How Jim and Troy Kenny’s work in Hilton Head continues to inspire the Hagood Homes team in Wilmington

Hilton Head Island is nearly four hours from Wilmington. But every so often, members of the team make the drive south.

We aren’t checking on a project or meeting with a prospective homeowner. We’re going to see what Jim and Troy Kenny are building next.

Thirty years after they founded Hagood Homes in Wilmington, and several years after selling the company, Jim and Troy are still doing what they have always loved: designing and building homes. Today, they are doing it through Hagood Homes of the Low Country in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

And while miles now separate the two operations, the connection between them remains strong.

For the Wilmington team, a trip to Hilton Head is an opportunity to reconnect with the people who started Hagood Homes, but it is also something more. It is a chance to see new ideas taking shape, experience different approaches to design and return home inspired by what might be possible next.

Josh recently paid a visit to a newly completed home in Sea Pines offered plenty of inspiration.

A Design Philosophy That Has Never Stood Still

Troy has been drawing houses since she was five years old. But ask her about what she does, and she makes an important distinction.

“I’m not into interior design,” she says. “I’m into interior living and exterior living.”

In other words, the starting point isn’t what a room will look like. It’s how someone will live in it.

How will people move through the house? Where will they gather? How many people should a room comfortably accommodate? Where will the furniture go? What happens when guests arrive? Where can someone retreat when they want a little privacy?

Troy often includes furniture in her earliest sketches so she can understand those relationships before a home ever leaves the drawing board. She considers everything from conversation areas and traffic flow to the size of the bed and dresser that will eventually occupy a bedroom.

That thinking has been part of Hagood Homes from the beginning.

“My gift is space design,” Troy explains. “I try to use every space so that it’s very intentional. It’s not wasted.”

Over three decades, however, the ways Jim and Troy express that philosophy have continued to evolve.

They remember their earliest homes being particularly focused on efficiency and budget. As their reputation grew and homeowners began asking for increasingly custom designs, so did the scope of their work.

The Sea Pines home is an extraordinary example of where that evolution has taken them.

Take a look at this stunning home

More Than Beautiful Spaces

Set on more than two acres among towering oaks, pines and palms, the home immediately makes an impression. Expansive windows and sliding glass doors capture views of the surrounding landscape and lagoon. Custom cabinetry, marble, white oak, distinctive millwork and carefully selected finishes are found throughout.

But look beyond those details and something else becomes apparent.

The home works.

The kitchen, dining area and great room are arranged linearly, allowing the spaces to function independently while remaining connected. Just behind the main kitchen is a full scullery where small appliances, coffee makers, serving pieces and the inevitable evidence of meal preparation can remain out of sight when guests arrive.

Steps away, the outdoor kitchen makes moving between indoor and outdoor entertaining effortless.

The primary suite isn’t simply a large bedroom. It is approached through an intimate white oak sitting room overlooking the lagoon, creating a transition between the activity of the rest of the home and a more private retreat.

Even the guest accommodations reflect the same thinking.

Beyond multiple guest rooms in the main residence, a detached guest cottage sits across the lagoon. It includes its own kitchen, laundry, living area, bedroom, bath and outdoor living space. Children, grandchildren or friends can visit for days at a time and truly feel at home—without everyone having to be together every minute.

That distinction matters.

The home is undeniably beautiful, but its real luxury may be that its design anticipates how people will actually use it.

Inspiration Doesn’t Mean Imitation

That is part of what makes the drive to Hilton Head worthwhile for members of the Wilmington team.

The goal isn’t to return home and recreate the Sea Pines house somewhere else.

It’s to return with ideas.

Maybe it is a new way to connect indoor and outdoor living. A different approach to guest accommodations. A clever use of cabinetry. A floor plan that solves a problem in an unexpected way. Or simply a reminder to ask a different question when designing a space: Could this work even better?

That exchange of ideas has been part of Hagood Homes for decades.

Jim jokes that Troy has always been the one to come up with the “big, big ideas” and then assume he will figure out how to make them happen.

And he usually does.

It is a partnership that helped establish Hagood Homes in Wilmington and continues today in Hilton Head. Seeing where Jim and Troy are taking those ideas now provides the Wilmington team with another source of creative energy as Hagood Homes moves into its next chapter.

A Legacy That Is Still Evolving

Anniversaries naturally invite people to look backward.

As Hagood Homes celebrates 30 years, there is certainly plenty worth remembering: the homes built, the communities entered, the relationships formed and the people who helped turn Jim and Troy’s original vision into the company it is today.

But perhaps one of the most meaningful parts of their legacy is that it isn’t finished.

Jim and Troy are still designing. Still building. Still experimenting. Still asking how a home can work better for the people who will live there.

And the team in Wilmington is still paying attention.

Sometimes that means getting in the car and driving four hours to see what they’ve come up with this time.

Because 30 years later, the ideas keep coming.