Julia Sledge is comfortable in her spacious kitchen, filled with natural light and a dramatic design aesthetic. Standing in front of a black and brass La Cornue range, sprinkling cheese over a pan of tacos headed for the oven, she admits that the stove serves more as an art piece than appliance most of the time. “I really wanted a beautiful stove because I don’t cook that much, so it had to be pretty to look at,” she laughs.
The cedar-roofed home at the corner of Ridgelawn Drive in Spring Hill that she built with husband Will several years ago is a welcome gathering spot for family and friends. The Sledge’s stately home has seen everything from small daily moments and family milestones to intimate dinner parties and large celebrations over the past five years, and the kitchen is the hub of it all. “We entertain a good bit,” Julia says. The island provides ample room for food — the gatherings are usually catered or potluck style — and the butler’s pantry/bar flows effortlessly into the dining room, seamlessly accommodating a big group of people without overcrowding the kitchen. And while the kitchen has all the bells and whistles a serious cook would need, it is the interior design that really stands out.
As an employee of Atchison Home, Julia has encountered plenty of exceptional designs throughout the years. “It’s great bouncing ideas off of my coworkers and even talking to some of the designers that come in and getting inspiration from them,” she says. She used her own design knowhow to craft a kitchen for cooking, entertaining and looking divine in equal proportion, and it excels in every sector.
The Mobile Connection
Julia and Will were set up on a date by mutual friends while Julia was in college at the University of Arizona and Will was working in New York City. Both are natives of the Port City and have a deep love for their hometown, as well as for their extended families that still live here. After marriage and five years together in NYC, it wasn’t a surprise when they announced they were ready to head back south. “We wanted to start a family,” says Julia. The Sledges moved back to Mobile in 2010 to be closer to their families, and three children, Thompson, Kit and Leisl, soon followed. The couple lived in Midtown for a decade before deciding to build a house in Spring Hill that could accommodate and cater to the needs of their young children with room for extended family and friends to gather.
After buying the corner lot on Ridgelawn Drive, they began brainstorming with Architect Robert McCown, with whom they had worked on projects before. “Aesthetically, Julia has a really distinct taste that kind of bridges modern and classical,” says McCown. He designed a home with clean lines, deep doorways and barrel-arched ceilings that set the stage for Julia’s dramatic wallpapers and collected furnishings and decor. Symmetry and lines of sight from room to room give the home classic appeal while plenty of natural light makes it warm and inviting, a must on Julia’s list of priorities. “We have one huge window in the kitchen that brings in so much beautiful natural light, especially in the afternoon,” says Julia. “It can get really sunny at certain times of year, but I love it.”
With three kids, durability across the entire house was key. The Sledges’ daily schedule can be summed up in one word: busy. The kids, who are ages 7, 10 and 12, are all students at UMS-Wright Preparatory School. Mornings are particularly hectic, with everyone trying to get out the door on time. “We don’t have a lot of time in the morning. It’s just a quick in and out,” says Julia. The day-to-day rush doesn’t stop at drop-off, carrying through to the kids’ bevy of after-school extracurriculars. “The girls are in dance, gymnastics and cheer, and Thompson plays lacrosse and runs cross country and he’s in Boy Scouts, so dinner is usually the three kids eating together early and then Will and I eating later,” says Julia.
For weeknights she opts for easy, prepared options such as Fresh Market’s $25 meal or a dish from The Blind Butcher or Bake My Day. She owes her preference for ready-made meals to her long stint living in New York, where kitchens were minuscule, and prepared food was easily accessible and cheap. Still, she makes sure to prepare the family’s Monday night staple: spaghetti. “Leisl has always loved my spaghetti, and it’s my husband’s favorite, too,” she says. “Liesl’s Mondays are long. My youngest often doesn’t get home until 6:30 p.m. — and she eats lunch at 10:45 a.m. at school — so I’m like ‘Leisl can have whatever she wants after her long Monday,’ and that’s usually spaghetti.”
Both Julia and Will travel a lot, for work and leisure, even taking the kids on one-on-one trips. She says when they are home, they try to take each child for one-on-one lunches, too. “Those personal lunches fill their buckets up for months,” says Julia.
When it’s not mom-and-me time, the kids love having company of their own over to the house. Nerf gun wars are a common occurrence between Thompson and his friends from school and the neighborhood as they dash in and out of the house. “There’s always Nerf bullets in every corner,” she laughs. While Julia enjoys the kitchen as an entertaining space, one of her children regularly loves to commandeer the counters for baking. “Kit has the Catholic kids’ cookbook that my mom got her, and she has all her own aprons and cookie cutters. She’s our baker,” says Julia, laughing that Kit’s skills unsurprisingly didn’t come from her. “Leisl might help her for about five minutes but then she’s out of there.” Kit learned to bake from Mary, their nanny who is more like family. “She’s been with our family since my brother was born, and he just turned 30,” says Julia. “I mean, I even hate calling her a nanny or housekeeper because she’s just not that. She sits in the front rows at our weddings, you know? She’s family to us.” Their house in the heart of Spring Hill is a perfect place to bring their immediate, extended and chosen family together, with some of them living just a bike ride away. “Our neighborhood is awesome,” says Julia. “Being down the street from my mother-in-law and having the kids hop on their bikes and go down to her house is so nice.”
The mirror on the breakfast nook wall pops against the Kelly Wearstler wallpaper, reflecting light from the opposite wall of windows. The island offers plenty of counter space while separating the work side of the kitchen from the social side. The giant La Cornue range, with stunning brass accents against a dramatic black background, acts as much like an art piece and focal point as it does an oven. Sleek and sophisticated, the two convection ovens, multiple burners and a spacious storage drawer make the appliance every design-forward cook’s dream.
When Julia feels like cooking for company, she consults friends and Pinterest for inspiration. “I’ve got these two friends who I went to Alabama with and then I lived in New York with them. They are dear friends of mine; they married Connecticut guys, moved out to Greenwich and started this website and company called Habitual Hostess. They come up with all these great recipes and hostessing tips. I love their Paloma recipe.” Julia’s chicken taco bake is also a staple for entertaining and feeding a large group. “I do make that a lot in Mobile and also when we go to the beach in the summer because it’s just super easy to feed a crowd,” she says. “It’s something I saw online forever ago, and then it just kind of got stuck in my head and now I just throw it together. It’s so easy.”
While Julia doesn’t usually plan her gatherings around a theme, one party she hosted a year ago became known for its unconventional concept. “Last year, I had a dinner party with four or five other couples. I had it catered and everything. The couples were asking, ‘What’s the occasion?’ and I was like, ‘It’s March, and March is hard,’” she laughs. “March is long and sometimes it’s right in between Mardi Gras and spring break, and the weather doesn’t know what to do. Everybody’s stuck in a weird in-between. You want to go to the beach, but then it’s still sometimes 60 degrees and windy. So, my theme was ‘March kind of sucks, so let’s get together.’” Guests always welcome the idea of time with each other, regardless of the occasion.
It’s a rare thing for a home to comfortably fit a busy family — including every Nerf bullet, cookie cutter and pile of homework — and yet be able to welcome guests with sophistication. Robert McCown and the Sledges seem to have accomplished that rarity, and the kitchen serves as the key venue for gatherings, love and laughter at the Sledge household. Whether the meals come in a take-out box or from the oven, the memories made with company are served in abundance.
Oven Baked Chicken Tacos
Adapted from the Novice Housewife // Serves 6
1.2 pounds ground chicken
1 16-ounce can refried beans
1 packet taco seasoning
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
18 taco-sized flour tortillas
Shredded Mexican cheese, for topping
Sour cream, lettuce, salsa, for topping
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, brown the ground chicken, making sure the liquid dries up.
2. Add refried beans, taco seasoning and tomato sauce to the skillet. Mix and scoop into tortillas. Stand each taco up in a casserole dish.
3. Sprinkle the cheese on top and bake for 10 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and top with sour cream, lettuce and salsa before serving.
Paloma Aperol Spritz
Recipe from The Habitual Hostess // Makes 4 drinks
6 ounces silver tequila
6 ounces freshly-squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice
4 ounces Cointreau
3 ounces Aperol
2 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice
Club Soda
Thinly-sliced lime for garnish
1. Pour the tequila, grapefruit juice, Cointreau, Aperol and lime juice in a pitcher and stir. Fill four glasses with ice and top with cocktail mix. Add a splash of club soda and garnish with a lime slice.
