Southern Accents: What inspires you?
Bill Ingram: The calm of an established building that is comfortable in its setting. One that's stylishly at ease but that has at least a bit of formality -- rooted, with a timeless air. I also admire the intangible quality of not giving it all away on the outside.

SA: How would you describe the first house you designed?
BI: The first one I remember was a formal Georgian brick house set close to the street. I was about 12 years old.

SA: What is your favorite house with historic significance?
BI: Pitt's Folly, the antebellum family home of an old college friend, in Alabama's agricultural Black Belt. I like it not so much for the architecture, but because the house is completely unpretentious, unaware of the outside world, and aristocratically shabby. It's a real house, not a monument, and was built and occupied by several generations of the same family.

It is a big, imposing house for its time (1853) with enormous stucco Tuscan columns across two sides, a foursquare central hall, and a balcony tucked under the portico. The columns were never painted, so they have weathered to look like ancient limestone and even have green moss growing on them. As architecture students, we used to spend weekends there eating on the porch, talking in the twin parlors at night. I remember stashes of bourbon in the pantry, walls lined with old portraits and photographs, and the lumpy velveteen furniture.

SA: What is your favorite room or part of a house?
BI: The library is my favorite room. It is the smallest room in my own house and maybe that is one reason why it's my favorite -- it's comfortable and I keep gravitating toward it. It contains an old English leather wing chair with a personality of its own -- I'm worried that the old leather is going to split apart one day. The nailheads are silver nickel instead of those dull ones. You can't duplicate that kind of patina.

There's also a little bar in the library that is good for intimate gatherings and small parties. The paneled walls are distressed and painted dark. When the workers were priming the walls, they were very meticulous and sanded them down first. After I saw the result, I decided to leave them like that because the grain and the primer come through and it looks more seasoned.

SA: What details do architects and/or builders often overlook?
BI: Unfortunately, many houses are conceived without any comprehensive thought as to the whole picture. A hollow house with everything on the street face is ultimately a letdown. The interiors and the garden side of the house should have the same level of detail and livability as the front of the house. Ill-arranged elevations, grandiose staircases that lead to very little, and front doors that are never used all churn my stomach.

SA: What is the elementary mistake that clients often make?
BI: Wanting too much house. Having many rooms is fine, but I like to know that they will be used.

SA: How do you achieve a sense of order and beauty in a house?
BI: You have to draw from history, regardless of period. Proportions either work or they don't, and they should be derived from a logical and ordered plan.

SA: What should no Southern home be without?
BI: An ice machine.

SA: What will your dream client ask you to build?
BI: A house for a gracious life through and through. One that is perfectly suited for its setting. A house that is built to stand the test of time, not only through restrained design, but with genuine materials, excellent workmanship, and lovely gardens. I am fortunate to have this kind of client every day.