Marsh view from Courtesy Dyal Compass LLC Facebook

Ethan Allen Interiors Inc., one of America’s most respected interior design and furnishing companies, has announced their role as the primary home furnishings provider for the ever popular HGTV® Dream Home series for 2013 (pictured below). But the best news in the press release is that YOU can win this wonderful Kiawah Island vacation paradise residence. (See below)

Out front of the HGTV Dream Home the 2013 Acadia by GMC

It’s not all that often I get really excited about a press release,  but the showcase home at the Indigo Park community on beautiful Kiawah Island outside my hometown of Charleston, SC, is actually situated within the Island resort’s first sustainable neighborhood. This year’s HGTV® Dream Home, is the epitome of seaside living in the modern age. And I love Kiawah, in case you begin to wonder.

Relaxed is what coastal life is all about, but not without style and elegance to go along, as you can easily see. The HGTV Dream Home 2013 Interior Designer Linda Woodrum has made brilliant use of what Ethan Allen has always been famous for, crisp and refined modernity, and she clearly knows how to play natural light and surrounds off one another. Kiawah is, if anything, a very green place.

Courtesy HGTV Dream Home

Anyone familiar with the marshlands of coastal Georgia and South Caroline will readily identify with the integration of tones Woodrum has made here. The virulent greens of the dining area shown above, along with the textures of the rugs, mixed with the wood tones and crisp accessory edges, are welcoming to say the least.

The same and more holds true for Woodrum’s treatment of the master suite below. This is all any modern homeowner could expect in intimate and cozy Island sleeping spaces. The Ethan Allen Sydney Paisley Duvet adds just the right finishing touch, don’t you think?

Courtesy HGTV Dream Home 2013

For those who do not know, Kiawah Island offers some of the most pristine landscapes, and seaside homes and villas, anywhere in the United States. For readers interested in more pictures, videos, and looks at the Dream Home, please visit their site here. And, if you’ve ever felt the soft Southern breezes off Charleston’s barrier Island through your hair, the video below from real estate developer Candace Dyal and her company DyalCompass, puts real people like you in the lazy days of Carolina coastal charm.

Dolphins at play off Kiawah – Courtesy Kiawah Island Golf Resort Facebook

As a native of Charleston and the low-country, and also someone infinately familiar with developments and especially Charleston’s design community, if there’s a more intriguing combination of value along the Atlantic coastline, I’d love to hear from anyone who knows. Ethan Allen, Kiawah Island, HGTV, fabulous design minds like Linda Woodrum (at right) of Hilton Head’s TS Hudson Interiors, and developers like Candace Dyal who put it all together – the great combinations are just too perfect for imperfections.

I know because I was a contractor for several homes appearing in everything from Better Homes and Gardens, to House Beautiful and so on. Kiawah is actually a magazine photographer’s paradise. Not to mention the coolest of places to live and play.

So, how you you win the HGTV Dream Home giveaway worth a cool $2 million? Enter twice daily via their entry form here. The Kiawah home you see, $500,000 dollars, and that GMC Acadia Denali in the image up there may be under your feet soon. I am in. As for Kiawah? Even if we don’t get that new home I’ll be testing my 9 iron, fishing pole, and kiteboard there this Summer.

Image credits: Many thanks to Ethan Allen, HDTV, and DyalCompass  and Kiawah Island Golf Resort for these wonderful pictures.

A home like this could be yours - no mortgage - forever

For the past three years, Taylor Morrison, one of the nation’s largest home building companies, has given away homes to three lucky families in their Dream Home Giveaway contest. The contest returns for a fourth year with a $200,000 grand prize home in one of the company’s building communities in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, or Texas.

“A home is something every family deserves and we’re proud to help families across the country realize that dream every year,” said Taylor Morrison President and CEO Sheryl Palmer. “With the Dream Home Giveaway, we get to grant that dream to one lucky person.”

The winner will have the opportunity to custom design a house, choosing floor plan and home options of the new dream home. In addition to the grand prize, winners will be selected every week to receive a Microsoft Xbox 360 with Kinect, Microsoft Zune HD player, or HP Pavilion dm1z notebook. In order to compete for these prizes, contestants must recommend the contest to friends via email, Facebook, or Twitter.

Contestants can enter daily for more chances to win until Jun 30, and Taylor Morrison will announce the winner July 15, 2011.

You are only this far away - click here to enter and win