Home showcase: When designers and owners align, they create magic

A new happy place

Story by Barry Kaufman + Photos by John McManus

Most of us who live here were at one point merely regular visitors, with Hilton Head Island as our “happy place” until we could call it our home. The owners of this Sea Pines house were no different, summering here since the age of 14 and continuing their annual pilgrimage as their family grew to include four children.

And when they finally chased their dream to its inevitable conclusion, buying a second-row home in Sea Pines, they had found their happy place. Or they thought they had, until Covid lockdowns brought the entire family under one roof for three months.  

“We came to the conclusion that the house we purchased was a great house, but not a great retirement house,” said the owner. 

Enter Mike Ruegamer with Group 3 Designs. He had already worked with the owners on the remodel of their previous happy place and was a natural choice for their beach-front one. Knowing what worked and what didn’t with their home was key to a design that blends form and function, allowing the home to expand and suit the entire family or contract when the kids leave. 

“We spent a lot of time doing programming, determining what rooms they use, how they use them and the different relationships the rooms have with one another,” said Ruegamer. “And of course it’s all about the view to the beach, so when you come in you get a glimpse of it, but you also get this sense of interior space. It draws the eye to the view upstairs as well, as the house unfolds and draws you to the back.”

The home embraces that beach view with a trio of outdoor areas that bask in ocean scenery. At ground level a brick-walled grotto segues to the pool deck with outdoor dining and a lounge set before a fireplace. Above it a wraparound porch rises via a spiral staircase to a sun-kissed upper terrace.

“The view from that second floor porch is so panoramic,” said Ruegamer. “That’s exactly what they wanted.”

Throughout the home, what they wanted is largely what they got and more. By the owner’s estimation, there were around 15,000 decisions that needed to be made, and they were nearly always in alignment with Ruegamer and Taylor Stone, interior designer with Group 3.

Having the architect and interior designer under one company created an integrated approach. This alignment helped ensure that the many architectural and interior design elements complemented each other, resulting in a harmonious final product.

“The attention to detail was phenomenal,” said the owner.

One of the most important requests was one that Ruegamer not only fulfilled, but elevated in nearly every way. 

“It’s a big family, so the kitchen was a very important part of the house,” said Ruegamer. Set beneath a coffered ceiling that unites the space, a center island of dark walnut anchors a gleaming kitchen of custom cabinets, recessed LED lighting and stone counters that run to an eye-catching curved bar.

“They wanted informal dining and seating at the counter, and the curve of that counter opens up the flow as you walk in from the front,” said Ruegamer. “And the owner is a gourmet cook, so we knew we had to have a great kitchen.”

And surrounding that kitchen is a home brilliantly designed to allow the owners to bask in the silence of an empty nest or welcome the entire crew with open arms.

“The way Mike designed the house, it’s multi-faceted. When it’s the two of us, we use the ground level and the kitchen, and we never go upstairs,” said the owner. “But when we have friends, there’s plenty of space and privacy, and when we have our whole family here, it expands and everybody has a place.”

The dedication to form is evident in every beautifully crafted detail. The dedication to function reveals itself when the entire family gathers under one roof, sharing in their new happy place and the way it was designed to bring them together. 

“The project began at the onset of the Covid pandemic and took almost three years from the design phase through completion” said Ruegamer. “In that time, you get to know the clients really well, and that ensures a beautiful and functional end result.”