Home showcase: This home is a testament to just how powerful and complimentary “lovely bones” can be
A little bit of soul
Story by Barry Kaufman + Photography by Brie Williams
We’re so used to hearing that a house has “lovely bones” as a pejorative that we tend to forget what a compliment it is. This home might be a perfect example of how great a compliment lovely bones can be. Built just a few years ago in Palmetto Bluff, this home already embodied the singular beauty of the community’s homes — light, airy and open, with an atmosphere that balances formality and comfort.
Sharon Cleland with J. Banks Design Group helped make it even more perfect for its new owners.
“This house had really nice bones and light fixtures, so basically we just wanted to inject the soul of the new owners,” she said. “The clients were moving from another home in the area, and their furniture was a lot more traditional. It was a different aesthetic, and we wanted to incorporate those pieces as much as possible.”
And while Cleland’s efforts realigned the home into a space of comfort and tranquility for its new owners, it was far more than cosmetic, with an entire wall between dining room and kitchen coming out to accommodate this new look and feel.
“Because the client entertains a lot, they felt the existing kitchen was a little cramped,” she said. “They felt this would create a more airy, open space more conducive to entertaining… It’s all about creating a resort within your home.”
Come join the party as we see how Cleland made this house a home.
Natural light and textured layers
Among the lovely bones that Cleland had to work with was this sun-kissed living room, where tall windows invite natural light into a room with eye-catching nickel gap accents around a fireplace and an appropriately grand light fixture. Tailoring this space to the new clients was simply a matter of applying Cleland’s talent for layering textures.
“You have the Turkish rug, which grounds the space, set against the leather finished nightstands with a faux stone top,” she said. “Bringing in the contrasting chairs (foreground) brought in an earthly quality that was conducive to the environment.”
From there it was a matter of creating layers through ingeniously placed accessories and art selections to create intrigue. “When you meld together all these layers and textures, you get a nice, elevated living space.”
Classic meets contemporary
The mirrored nightstands that flank the plush bed in the owners’ suite came from the previous home, giving Cleland the first hints at what this space’s design would ultimately look like.
“Originally I thought they might be a little formal for this space, but the more the design evolved, the more I realized I could pair them with the clean lines of the bed,” she said. “Grounding it with the Turkish Oushak rug, the lamps, the artwork and the custom bedding brought it all together beautifully.”
This delicate balancing act allowed Cleland to preserve the room’s existing millwork and light fixtures, blending classic and contemporary to create blissful comfort.
From openness to efficiency
The upstairs great room afforded Cleland a fantastic opportunity to create a study space, ideal for the new owner’s work-from-home lifestyle. To one end of the great room, trim carpenters installed a magnificent set of built-in bookcases. From there, Cleland added extra artwork for a more masculine touch, then a desk set with custom built-ins to store printers and other electronics.
“The room just needed more soul, so I decided to furnish it with all the books and artwork layered over it to add interest,” she said.
This space contrasts beautifully with the rest of the great room, which embodies the openness of the rest of the home. “It’s a media room, but it also functions well as a workspace,” she said. “We wanted a comfortable TV area, so we had the table custom-made with pull-out stools for when family or guests arrive.”
A space all its own
One of the more ambitious aspects of this home’s transformation was the wholesale creation of a carriage house in a previously unused space above the garage. Built to serve as a complete in-law suite with kitchen, dining room and bedroom, this space gave Cleland a chance to carry the home’s design into a bespoke space.
“We continued the nickel gap in this space, which gave us carte blanche to introduce a few more pieces from the previous home,” she said. Carrying the reclaimed wood flooring from the interior as well as lighting and color schemes unified the carriage house with the main home, while choices in artwork and accessories gave it a style all its own. “It’s a little more whimsical.”
The chance to be a little more creative resulted in some eye-catching choices, like the floating desk, which incorporated the owners’ artwork and gave purpose to an otherwise architecturally odd nook, and the encaustic tile in the bathroom which carried the color scheme in dazzling new directions.
