Carolina Architecture & Design ‘Hidden Treasure’

Feature Article

Hidden Treasure

If it weren’t for the occasional glimpse of a low-lying roofline, discreetly hidden from view at the end of a driveway, first-time visitors to Spring Island might believe they’d entered a nature preserve. The 3,000-acre island’s pristine appearance, meticulously preserved by developers, inspired one couple to choose it—at first sight—as the perfect spot for their new second home.

The couple discovered Spring Island, located 15 miles south of historic Beaufort, S.C., after friends said they were building a home there. On their next trip to the home they built on Hilton Head Island in 1972, the couple visited Spring Island and “decided this was the place we wanted to be.” They purchased the first lot they were shown—primarily because of its spectacular view of a thriving marsh—and, at the suggestion of residential designer Kermit Huggins, began listing all the features they wanted in their new vacation home.

“Through the years, we have built a lot of homes,” says the owner, “and in my mind, this was going to be the last house we were ever going to build. After visiting us at our home and talking to us for hours, Kermit asked us to write down everything we ever wanted in a house. I’m happy to say he provided it all. It all worked out beautifully.”

The owner’s lengthy wish list was only one set of criteria for Huggins to satisfy. The island’s Habitat Review Board had its own set of guidelines to be observed, described by Huggins as “the best-thought-out, most concise set of guidelines I’ve worked with.”

Among his first steps was a visit to the building lot with a board representative. “At the beginning, we had a meeting on-site,” Huggins recalls. “Together, we walked the entire property, identifying the trees that absolutely had to remain and planning the general siting of the house.”

The building covenants call for owners to preserve at least 25 feet of natural vegetation on the side boundaries of their property. “You can’t take anything out,” says Huggins, “but they encourage you to enhance it, so we planted more to add privacy.” Some clearing is allowed at the backs of the lots, but owners have to get permission before removing underbrush or trees from marshlands.

To take best advantage of the lush setting, Huggins designed the home, not as a single structure, but as a series of modules. Besides preserving key environmental features of the property, the modular design permits more and better opportunities to accommodate views, sunlight and cooling breezes. “The idea of spreading the home out over the site opens up all sorts of possibilities,” says Huggins. “While you’re saving trees and preserving the best features of the natural landscape, you can capitalize on the sun’s orientation at different times of the day and situate the sections to bring in the natural breezes.”

The resulting structures, built around a central courtyard, create an intimate private compound where the owners can enjoy the island’s natural beauty in comfort and privacy. “It’s so peaceful,” says the owner. “It’s a joy to be there.”

Huggins describes the home’s architectural style as “low country with soft contemporary elements,” adding, “the Review Board likes to see low country architecture or at least a contemporary interpretation of it.”

The standing-seam metal roofing, with a baked-on finish for maximum durability, is typical of low country homes.  Also typical of low country architecture are the roofs’ wide overhangs. “We’re in a wet climate and a hot climate, and these overhangs tend to protect the walls from rain and sun,” notes Huggins.

Huggins finished the home’s exterior in narrow-spaced horizontal siding, with stucco accents and a broad horizontal band of simple detailing. “It adds a point of interest above the windows and doors and tends to tie the complete house together in a horizontal plane,” notes Huggins. “As one consequence of the modular design, you end up with numerous roof masses. The detailing also has some tendency to lower the overall massing of the house.”

“The house has a very cut-up, complicated roof,” says John Nowell of Cambridge Building Corporation/Dan Lawrence Construction. Nowell, who was project supervisor during construction of the home, has worked with Huggins before and found many of the designer’s signature touches in this home. For example, he says the use of heavy trellis beams bolted together at either end of the pool “is a typically-Kermit concept.”

“With the trellis, we were trying to give some identity to the seating areas at each end of the pool,” Huggins says. “They add a degree of intimacy and throw some nice shadows at different times of the day.”

The trellis beams are structurally integrated into the covered walkway linking the guesthouse to the main house. Intersecting beams are supported by wide masonry columns finished in stucco. “The idea was to give those columns enough mass so that they looked in proportion with the rest of the structure,” explains Huggins.

The main house has, on its first floor, a living room, family room, kitchen and master bedroom suite. Upstairs is another bedroom, a large playroom for the couple’s eight grandchildren and a workroom where the owner enjoys building miniature houses and furnishings. Across the courtyard from the main house, the guesthouse has two bedrooms, two baths and a kitchenette.

Throughout the house, all wooden floors are of Brazilian cherry. On outdoor walkways and around the pool, as well as in the foyer, cream-colored Mexican shellstone, or coquina, displays the occasional fossil or shell from its days as a seabed. Distinctive Granite & Marble supplied the shellstone as well as Dakota Mahogany granite for the kitchen countertops, Bahia granite for countertops in the master baths, blue Marinace granite for the guesthouse and Giallo Veneziano granite for the living room fireplace. “The owners wanted to have a good mixture of natural materials throughout the house,” says Huggins.

At the home’s main entrance, visitors are greeted by a row of custom-made mahogany louvered doors. “They can be left open to let the breezes into the courtyard, or if you want privacy, the louvers can be closed.”

“The entrance shutters are one of Kermit’s trademarks,” notes the owner.

An intercom integrated into the home’s telephone system allows the owners to identify visitors waiting at the louvered doors. After greeting guests by phone, the owners can release the lock from indoors to allow them to enter the courtyard. In addition to the front door into the foyer, there is a detached entranced off the driveway that accesses the courtyard.

Just inside the front door, the foyer’s focal point is a gracefully curving suspended staircase of Brazilian cherry and wrought iron. The owners had the staircase custom-made, using a photograph interior designer Janet Perry found in a magazine. “On my original list, I said I wanted a beautiful staircase,” recalls the owner. “I especially liked the design of the metal in the photograph Janet found, so that’s what we went by for the wrought iron.”

At the top of the staircase is a mezzanine overlooking the foyer and living room. Beneath it is a bench the owner says reminds her of Ernest Hemingway. “It’s not an antique, but there’s something about the shape of the wood frame and the woven cane seats that makes me picture Hemingway sitting there,” the owner explains. On a more practical note, she adds that it makes a great place for guests to leave their jackets and sweaters on the island’s occasional cool evenings.

The living room manages to be at once rustic and sophisticated. Table lamps made in the shape of tree branches blend seamlessly with trees visible through the full-length windows on one side of the room. A custom rug from Lacey Champion depicts swirling feathers in the same colors as in the upholstery fabrics used in the room.

The custom rug in the dining room presents a variation on the living room’s feathered theme. “The dining room rug’s background is the same as in the living room, but the feathers in the dining room are floating off the background into the border.”

The family room rug, also designed for the home by Lacey Champion, has a geometric pattern that complements the carving on a cocktail table. As in the living room, the family room rug’s colors are taken from the upholstery fabrics.

Over the living room fireplace hangs a painting the owners brought with them from their southwestern-themed Hilton Head home. “The painting was done at the four-corner area in the southwest,” says the owner. “It shows people in their traditional dress, with the velvet skirts, turquoise jewelry and shawls with fringe. It’s from an era long past.”

Also from the southwest are the stones dry-stacked along one wall in the family room. “We had this same type of stone in our home in Hilton Head,” says the owner. “We originally chose it for the color, and we liked it so much in our other house, we wanted it here, too.”

Set into the stone wall are a fireplace and an entertainment center. Sandy Benson, owner of Custom Audio Video, describes the center’s audio and video equipment as “nothing elaborate, but a very nice system.” Benson’s company designed and pre-wired the entertainment center, telephone and security systems while the home was under construction.

The entertainment system components, including a big-screen television, are concealed behind doors set into the stone wall. Using an infrared remote control unit, the owners can operate the audio system with the cabinet doors closed. The family room has a surround-sound system, with additional ceiling speakers to provide music throughout the house. There are also speakers to provide music by the pool.

In addition to cable television service, the home has two satellite receivers, with signals distributed to every room with a television. The owner especially enjoys listening to satellite music broadcasts. “The thing I like best—you have such a wide selection of music,” she says.

Among the features outlined on the owner’s wish list was a breakfast room and kitchen adjoining the family room. As directed, Huggins created a sunny spot for a table and chairs at one end of the room, next to a well-appointed kitchen.

Directly off the family room, a spacious veranda accommodates outdoor dining and entertaining. The temperate climate makes it usable year-round. “We use the veranda based on the time of day and the weather,” says the owner. “It’s a beautiful place to be in the afternoon, especially if the sun is too warm by the pool. The weather was so nice, we were out there on New Year’s Day.”

A smaller seating area on the other end of the main house opens into the husband’s study. Both husband and wife have their own dressing rooms. His has a metal ceiling and contains exercise equipment. For the master bedroom, the owners selected a king-sized canopy bed. The matching chests on either side of the bed have drawer pulls shaped like birds’ heads.

Now that only a few finishing touches remain to be done, the owners try to visit their Spring Island hideaway at least every two months. Well before their first visit, however, another family left an indelible mark. Just after the builder finished pouring the foundation slab, a mother raccoon and her kits walked right through the front entrance and browsed around the place. “When I saw the footprints, I told the owners they’d already entertained their first visitors,” says John Nowell.

“Our whole family was in Hilton Head at the time,” says the owner, “and one of our daughters said, ‘You should see if you can record that somehow.’ We asked the builder about it, and their superintendent used plaster of Paris to make a mold of the three sets of tracks. We had the tracks framed in a wide turquoise frame and hung them outside the children’s playroom upstairs.”

Recalling the original features list she and her husband made for Kermit Huggins, the owner adds, “We wanted so much to have the feeling of nature being on the inside. I thought we were going to do it by using natural materials and large windows.”

Photo Captions

Page 20, top photo. Louvered doors secure the front entrance while allowing breezes through. The guesthouse is to the right.

Page 20, lower left photo. A bronze sculpture titled “The Rescue” accents one corner of the courtyard.

Page 21, pool photo. Deep blue tiles lend depth to the courtyard pool. The designer used broad stucco columns and massive wooden trellis beams to support the covered walkway and define the space.

Page 22, courtyard gate photo. A decorative horizontal band above the windows adds interest to the exterior while unifying the home’s modular design. Curved courtyard walls finished in stucco soften the impact of the many straight lines and angles.

Page 23, rear exterior photo. A spacious veranda invites family and friends to relax and enjoy a spectacular view of the marsh. A smaller outdoor seating area on the opposite corner of the home opens from the owner’s study.

Page 24, table and chair photo. The owners asked for floor-to-ceiling windows at strategic points throughout the home to connect its interiors more closely with nature.

Page 25, living room photo. The painting over the fireplace, titled “The Trading Post Opens Again at One,” introduces a southwestern design theme to the living room. The owners brought it from their home in Hilton Head.

Page 26, breakfast room photo. Tucked into a sunny corner of the family room, this pedestal table provides the perfect spot for cards or a board game.

Page 27, den photo. For the fireplace and the entertainment center wall, the owners selected gray stone similar to material used in their house on Hilton Head. The geometric pattern on the room’s custom rug, woven in colors to match the upholstery fabrics, complements the cocktail table design.

Page 28, patio photo. The spacious veranda provides a shady alternative to sitting at poolside, allowing the owners to enjoy the outdoors throughout the day—even in rainy weather.

Page 29, master bedroom photo. The owners chose chairs for their second home’s master bedroom identical to chairs in their bedroom at their primary residence. The table by the window is made of Lucite®.

Page 30, staircase photo. The interior designer found a photograph in a French magazine that inspired the ironwork on the staircase. The foyer bench substitutes for a coat closet.