After three decades of living in Akron, Ohio, where these homeowners raised two daughters and made lifelong friends, it was time for their next chapter. With the husband approaching retirement, the empty nesters were ready for a move and felt a southward pull.
Seeking a warmer climate and a return to the wife’s Southern roots, they landed on South Carolina’s Kiawah Island, their ideal destination. “My husband eats, sleeps, and breathes golf, and I love the Charleston area,” the homeowner says. “Plus, my mother lives in Morganton, North Carolina, so I wanted to be closer to her.”
After securing a vacant lot with a coastal view, they began working with Charleston architect Kenneth Wiland to draw up the plans. While Kiawah is an oceanfront community, the couple did not want a typical beach house. “They wanted a traditional home,” Wiland explains. “We both appreciate older homes and worked together to design a house with well-defined rooms as opposed to a more open floor plan.”
Once the structural plans were finalized, the focus shifted to interior design, and the homeowner wanted guidance on lighting selections. Wiland introduced her to his sister, Shadie Copeland, a Charlotte-based interior designer. “We hired Shadie as a consultant for lighting, but then ended up asking her to help decorate the whole house,” says the homeowner. “There were just so many decisions to make, and she really understood my priorities.”
At the top of the list was to create a warm, welcoming home for hosting their grown daughters and friends. They envisioned a house with charm, character, and a comfortable style that reflected their hospitable nature and love of family traditions.
The homeowner’s grandfather owned a furniture manufacturing company in eastern North Carolina, and she grew up surrounded by high-quality, traditional furniture. She wanted to incorporate her antiques and family pieces, so she created a log of her existing furniture, including images and dimensions, and she and Copeland selected items for each room from that list. “Working with pieces that a client already has gives me direction and tells me what is meaningful to them,” says Copeland. “My goal with design is to create a home that is a reflection of my clients, not of me.”
On the main floor, eleven-foot ceilings and an abundance of windows allow for plenty of natural light and an unencumbered view beyond the marsh to the coastline. Copeland considered the vista as she designed each room’s layout, and she carefully selected fresh fabrics in a soft seaside color palette that maintained the bright, airy ambiance and breathed new life into beloved old furniture. “I wanted to honor the architectural sight lines, so you walk in and experience the space, but your eye is still drawn to the view of the marsh,” Copeland notes.
In the sunroom, lime-washed cypress adds texture to the walls while modern furniture creates a completely different aesthetic from the rest of the home. “The sunroom furniture is one of the few things we bought, but I saw it online and fell in love with it,” says the homeowner. “It’s very contemporary and a total contrast to all of my antiques.”
The homeowner enjoys hosting dinner parties and delights in using her grandmother’s china and silver while gathering family and friends around her table. Incorporating so many cherished family heirlooms into their new house gives both the home and them a true sense of place. “We’ve had a lot of people walk in here and say ‘this is really a home, not a beach house,’ and we completely agree.”
