channel that takes us inside homes across the world, from the simplest cottages to the grandest European estates. 

I was so honored to be asked to share my Nashville house, what I love about it, and what makes it - for us - a real home. As I was watching my own tour and those of so many friends and so many more people I have never met (but feel that I now know), what came through in all of them were a few universal themes about how to build a home:

• Collect things that you love and layer them in over time. Almost without fail, people talk about things they collect. Whether it be old butter molds, taxidermy or - in my case - antique snuff boxes -  people spoke of how artifacts collected over time were very important expressions of who they are, and often the things visitors are most interested in.
• The size of your house doesn't matter. At one point, I mentioned being grateful to leave New York apartment living for a house in the South with a yard. That doesn't mean that my New York apartment wasn't also a home. Or that a one bedroom cabin in the Adirondacks doesn't hold a multitude of meaningful things and memories, not to mention some of the chicest design choices around. 
• The houses that most spoke to me were the ones in which the owners started not with a decorating vision in mind, but a vision of how they wanted people to feel when they walked in: welcome, calmed, embraced. People had different words to describe the emotions they wanted to invoke with their design, but most often the words "warm and welcoming" were at the top of the list. It was fun to see how different homeowners achieved those goals.

I hope you'll tour our Nashville Georgian house and enjoy the hundreds of other amazing spaces and their owners that Homeworthy has documented. Warning: set aside plenty of time. It's easy to go from one video to the next! They're all fascinating.