You all know her as Mary Kay Andrews, her pen name known to many fans around the world. Her given name is Kathy Trocheck and she is the NY Times best selling author that you have all loved and read for years. I think I heard her say that this is their 3rd home in Avondale Estates, a suburb of Atlanta, outside the city. They’ve lived in Avondale Estates for 30 years and are entrenched in this charming historic community. Last weekend, there was an Avondale Estates Christmas tour of homes and Tom and Kathy’s home was on the tour, so of course I wanted to take it all in. There were 6 homes in all on the tour and I took Mark with me and we thoroughly enjoyed it all. He loves this stuff too, lucky me! It was a beautiful Winter day and we so enjoyed touring these gorgeous historic homes.
Kathy was signing copies of her books at the community center so we got to say hello to her before the tour.
You may remember that I photographed Kathy’s former Avondale Estates bungalow 3 years ago and shortly thereafter, they bought this current house and moved in.  The first house is so charming too, so take a look at it.
Tom and Kathy’s current home is a 1926 English cottage that was renovated by the previous owners in 2008. The Trochecks remodeled the kitchen and screened the back porch in their 2 years in the house and it is just amazing now. Â I can’t wait to show it all to you! Â Y’all know that I always think the more pictures, the better, so settle in for a long post for this one!
To borrow some of the script from the Christmas home tour, here’s a good description of the home.
Opening up what was an original bedroom, the kitchen includes a Wolf range, marble counters and a “mantel” with antique corbels. The newly built Butler’s pantry was inspired by the antique Welsh cupboard in the kitchen. Â Kathy is a lifelong “junker” while Tom is an amazing craftsman, a good combination. Â Some of the best estate sale finds include the barn with wooden animals in the sunroom, the Restoration Hardware seating on the back porch, and the armchairs covered in Ralph Lauren fabric in Tom’s office. Â Kathy’s office where she is Mary Kay Andrews showcases her framed book jackets and bestseller lists. Â The Trochecks’ home is a Christmas Wonderland with an eclectic collection of vintage decorations and greenery from their garden. Â The front door and entrance hall greet each guest. Â The living room tree is decorated with vintage shiny bites while a collection of Santas and pixies are nestled in the TV armoire. Â The dining table is an amazing Christmas tableau with the “Great Wall of China” as a backdrop. Â
I hope you enjoy this wonderful tour of Kathy’s home! Â It’s just beautiful and with her eye and mix of antiques and vintage collectibles, it’s a feast for the eyes. Â I know her grandchildren must love being there! Â I’m not going to chat through the post, just enjoy the beautiful pictures.
Kathy’s office.
Master bedroom
Wasn’t that so much fun to see?! Â A big thank you for Kathy for letting me share her gorgeous home with al of you. I knew that you’d so enjoy seeing it all and she has such beautiful things displayed so well. I love her mix of traditional antiques with blue and white collectibles and lots more! Â Her keen junking eye has served her well!
Another special treat that day was meeting blogger Kelly, with Talk of the House. She lives in South Georgia and she and her husband were there for the tour. Â We ran into each other in the red and white guest room and it was so fun to meet her. Â I just love and admire her gorgeous home too! Â She did multi-posts on the house, so take a look at her pics too. She got things I missed and has lots of details about Kathy’s home.
The red and white quilts.
There are so many things I love about Mary Kay’s aka Kathy’s home, but if I had to just choose one it would be the Wolf Range.
I loved her Craftsman home previous to this one because I live in one almost identical to it and I got many ideas from her.
I loved the whole house, but especially the kitchen.
Rhoda, I’m sorry we missed the Avondale Estates tour! Didn’t know about it until too late, but Kathy’s house is perfectly lovely. Love her “book tree.” Thanks for all the great photographs. Merry Christmas to you and yours 🙂
Hard to pick. I loved the vintage Coca Cola cooler and tricycle under the tree. Very southern and charming!
I loved everything but the thing I loved most was the “home-i -ness”, love and feeling of family that is so obvious throughout her home!
My favorite bedroom is the grandchildren’s bedroom. It is so Charming. Actually if it were in my house I would have to sleep in there! I also love the books that are stacked like a Christmas tree. So cute and clever. I also like how she had to her shutters on the windows leaving part of the window exposed at the top. That would make any room filled cheery regardless of whether it was decorated or not. And it really makes sense in a bathroom where natural light is very much appreciated.
Can’t get enough of the grandchildren’s room!
I love the mix of red with all the blue. Beautiful!
I love blue and white china and I would have to say her displays are just perfect and beautifully displayed.
Thank you for sharing this tour. With every room, I imagined a story. Collections, which are plentiful, lends a curious person to improvisation. Each room makes your heart merry.
Love her books arranged as a tree! I may have to do this in my library office!
My very favorite is the BLUE front- door!
The pictures of her beautiful home made me feel like I was walking into a warm Christmas mitten. I especially loved her breakfast room with the vintage tablecloth, and the reindeer cookies. I wish I could housesit for her in December… stellar, classy holiday perfection. I would love to be an ornament on her tree.
What I liked best about the home was that it looked like a home. I also liked the idea of using vintage Christmas decorations in the original packaging, as decorations themselves! I also liked the jumble of cookbooks on the shelving at the end of the island, it looks as if she really uses and refers to them, it made the whole house seem relatable!
Hi Rhoda,
I enjoy reading your blog content a lot. Although I have one issue…your posts flash a full screen (for only 1 second) and then it goes down to a skinny column taking only about 1/6 of my screen. Do you know why it does this? It is a little hard to read this way. Thank you for all the time you put into creating such wonderful decorating and fashion content.
HI, Laurie, yes this started about 6 mos. ago for some people. It’s an ad plugin I have on my sidebar and some are running ad blockers and this seems to be the problem. If you are running one and disable it for my blog, it should go back to normal. See if that works and if now, changing browsers may work too.
So different than the way we decorate up here in the Midwest rural country homes of Nebraska. Very fun to see the decorating with books ideas. Love the southern touches.
Valorie
Fun tour!
Thanks!
Love the blue willow wall!
I absolutely would love to be touring the entire home in person but since I’m in PA I truly appreciated your posting so many pictures of Kathy’s hard work making this house her newest home. Love her books!