HOUSE TOUR _ A Collected Cottage Tucked Away in the Blue Ridge Mountains

High in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, photographer and content creator Hannah Magro opens the doors to her family's serene sanctuary. After years of dreaming about life in nature, she found this home in a moment she describes as nothing short of divine. It was just completely God-led, I felt like, so I am just super grateful for this place and to be able to move my family here. Inside, Hannah's home feels calm, layered with natural textures, soft tones, and pieces she's collected over time. It's a space designed for everyday living, where the mountains are part of the view and part of the rhythm of her family's life. I call it like my sanctuary out here. It's just like you're off the beaten path, but I can still get to town in 20 minutes. This home is more than just design. It's about creating a place that feels rooted, personal, and at peace. As much as I love traveling and being out in nature, that's what brings me so much joy, but also being at home with my family, I feel like is something that one day, like when I'm old, I'll wanna go back to in my memories, and I just love being able to kinda have my home as like my canvas and I'm the artist and just kinda, I feel like your home is a reflection of your soul. To watch Hannah's full home tour ad-free, where you get a look at her son's charming bedroom, scan the QR code or click the Join button below. You're watching Homeworthy, where we believe every home has a story. I'm Alison Kenworthy, the founder of Homeworthy, and we take you inside the world's most beautifully decorated homes and introduce you to the brilliant people who live there. Hi, Homeworthy, I'm Liz Lang. Welcome to Grey Gardens. Click the Join button below to access all of our latest episodes ad-free and watch extended cuts of this and other homes, opening the doors to new rooms and exclusive content featuring our beloved hosts. I can't wait to see them, I'm so excited. And if you're looking to shop items inspired by this and other Homeworthy tastemakers, be sure to use the product links below or scan the QR code on screen to find fabulous furniture, coffee table books, and accessories that can transform your house into a home. Hi, Homeworthy, my name is Hannah Mogrow. Welcome to my home here in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Come on in. Hi, my name is Hannah Mogrow. I'm a photographer and content creator here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Welcome to my home. So we moved in this house a little over a year ago and I knew I wanted to move my family to the mountains in North Carolina. I love being in the South, I'm from the South. We grew up in a town called Oxford, Mississippi. And although I love that town and there was so much character and I loved calling that place my home, I knew that I wanted to move my family somewhere where my kids can be in nature and you still have that charm of the South. I actually found this house too through a time when I was needing like something the most. I was praying for kind of a light in the darkness that I was going through. I wasn't having any luck and I was looking through Zillow, was not having any luck. And I decided to join a few housing groups and this is all while I've never even been to North Carolina. Something in my heart was just like saying I need to move to North Carolina. I'd been talking about it for years and I found a few housing groups and joined them on Facebook and I made a post just saying what I'm looking for in a home and who I was. And also during this time, as I was saying, I was praying to God for some light in the darkness that I was going through. And sure enough, a few days later, I got a message on Instagram from someone who doesn't even have Facebook. And they said that someone saw my post on Facebook and they said that they saw where I was moving, wanting to move to the mountains. And this was during the time they were trying to move out. And it ended up just working out where the time they were leaving is when we were wanting to come. And it was just completely God-led, I felt like. So I am just super grateful for this place and to be able to move my family here. And this is kind of like our starting base. We knew we wanted to plant some roots in North Carolina and this couldn't have been a better place to start them. So when you first walk into the house, you walk into the living area and the living room. And this is definitely where we spend the most time. We love to have lots of movie nights in here. And I love that the kitchen's right there. So while we're in here, Sam loves to cook a lot and we just love to spend a lot of time in here. And another great thing, even with this house being built in the late 90s, I feel like a lot of design choices in that time could have been kind of questionable, but I do love that they had some really nice kind of timeless features, like the pretty hardwood floors and the hardwood ceilings. I just love the warmth that that brings in here and the big windows that open up to the mountains. It's just, it's one of my favorite places to be and it makes me super grateful to be able to look out there. I kind of change out my couches and rugs like the season. So, you know, but recently I just added a natural jute rug with just some classic white linen type couches. And I feel like most people would say that's pretty bold choice with three dog or three animals and three children. Luckily it is a slip cover couch and we can just take it off and wash it. And we do wash it frequently. But, and then over here too, I got this old English pine table. And when I got it, it was pretty scuffed up and beat up, but I kind of like that rustic feel that it adds in here. And you don't have to worry about your kids scratching it up, so that's nice. And then over here, I added a shelf and just collections and things that I've been trying to find over the past few years. And a lot of these things I've gotten on travels. I really have gotten a love for blue and white ceramics, which you'll see kind of all around and these Delft pieces. And I like to, these are actually shells that we found on one of our beach trips. I recently went to Charleston and there's an artist there and she does folk art and she actually has a, there's a place in town that sells her art. And I got this piece here and I love it. And it's called Get Off Your High Horse. And I just like the little fun touch it adds here. And I just also have loved adding just family photos throughout. And I've been trying to be better about printing my photos, especially as a photographer. Sam has kind of been like, why do you not print our pictures more? Like you gotta, he wants me to put more of our pictures around. So I've been trying to be better about that. And I love to come in here and play records. When we have friends over, they'll come in and flip through these. So I have found a love for block print. Like my dress, this one's from Daughters of India. It's all hand pressed. And I've been trying to incorporate more patterns in my home. And I just feel like it's just been a really fun touch. And again, it kind of, these colors definitely bring out the blues and I use those a lot throughout the house. I use lots of blue. So I do love those a lot. I have also like started off, I like thrifted a couple of these, they're called hurricanes. You put candles in them. And I started off with a couple of those and then they kind of like, I just started getting more and putting them everywhere. I just love having candles. And I feel like it adds just kind of like a romantic touch to your home. And I think like just clear glass, you know, having like lots of warmth from the wood and then just having clear glass, it just adds a softness to a space that I like. And that's just so simple. Like how you can just have clear glass and it kind of just helps bring the space together. And then again, these are some shells that my daughter collected on our last beach trip. And I just kind of like having that as a little decor piece, but also in a way sentimental and just something that adds another texture with an open concept. That's the only thing, you know, when you have each room be their individual room, it's easy to just kind of focus on that space. But when you have the open concept, you kind of have to make sure everything kind of blends together. And I just kind of love the natural feel that this brings to the space with the wood ceilings everywhere. And I like the shape of it. And I just think it adds a nice touch. And then it just helps bring in all the other wooden pieces that I have in the space. These are actually pieces that I got when I was living in Colorado. This was probably 10 years ago and I've just had them forever. And even as my style has kind of evolved, I feel like these have just always been there. And again, it kind of just brings some more character to a space. The fact that it's handmade and I just like having those kind of pieces that are not mass produced, something that you can get somewhere that you can tell someone spent their time on. And it just brings back good memories too from when I was living there. Also, recently before it got really cold, I tried to cut as many hydrangeas as I could. And I've kind of put them all throughout the house and I feel like it adds such a nice element going into fall and cozy season. I feel like you can buy these on Etsy and they're so expensive. So I like just decided to do it myself. And I put them everywhere. And I just love, again, that extra texture that it adds to the space. Also, I love to collect a lot of chinoiserie. You'll see that throughout. And just over the years, I've been trying to keep a lookout when I thrift and go to the antique stores. I feel like now it's kind of getting mass produced. And I've actually heard someone speaking about this a lot of times when you go into home goods, you're seeing a lot of this, but it's not authentic. So I would love to try to find it at like thrift stores and antique stores. That's my goal. And I just love, it's just something I've started collecting and I just love the hand-painted pieces. And I think it's really beautiful. So I started out as a photographer 10 years ago. So actually I've been in the business a little over a decade and it just gave me an option to kind of be creative in my career. And that's just something what I've always been drawn to do. And when I moved here, this house actually kind of shifted my career more into content creation. And I feel like photography and content creation kind of go hand in hand too. I use a lot of the skills that I've learned in photography over the past decade in my content creation. And I just love being able to create. That's kind of like my biggest thing. If you do what you love, you'll never feel like you work a day in your life as they say. So I love that I get to be creative. That's kind of why I chose my career is to just be able to have a job where I can create. I'm definitely more of a left-sided brain person rather than a right. I'm not very analytical. So I just love being able to do what I love and make it my job. And next we can walk into the dining room. So here's our dining area. I love to host and I love to just set up this area for family dinners. And I try not to just look for special occasions or birthday. It just kind of gives me a creative outlet to play with florals and different play settings. And this is a piece that I have found that I love. Again, the chinoiserie in here. This is a set of blue willow that I found at an estate sale. My grandmother used to have a lot of pieces and I didn't get all of them. So I actually, right when we moved to North Carolina at an estate sale, I found a full set. And anytime I see extra pieces at the thrift store, I always grab them. And this chandelier right here was just something that I got online. It was just a plain chandelier. And then I found these little gingham lampshades that I love because again, it brings out a lot of the blues that I use in the house. And I feel like it just definitely elevated it more than just having the standard chandelier. So I love that there. The tablecloth. Again, I love incorporating florals and block printing and it ties into the pillows on the sofa, which I love because again, this is like open concept. Everything kind of has to blend together. And I just love how everything kind of flows. And when I do like set the table, I try not to overthink it. It can be so simple. You can just have a pretty tablecloth that you can, those are so easy to thrift. And a lot of times when I've gotten attention on birthday parties that I've done or just table setting, a lot of people don't realize you do not have to spend too much money. You can thrift a lot of these pieces like the vintage brass candlesticks. I love using these longer tapered candles. And I love, again, I always try to bring in that natural element, which is why I use these seagrass plate chargers. And these are just, again, some white plates that I thrifted. And again, it just goes to show you, you can make a statement and not have to spend too much money. Again, I love collecting blue and white ceramics. And I've got a lot of these blue and white or blue willow plates that I've kind of brought into here. And I really just kind of made this formation recently. And I just really love it. When you kind of, I feel like when I walk in, I notice that and it makes me really happy. I feel like I definitely lean into more cottage core, traditional cottage core. I just have a big love for antiques and vintage items. I love vintage florals. And I just, or some now call it even grandma core. I hear that's like a trending thing. But I also kind of have a love for like French country style which I'll kind of have some more ornate items and mix those in with kind of rustic items. So it gives it like a French country feel. So I definitely feel like I kind of bring those together, a little bit of cottage core and a little bit of French country. All right, and now we can walk around to the kitchen. Here's the kitchen. Again, as I'd mentioned, I feel like homes built in the late 90s, early 2000s kind of had some different design choices. So rather than just covering up where I've seen people cover up granite countertops that aren't your favorite colors, I kind of just try to work with the warm tones. And especially with people that are renting, I just suggest like, it's so amazing what you can do to kind of make your kitchen look better. Those dated kitchens with updated hardware and even a light fixture, believe it or not, this kitchen had a ceiling fan in here and it was the biggest eyesore. So I found this pendant light, this vintage pendant light. I love having brass as another element in the home. I feel like, again, now when you buy brass online, brass lamps, fixtures, a lot of the time it's not real. So a lot of the time when you get vintage, you know it's real. Usually vintage things were made better. So I love having that element in here. So over here too, I loved adding the cafe curtains. I think that adds a really fun texture. And I also love keeping a big bowl of fruit. These are actually apples that we picked recently at the apple orchard. So that's really fun. Also, I love to keep our handmade treats or some baked goods from local bakeries. So maybe one day my kids will actually want to come home and visit us. I love to cook. However, Sam has definitely taken that role, which I do not complain about. We love to spend a lot of time in here cooking. A lot of times I will be like, I'll come up with the recipes and he kind of makes it come to life. So that's fun. And I do love to bake. I love baking with the kids, especially this time of year. I just love creating cozy recipes together. And that's gonna be definitely one of my favorite memories is just being together and cooking as a family. And we love hosting and having friends over. So we're always in the kitchen. Also, usually when you come over, I'm gonna ask you if you want a latte or a glass of wine. So I love to come in here and make my coffees in the morning. This has saved me lots of money, not going to a coffee shop every day. So if you're on the fence about one of these espresso machines, I fully support it and recommend it. Okay, and then right off the kitchen is this beautiful chest of drawers. I had actually been looking for something like this forever and we got so lucky that the previous owners left this here. And I just love the marble. And again, I was kind of saying earlier, I started off with a couple of these and it kind of just went into this. And I love it, especially going into like cozy season and the holidays, I think it adds such a romantic, beautiful touch. And I love that. What I love most about my home is just being able to create memories with my family. And that sounds cliche, I know, but I feel like that's definitely one of my love languages is quality time. And, you know, being able to create a home where we love to be and getting to host for my friends and family is something that just brings me honestly the most joy. It's what I love to do the most. So now we are in Rosie's room, aka the princess's room. I feel like I probably had the most attention from her room. I feel like my most asked question is where her bedding is from. And I got super lucky. I got this last year, shortly after we moved here. And I think I paid like 20 bucks for it. And I've been trying so hard to find like a puffy quilt for people that are looking for one. And I've also always said that her room has kind of healed my inner child. I feel like as a little girl, like I was obsessed with pink and green and Rosie is too. So I've definitely brought that into her room. I found this dollhouse on Marketplace and she has lots of pinks and greens, like I said, going on in here, but I felt like there was a lot more pinks going on with the lampshades and stuff. So I just painted this green and she loves this little bookshelf. And these are some framed art, which is really sweet because I've actually started, or I started collecting a lot of pieces in her room, honestly, before she was born and before I even knew I was having a little girl. So I loved just incorporating these vintage florals in here. And also I loved finding different needle points for her room. I have definitely talked about, and I hear people talk about how the thrift gods are with them. You find this thing that you've been looking for forever. And this is kind of crazy because I found this needle point on Facebook Marketplace, somewhere in North Carolina. I think it was like four or five hours away and she ended up shipping it to me. But my little girl is obsessed with bunnies and strawberries and her name is Rosie. And it just so happened I found that on Facebook. So I thought that was really cool. As soon as I saw it, I was like, can you please ship this to me? And I love how it kind of, and then I have this vase that I got for her birthday last year and how it kind of all flows together. And it's just very her, very cottagecore, shabby chic, very Rosie. Her room is definitely the smallest space in the house. So we've really tried to just work with what we can and make the most of this space. This room is kind of rearranged. Honestly, two or three times, and we have found this is the best setup where she can have more floor space over here. But this is actually a bunny lamp I got for her probably when she was like three. And again, I said she's obsessed with bunnies, so it's just very her and sweet. This is actually a canopy that I, my mom found for Rosie and I think it's so sweet and I love the small gingham print on it. And I love that it's against the pink, soft pink curtains over there. I think it looks really nice together. So I love this little floral print banner. We actually put it in her room last year for her birthday as like a little birthday surprise for her to wake up to. And they've just kind of stayed here and they haven't left. And I think it just adds another little whimsical touch that I love. So over here is a sweet little custom desk that I found at an antique store. And it's the colors and everything were so beautiful. I could not pass it up. I actually saw it probably months ago and I just couldn't quit thinking about it. So I went back and got it. And I think it's just so sweet for a little girl's room. And again, brought more pinks and strawberries, all very girly and very her. And then this is an antique mirror I found with this big, beautiful bow. I feel like that is something that I'm kind of seeing overdone. Like bows are kind of printed on everything, no shame. I feel like when you walk into HomeGoods, there's like bows on everything, which I think is very cute. But I think, I don't know why, I was just drawn more to this because for one, it's an antique and just the shape of it. And I haven't seen anything like it. And then right off of Rosie's room is a little bathroom right here. Because this is linked to her room, but also the hallway, I wanted it to kind of flow nicely since it's off of her room and just kind of incorporate more of those vintage florals. And it has this cute little built-in shelf right here with just some of our little treasures we have found. I just think it's a really cute little touch. Another thing, when we first saw this house, we were like, we couldn't believe they had this huge, massive steam shower that actually connects both bathrooms on our upper floor. So it connects to the primary bathroom over here. So now we are in the master. And what I really loved about this space when I first saw it was the skylights that are right here. I love that I can kind of wake up with the day, with the sun, and I used to not be a morning person, but now I've kind of shifted into that. So I love having those. And you can actually lay in there at night and look at the stars and the moon. So that's really beautiful. For our bedding, I just went with a classic white linen. I just feel like it makes your room feel kind of like a bougie hotel. You just want to jump in it and it's a cloud. And that's how I feel about this. I love my bed so much. A lot of my friends will tell you when they lay in my bed, they don't want to leave. They have to ask me every single thing I have. And we do spend a lot of, a third of our lives sleeping. So I say invest in good bedding. Because this is definitely a little bit of a smaller space and I kind of had to give up my walk-in closet from our last place, but I did trade it for a Mountain View. So I'm not complaining, but I had to kind of incorporate more storage. So I used an extra dresser over here. And for the longest, I felt like you had to have two of the same exact nightstands two of the same exact lamps. And I think it's kind of fun to kind of switch things up. You don't have to have everything matching exactly. I think that honestly kind of gives off a less cozy feel. I think when you use different pieces, it makes the space feel more organic, more natural that I love. And I did love this piece. I loved the antique knobs on here. And I have the mirrored frames on both sides. Okay, so then like, as I was saying, like I was always thinking like you had, when I first started having my own home, I was thinking you have to have two of the same exact nightstands, but I kind of have found, I loved kind of adding a vanity over here instead of two dressers or two nightstands because it kind of romanticizes the getting ready process. And I also love that growing up, my grandmother always had a vanity in her room. And I like to sit over here and have tea and like just take my time getting ready. And I just think it adds a sweet little feminine touch. Over here again, I found this blue and white ceramic wall vase and I thought it was so sweet to kind of bring in all the other little blue and white ceramics I use throughout. This is a little painting that I found here in North Carolina. It was one of the first things that I thrifted and it just kind of reminds me of where we live. It's like a little countryside painting and I think it's so pretty. Another thing I try to keep my eye out for is these oil paintings. And the thing about a home, I feel like it takes, it takes time to curate. And that's why I always try to suggest that people don't just go buy everything from the new Pottery Barn line or Target line. Kind of let your house grow with you. And I have loved this piece and I love the moodiness it kind of brings in here. And then these are just some of my favorite little trinkets. And I love using like little dishes throughout where you can just have like a little catch off or whatever you need to put down. In here too, there was a ceiling fan that was kind of an eyesore for me. So I recently changed it out for this and I just love the extra little fun touch it adds in here. And it brings a nice little warm light right there. And for the longest, I could not have a room without a ceiling fan. But luckily here in North Carolina in the mountains, you can kind of, you don't have to sleep with a ceiling fan on all the time. So that's been nice. I feel like at my old house, I definitely would have had to keep the ceiling fan. So I love having this in here. I like sitting out here on the bottom patio and looking out the mountains and then also starting our day in the sauna. This is one of the first things that we saw when we moved here that we were like, that's really cool. And I try to use it at least two or three times a week. And I've loved to been able to incorporate like the steam shower and the sauna for my self care. And it's been, we've been very grateful for that. And then we have this beautiful porch so that I love to spend time and I feel like this is my little sanctuary. I love to come out here and drink my tea and my coffee. I love to have friends over and drink wine out here. Sam will love, loves to grill out. And then over here, I have this potting shelf that I've loved and kind of ties into this chair right here that I actually got years ago at my first baby shower, this chair. But I cannot seem to find myself to get rid of it. They're called peacock chairs. I feel like this was very much my style, like bohemian style years ago, but it's just one of those pieces that I've kind of kept. And I think it, I love that it adds this natural touch to the outdoor porch. And then right when you walk out are the mountains right here. This summer, we hung up these string lights because we love to host and cook out here. And this view back here really, I feel like it grounds me and it makes me super grateful to live here. I know I said kind of like this home was my saving grace. It was the way we found it and everything, but it truly is. And I feel like in a way it's made me a better person because I'm just super grateful every day to call this place home. Home, I feel like is a sacred place. It's the place that I feel most comfortable. As much as I love traveling and being out in nature, that's what brings me so much joy. But also being at home with my family, I feel like is something that one day, like when I'm old, I'll want to go back to in my memories. And I just love being able to kind of have my home as like my canvas and I'm the artist and just kind of, I feel like your home is a reflection of your soul. So being able to just create a place that can bring people comfort. And when they walk in, they can kind of feel at peace and find comfort. That just brings me so much joy. Hey, Homeworthy. It was so fun showing y'all around. I gotta get some dinner ready. So I'll see y'all later. Thanks for watching. Go to homeworthy.com for exclusive content and shopping guides.