After successfully launching the 2011 Nashville Southern Living Showcase Home, Castle Homes and its company president, Alan Looney, have earned highest honors as Southern Living Custom Builder of The Year.

In a presentation made at their Charleston, South Carolina custom builder meeting, Southern Living Executive Marketing Director Kristen Payne said Looney represents the best their program has to offer.

“It is clear that a lot of care went into every detail of the (Nashville Southern Living Showcase Home) and that’s what earned him the recognition as the top member in the Custom Builder Program. Castle Homes will be featured in our September 2012 issue,” Payne said.  “His sincerity as a person and vested interest in providing a customer a great experience are what really make him stand apart.”

French Country in style, the gorgeous Southern Living Showcase Home was built by Castle Homes in the Dorset Park neighborhood of southern Davidson County. The design team, headed by Castle Homes’ in-house designers Caroline Weigel and Heather Looney, included: Amanda Burdge, Allied ASID, AB HOME Interiors, INC.; Dana Goodman, ASID, Dana Goodman Interiors; Lee Shacklock, Lee Shacklock Interior Design; Kippie Leland, ASID, Leland Interiors, LLC; Jennifer Jones, Allied ASID, Jennifer Jones, Inc.; Jerome Farris, Peddler Interiors; Kristen Finney, Allied ASID, Finney Interiors; Beth Jones, ASID, The Interior Collection; Treesa Hudson, Allied ASID, Bradford’s Interiors; and decorative artisans Bella Tucker Decorative Finishes, Leigh Ann Agee, Mojo Faux and William Bell.

The Southern Living Custom Builder Program is an invitation-only network of nearly 100 builders across the country.  Each member is hand-selected for their outstanding reputation, quality of design and construction, integrity, and stability in the locations they represent.

A member of the Southern Living Custom Builder Program since 2010, Castle Homes, a design-build firm with guaranteed pricing, earned the 2012 Builder of the Year award for its hugely popular presentation of the 2011 Southern Living Showcase Home.  The Southern Living Showcase Home in Nashville welcomed almost 7,000 visitors with Ronald McDonald House Nashville as the benefiting charity as well as receiving hundreds of donated Books From Birth for families served.

Plans are currently underway for the 2013 home tour and for the latest updates follow them on Facebook

Here are some highlights of the 2011 Nashville Southern Living Show.

About Southern Living

Southern Living (www.southernliving.com), the premier lifestyle and entertaining magazine of the South and the seventh largest monthly consumer magazine in the U.S. (based on readership), reaches nearly 16 million readers each month and enjoys a circulation of about 2.8 million. Published 13 times a year, Southern Living celebrates the heart of Southern life.

A leader in lifestyle information, Birmingham, Ala.-based Southern Progress Corporation (www.southernprogress.com) publishes Southern Living, Cooking Light, Health, Coastal Living, Southern Accents, Cottage Living, and Sunset magazines, and books through Oxmoor House. It also operates a direct-selling division, Southern Living At HOME, and has a strong Web presence through branded portals, including MyRecipes.com and MyHomeIdeas.com, as well as 10 individual Web sites. Southern Progress is a subsidiary of Time Inc.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.—The charm and beauty of Southern Living magazine will be on tour this fall when Castle Homes constructs the Southern Living Showcase Home with the latest in new building products and interior finishes in southern Davidson County’s Dorset Park neighborhood with LP Building Products as presenting sponsor.

Alan Looney, president of Castle Homes, said the Southern Living Showcase project will be infused with new home building and design ideas providing great inspiration for folks remodeling or building in the future.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with Southern Living magazine and LP Building Products in presenting a $1.2 million, French Country style home with a select group of interior designers showcasing their most exciting work in rooms throughout the home,” Looney said. “The tour takes place October 22 through November 6. Previously, the ‘Idea House’ was held in the Governors Club neighborhood over ten years ago. We are thrilled to be building a Southern Living Showcase Home with the latitude to present the latest in our region’s best products with a great Nashville flair and excellent home design.”

Each year, Southern Living carefully selects members based on their reputation among local businesses and consumers according to Kristen Payne, executive director of the Southern Living Homes Group. Castle Homes was selected for their strength of presence in their respective market, superior quality, attention-to-detail and innovative style.

With a well-earned reputation as a green certified builder, Castle Homes will be premiering building products as well as featuring new paint colors, interior finishes, bath and kitchen products in the approximately 4,460 square foot home which will be green certified.

Looney said the entire building process will be chronicled through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube videos available via the Castle Homes website at www.castlehomes.com.

“After Castle Homes participation in the Annandale Parade of Homes in 2006 and staging a Living Green in Green Hills Showcase home in fall of 2009, the excitement is really building for a Southern Living home which reflects the charming lifestyle and entertaining ideas seen monthly in the United States’ sixth largest monthly consumer magazine. We are translating this inspiration into our own version of unique Tennessee living that will be a fun and rewarding experience for everyone involved,” Looney said.

The Southern Living Showcase home will also highlight innovative,  LP building products, including LP SolidStart® I-Joists and LSL, LP SmartSide® and LP TechShield® radiant barrier sheathing.  Rick Olszewski, LP Building Products executive vice president of Sales and Marketing, said the project is a great opportunity to build on a long-term partnership and highlight the progressive ideas used by Castle Homes and LP Products.

“With Castle’s commitment to producing green certified homes, LP Building Products is very proud to present this great example of fine, custom home building while giving visitors the chance to see the latest in energy efficient technology for better, greener living,” Olszewski said.

An award-winning custom builder, Castle Homes was founded in 1992 as a design-build company producing heirloom quality homes with a guaranteed price – unique to the Middle Tennessee building industry. For more information, (615) 309-8200 or visit www.castlehomes.com.

The Southern Living Showcase Home will be the first house completed in Dorset Park neighborhood located off Granny White Pike in Nashville. Developed by Landmark Realty Services Corporation, it is one of the last remaining opportunities to build in a new community in the Green Hills/Forest Hills/Oak Hill area of Nashville. An exclusive neighborhood of only sixteen home sites, Dorset Park offers a beautiful, peaceful location in the heart of town, with stately old trees and gentle topography.

Louisiana-Pacific Corporation is a leading manufacturer of quality engineered wood building materials including OSB, structural framing products, and exterior siding for use in residential, industrial and light commercial construction. From manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Canada, Chile and Brazil, LP products are sold to builders and homeowners through building materials distributors and dealers and retail home centers. Founded in 1973, LP is headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under LPX. For more information, visit www.lpcorp.com.