Welcome to Country Living! We invite you to slow down and make more room for what matters, be it a beautiful home where you can unwind, a scenic drive down a back road, or a soulful Sunday supper set to the soundtrack of crickets. We understand that how you live matters more than where you live, and that you can carve out your own patch of “country life” even if you’re surrounded by more pavement than pasture.
Our Mission
At Country Living, we deliver useful, actionable advice related to all the comforts of home (design, food, pets, gardening) alongside soulful and spirited how-tos that embrace slowing down and living well. Our "small-town community" of millions of readers knows that how you live is more important than where you live.
What We Cover
Country Living is your go-to resource for homes that feel lived-in, gardening tips for any skill level, antiques and collectibles with plenty of patina, and recipes from our country kitchen. We also cover shopping deals for your home, garden, and family—and you can count on us to always serve up the latest porch chatter about your favorite country music stars, television shows, and HGTV celebrities.
Editorial Standards
The brand was first launched in 1978, and we have more than 45 years of experience in bringing you beautiful house tours, gift guides, product reviews, seasonal craft projects, editor-tested recipes, and more.
Fact-Checking Policy
We are committed to delivering content that is accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Our skilled writers, copy editors, and fact-checkers ensure accuracy in a wide selection of house tours, travel articles, and product picks. For recipes, a team of experienced recipe editors verifies ingredients and instructions to guarantee the best cooking experience.
Product Recommending Standards
At Country Living, every product we recommend is vetted by an editor based on testing, research, and reviews. We only include products we love and that we think our readers will enjoy.
Editorial Independence
Country Living is supported in part by advertising, but our content is produced independently and held to rigorous standards of quality, accuracy, and integrity. In some cases, sponsors may be allowed input regarding broad concepts, but they hold no material influence over the end product. Content created in partnership with advertisers is clearly marked as such.
Conflict of Interest
We sometimes accept free samples of products to test and sometimes have to pay, but neither of these impacts whether we select a product for recommendation.
Affiliate Disclaimer
CountryLiving.com participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on products purchased through our links to retailer sites. Rest assured every product we recommend is researched, tested, or editor-approved.
Privacy and Reader Safety
We take our trusted relationship with our readers seriously and therefore maintain a strict privacy policy.
How We Vet Freelancers
All freelance contributors are vetted by our editorial team to ensure they meet our professional standards before their work is published. Their bylines reflect the same editorial oversight (accuracy, fairness, and integrity) as staff writers.
Lifecycle Policy
We care about providing readers with accurate, relevant, and timely information. If a page on our site displays a recent date, it means an editor has reviewed or updated it to reflect the latest standards. Beginning in 2025, we introduced a content lifecycle policy: older stories that have not been updated and no longer meet our editorial standards may be unpublished or redirected. In some cases, we may retain legacy content for historical or archival value.
Our History
Country Living was launched in 1978 by the editors of Good Housekeeping, who recognized the growing popularity of American period homes and antiques in areas beyond New York City and Los Angeles. That very first issue featured the kitchen of Martha Stewart along with lovingly restored old homes, farm-fresh recipes, cherished heirlooms, and craft project. The introductory letter stated, "Country living is a state of mind as well as a way of life."
We're proud to report that 45 years later, that still holds true. Decades later, our editorial team operates out of a 100-year-old biscuit factory in Birmingham, Alabama, where we continue to showcase the timelessness and authenticity of the country lifestyle.
Meet the Team
Rachel Hardage Barrett
Editor-in-Chief
Rachel Hardage Barrett has written for and edited lifestyle publications for more than 20 years. As the editor-in-chief of Country Living, she has covered all things related to country life—including design, gardening, food, travel, antiques, crafts, and country pop culture—for more than a decade. When she’s not working on the magazine, she can likely be found poking around an antiques shop, perusing country real estate listings, or dreaming of opening a general store.
Jennifer Kopf
Executive Editor
During her more than 25 years in magazines and lifestyle editorial, Jennifer Kopf has traveled coast to coast visiting homes, perusing shops and antiques shows, and exploring back roads and small towns for publications such as Midwest Living, Country Home, and Southern Living. As the Executive Editor of Country Living, she produces, writes, and edits stories about home design, antiques and collectibles, entertaining, and all things related to country life.
Maribeth Jones
Design Director
Maribeth Jones is the Design Director of Country Living where she creates seasonal content full of warmth and playfulness. When she’s not wrangling chickens for a cover shoot you can find her collecting vintage oil portraits or flipping pancakes in her sunny, yellow kitchen with her two chatty daughters.
Katie Bowlby
Digital Director
Katie Bowlby is Digital Director at Country Living, where she covers pop culture news including country music, Yellowstone, and all things HGTV, plus gift guides and product reviews. She has been with Country Living for more than 11 years. The Indiana University grad also stitches up the cross-stitch pattern for every issue of the magazine.
Charlyne Mattox
Food & Crafts Director
Charlyne Mattox is the Food and Crafts director with over 20 years recipe development, recipe editing, and crafting experience. She was nominated for a James Beard media award while a senior editor at Real Simple magazine and authored a cookbook Cooking with Seeds. When not in the kitchen she loves to garden, focusing on growing flowers and kitchen herbs (of course), watering her 25 house plants, and knitting scarfs or hats she will never be able to wear in the always hot and steamy Alabama.
Sarah Zlotnick
Lifestyle Director
Sarah Zlotnick is the Lifestyle Director at Country Living, where she has run point on travel, rural lifestyles, and all things vintage and antiques since 2021. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in American Studies from Georgetown University, a major her younger self would be quite surprised to learn has come so in handy. First and foremost a service journalism enthusiast, she loves an in-depth explainer on an everyday topic or a deep dive into the history of vintage objects.
Anna Logan
Senior Homes & Style Editor
Anna Logan is the Senior Homes & Style Editor at Country Living, where she has been covering all things home design, including sharing exclusive looks at beautifully designed country kitchens, producing home features, writing everything from timely trend reports on the latest viral aesthetic to expert-driven explainers on must-read topics, and rounding up pretty much everything you’ve ever wanted to know about paint, since 2021.
Terri Robertson
Senior Digital Editor
Terri Robertson is the Senior Editor, Digital, at Country Living, where she shares her lifelong love of homes, gardens, down-home cooking, and antiques.
Madoline Koonce
Assistant Managing Editor
Madoline Markham is the assistant managing editor for Country Living, where she covers shopping, home decor, news, and culture.
Hannah Jones
Commerce Editor
Hannah Jones is the Commerce Editor for Country Living. Her eye is always on the next up-and-coming products to include in gift guides and she's ready to test everything from dog beds to garden tools for product reviews. When she’s not scoping out the latest and greatest items on the market, you can find her hanging with her two rescue dogs.
Anna Mahan
Associate Commerce Editor
Anna Mahan is the Associate Commerce Editor at Country Living, where she regularly covers the best sales and shares hidden gems you’ll want to know about. Joining the team in 2023, Anna creates plenty of gift guides, finds celeb-loved items, and reviews everything from beauty and skincare products to worthy home goods. Putting products through earnest testing processes, she can help determine the best quality and price, so readers get the best out of their purchase.
Beth Branch
Assistant Editor
Beth Branch is assistant editor at Country Living, where she is the resident baker on staff developing baking recipes for digital, food styling, and digital food content. She runs th Instagram and helps create content for Tiktok. She’s been with Country Living for two-and-a-half years and has 9 years of experience in the digital food space. She loves vintage and southern baking recipes, iced coffee, her cat Olive, and fantasy novels.
Kate Phillips
Visual Director
Kate Phillips is in her eighth year at Hearst, where she currently serves as Visual Director for Country Living. In this role, she oversees the brand’s cross-platform photography and produces photo shoots ranging from the scenic coastal towns of California to idyllic farms in upstate New York. Upon receiving a degree in photography from Savannah College of Art and Design, Kate spent more than a decade at Time Inc. prior to joining Hearst, where she worked as a visual editor for several national brands and produced a wide range of editorial content.
Emma Gray Pitt
Deputy Art Director
Emma Gray Pitt is the Deputy Art Director at Country Living, where she loves to mix nostalgia and comfort with unexpected charm and quirk. She revels in regional character, having lived in six states across the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeast and traveled compulsively. Her childhood dream job was to design magazines, and she's spent ten years doing just that. She feels most accomplished when she's making someone laugh.
Virginia DeGuenther
Associate Art Director
Virginia England DeGuenther is the associate art director at Country Living, where she creates playful designs and directs seasonal photoshoots. When she’s not working, you can find her browsing the shelves of her favorite local bookstore or taking on a DIY project in her 1950s fixer-upper home.
Becky Luigart-Stayner
Staff Photographer
For more than 40 years, Becky Luigart-Stayner has been capturing light, flavor, and the beauty of the table through her lens. A staff photographer at Veranda and Country Living and formerly with Cooking Light for nearly a decade, her work has appeared in countless magazines and more than 40 cookbooks. She has spent her career photographing homes, food, and people, always chasing light and seeking to make every image come alive.
About Hearst
Hearst Magazines is home to a powerful portfolio of brands, from iconic industry-leading fashion and lifestyle properties to some of the fastest-growing voices in food and commerce. Learn more about Hearst and Hearst Magazines.
Contact Us
If you have a question about your subscription, please email clgcustserv@cdsfulfillment.com, or visit our Customer Service page. For more information, visit our Contact Us page.
Reach the Country Living team
Email countryliving@hearst.com or mail to:
Country Living Magazine
2901 2nd Avenue South, Suite 170
Birmingham, AL 35233
ATTN: Reader Services
Please note: We try to address all questions sent to us, but keep in mind that due to the large volume of mail we receive, you may not always receive a timely response.
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