This house may be the closest you'll ever come to stepping inside a storybook. Meet Banning Court, one of our favorite cottages brimming with old-fashioned character and quintessential Southern charm.

The three-bedroom, 2 ½-bathroom house Tyler O'Brien built just beyond downtown Comfort is based on a Southern Living House Plan and features a wraparound porch, cozy rooms and a reading nook.

For Mallory Mathison Glenn and her would-be clients, the 2009 Southern Living Idea House in Dahlonega, Georgia, proved to be something of a meet-cute. She was the home’s interior designer, and ...