Step Inside This Beautiful Tudor House and Garden in Alabama

So you can imagine Douthit's surprise four years ago, when he found himself bidding on a 1937 brick Tudor in Birmingham because he'd fallen hard for the garden—planted with more than 25 different roses. "As soon as I pulled into the driveway, I loved the property so much, I would have bought it without seeing the inside of the house," Douthit recalls. "Luckily, that blew me away, too. It's the homiest home imaginable—a perfect little English cottage that just wraps its arms around you. It has a very humble soul."

In this photo: In the den, floral pillows by Louise Body dress up an estate-sale sofa. Douthit created the coffee table by topping a gilded metal base with a flagstone paver. He amassed the collection of 1950s metal fans while still in college.

Antique milk-glass pendant lamps illuminate the kitchen, which sports custom cabinetry and an Anthropologie rug.

Bright Idea: Give a kitchen living room elegance with a wall of framed—even lighted!—art.

What appears to be a baroque demilune in the foyer was once part of Douthit's grandmother's dressing table; she had the piece cut in two in order to pass it down to both her daughters (Douthit's mom used her half as a vanity). It displays a Victorian-inspired tableau that includes begonias, a fern, even a bird's nest.

Bright Idea: No need for fancy terrarium containers—an ordinary mason jar works fine.

Inside, Douthit relied upon lessons he learned as a boy. "My mom and grandmother knew how to appoint a home beautifully, without spending a fortune," he explains. "Almost everything in my house was found on the side of the road, bought secondhand, or given to me by relatives." In the guest room, for instance, Douthit's childhood bed stands next to a $5 yard-sale nightstand.

In this photo: A peacock-print duvet and shams by Dwell Studio dress the guest room bed—an heirloom from Douthit's childhood. A previous owner hung the black-and-white wallpaper, which Douthit calls "one of the prettiest toiles I've seen."

"So many people decorate to impress, but my favorite houses have life in their rooms. There are animals. You can tell the owners throw parties," says Douthit. "When people come to visit, they just want to be comfortable. They want to feel like they can sit on the sofa. For me, that's always been the goal—making guests feel at home."

In this photo: The hand-sewn bunny on Douthit's antique rolltop desk is part of his new PD Baby line of organic-cotton toys, bibs, and blankets.

Straight from Prentiss Douthit's garden, peonies, petite 'Sweet Pea' roses, and dainty sprigs of beauty bush (Kolkwitzia amabilis) provide the makings for a casually lush arrangement.

An ideal companion to the house, the garden is also sweet and unpretentious, with a certain blowsy British charm. In addition to all those roses—scaling a rustic arbor, climbing the brick facade, blooming on bushes at every turn—Douthit's borders and beds burst with the kind of classic flowers your great-aunt might have grown: foxgloves, peonies, and pansies. A pair of flagstone patios, their walls covered in jasmine, clematis, and ivy, offer inviting spots to sit and take in the scenery.

In this photo: Vintage café chairs and a tag-sale table welcome guests on the front patio.

Clematis and confederate jasmine climb a brick wall adjoining the back patio.

Since purchasing the place, Douthit has added yet another outdoor room. "I'd always wanted chickens, so I had a coop built," he says. "Then I wanted to watch the chickens from a porch, so I designed a toolshed that's actually pretty." Much more than a mere lean-to, the place looks like a little cabin, complete with cedar-shake roof, timber rails—and that porch, outfitted with a hammock.

In this photo: The backyard garden shed offers extra outdoor living space, courtesy of a porch strung with a Pawleys Island hammock. The lanterns and cushions are by Pottery Barn.

Blue, the designer's Welsh Corgi, sets off toward an arbor covered in 'New Dawn' roses.

Shortly after moving in, Douthit experienced a unique welcome of his own. "I was tending the garden and discovered a 'Mister Lincoln' rose—one of the cultivars my mom grew for her shop," he recalls. "I took it as a sign that I was in the right place."

In this photo: "I raise chickens for eggs, as well as the fertilizer they deposit in my garden," says Douthit, with one of his 15 hens.

From state parks to vast prairies, each state across America is brimming with its own unique beauty that will take your breath away.