Gurvir Dhindsa

How has being back in the beating heart of the new south influenced your style? Is the heat making you look for an old-fashioned fainting couch? Hands down, any home in which I live has to have a huge porch. I am an outdoors girl and my favorite “room” in my home is the porch. It’s an extension of the house and me. Instead of a fainting couch, you’ll find me on a comfortable loveseat under a beadboard ceiling and ceiling fan with my favorite book or magazine and, of course, sweet iced tea.

What do you think is the high note of southern style: One thing you like to use in your home? Personal touches with photos and mementos from our travels against a backdrop of great lighting and just the right carpets on hardwood floors bring a home to life. I love the patina of antique wood along with fabulous upholstered pieces to add warmth. And, always, lots of bookshelves overflowing with books. The books range from biographies to current bestsellers to coffee table books on the Civil War, sporting, art and antiques. One particular favorite you’ll find on our coffee table now is Sumpter Priddy’s Southern Furniture: The Colonial Williamsburg Collection.

Do you have some favorite places to shop for your home? I love antiques, so I tend to look for hidden treasures in shops tucked away off the beaten path.

Would you say you have been influenced by Southern design? Yes. The inviting nature of a Southern home is familiar and warm and comforting to me. Part of the Southern style that we want very much to incorporate into our life here is the countryside of the South, which we had in Virginia. We have horses and dogs, so we hope to find a little of Virginia in the deep South of Georgia: a long winding drive lined with trees and blackboard fencing and stone walls and lush green pastures.

What part of the Southern design sensibility fits with a more continental lifestyle? Less is more. We tend to keep things simple. Life is complicated enough these days, without cluttering our personal space with things that can make us dizzy!

Do you love to garden? Yes, when I have the time. I am old-fashioned, so my favorites are the old plants—the gardenias and peonies and climbing English roses. With three-year-old twins, finding the time to spend outside with my big hat and pruning shears in hand is not as easy as it used to be.

Are there buildings in Atlanta that are your favorites? Not one particular building; old homes with their creaky floors, magnificent character and gardens that have been there for generations tend to be my favorites.

+ Gurvir Dhindsa is the co-anchor of Fox 5’s Good Day Atlanta, which airs on WAGA-TV. An award-winning journalist, Gurvir first worked at FOX 5 from 1997-2000. Most recently, Dhindsa served as news anchor for seven years at the Washington, D.C., Fox affiliate, WTTG-TV. Prior to that, she was an anchor at WUSA-TV 9 News (CBS) in Washington, D.C. Dhindsa began her career as a production assistant at WTVF-TV in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, and spent three years as a reporter and morning anchor at WAPT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi. MyFoxAtlanta.com