On a cool December morning, a brick house in Buckingham awakens from its slumber. The 1970s home is a tapestry that weaves the past, present and future together. Neighbors stop their commutes to get a closer look through the wrought iron gates. A chandelier, suspended in an old oak tree in the front yard, refracts beams of morning light onto the pale, vintage pickup truck styled with a mini Christmas tree in its bed.
The screen door swings open, and the next chapter begins. In the foyer, Kaitlyn Elizabeth stretches her hand up, adjusting a papier-mâché snowflake descending from the ceiling. “The piece was wonky,” she says with a laugh. An antique piano, a velvet green loveseat and gingerbread houses propped next to cinnamon-scented candles conjure the echo of carols and families gathered close. Every inch of the space tells a story, and Kaitlyn preserves the pages.
Kaitlyn founded Southern Chic in 2017, after years of scouring local and online shops for pieces that spoke to her. Her friends admired her ability to repurpose furniture and create warmth through vintage details, so she began sharing her finds online, created an Amazon shop, and then started renting out her home for seasonal photoshoots. Business has since taken off. Over the past five years, she’s begun booking almost a year in advance for the October through December sessions. People message her daily, asking if any spots have opened up. Last year, she had nearly 300 sessions come through just for Christmas photoshoots, and she’s on track to meet—if not surpass—that mark this year.
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Photography by Christina Bankson
Kaitlyn Elizabeth founder southern chic buckingham
“You don’t get rid of things. You pass them down.” — Kaitlyn Elizabeth, Southern Chic
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Photography by Christina Bankson
interior of home Christmas decorations southern chic buckingham
Kaitlyn fills her Buckingham home with recovered treasures, creating poetic backdrops for the hundreds of clients who filter through her front doors each year for holiday photoshoots.
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Photography by Christina Bankson
Paper snowflakes southern chic buckingham
Kaitlyn fills her Buckingham home with recovered treasures, creating poetic backdrops for the hundreds of clients who filter through her front doors each year for holiday photoshoots.
From fall engagement photos to springtime maternity shoots, the setting transforms, with Kaitlyn bringing in pumpkins and hay bales one day and swapping them out for wicker baskets and florals on another. Kaitlyn wants families to preserve precious memories, and her house becomes the backdrop. “My house is your house,” she says.
Kaitlyn calls herself more of a collector than a designer. She curates vignettes in her home, relying on vintage and vintage-looking furnishings for a rustic, lived-in warmth. Many of her treasures were castoffs, from an ornate, silvering mirror to a frayed 100-year-old Bible to a red sofa that once belonged to another woman’s mother. Pieces too precious to discard but too cumbersome to keep find a second life here, rescued from the fate of trash bins and dusty attics. “You don’t get rid of things,” she says. “You pass them down.” Her children’s trinkets nestle among the decor, their fingerprints subtle but constant in every photograph taken here.
Her eye for beauty traces to the women who raised her. Her grandmother taught her to paint; her mother threw elaborate parties with every silver fork aligned just so. Those early lessons in care and composition stayed with her, but it wasn’t until she became a mother that those instincts found full expression. “When I had kids and started doing things for them, that gave me my creative outlet,” the mother of three says.
Kaitlyn now flitters from room to room, framing each scene for a camera—plumping a pillow here, tossing a throw there, touching up a bit of chipped paint. She is never settled. Last year, when she noticed someone selling faux Christmas trees online, she made a last-minute decision to buy them; now they fill her rustic barn out back. “Once it hits me and my mind’s made up, that’s what we’re doing,” she says with a laugh.
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Photography by Christina Bankson
Piano with Christmas decor southern chich buckingham
Touches of Kaitlyn’s upbringing and family history linger around every corner.
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Photography by Christina Bankson
Christmas wreath southern chic buckingham
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Photography by Christina Bankson
Christmas garland on staircase southern chic buckingham
Her mother’s penchant for party hosting manifests in the garland- and bow-wrapped staircase.
Hurricanes marked the journey of Southern Chic. Irma tore through Buckingham in 2017, causing massive water intrusion through the walls and air vents, and scattering years of family keepsakes that were meant to be passed down for generations. “I had to throw away 12 years of our family’s life,” Kaitlyn recalls. The following year, while the Buckingham house was still under repair, she purchased a historic 1918 home in Downtown Fort Myers and planned to renovate it. Then, Ian did the opposite, sparing Buckingham but damaging her Fort Myers house.
She moved to Georgia with the kids, fielding messages about the return of her Buckingham sanctuary. In July 2023, when her father passed away, she knew where she needed to be. “[I remember thinking] ‘I have to come home. I have to be with my mom and sisters. This is where we need to be,’” she says. When she and the kids moved back into the Buckingham home three months later, the holiday photoshoots held new meaning—family can survive the worst of tragedies.
During sessions, Kaitlyn trails behind photographers, offering to hold babies while Mom and Dad have a quiet moment and get a separate shot for the holiday card. She strikes up conversations with people at secondhand stores around town. For her, every salvaged chair and placed portrait is an act of preservation, her home a sanctuary where old memories are protected and new ones are made. With repairs on the downtown home underway, she’s optimistic about having a second location for holiday bookings next year. Tonight, though, Buckingham is enough.
Photography by Christina Bankson
Photography by Christina Bankson
Photography by Christina Bankson
Photography by Christina Bankson