Marshfront Bliss

Kiawah Island home features elements rooted in the Lowcountry

By Emily Shiffer, Photos by Jim Somerset

Natural and native elements of the Lowcountry are the foundation of this marshfront property on Kiawah Island. Built on a property of less than .2 acres, Tyler Smyth, an architect and owner of Tyler A. Smyth Architects, created a stunning 3,500-square-foot home that includes four bedrooms and four bathrooms for a family from New Hampshire with two children.

Completed last fall, the home’s light gray cedar, oyster tabby and other muted exterior materials are intended to blend with the environment.

“The light gray exterior palette and the muted blue color of the windows pick up the elements of the landscape, sky and water, and sets the tone to this residence, which should feel like a relaxing beach house,” says Smyth.

The home is situated on Kiawah marshland across from Rhett’s Bluff and to the Kiawah River and beyond. The back addresses the north-facing long views of the water and excellent summertime sunset vistas.Large, expansive (and operable) floor-to-ceiling windows are featured in the living spaces. Nearly every room of the house is situated with access to the water views.

Smyth and his team adhered to Kiawah Island’s architectural guidelines and aesthetic in creating the two and a half-story home. The principal living spaces are located on the main level, situated above the garage. 

A significant two-story gable roof form on the front facade aims to visually bring down the mass of an otherwise simple and efficient volume, while offering perfect symmetry, and a front porch consists of a stone staircase with aluminum rails. 

To the rear, adjacent to an 8-by-12-foot plunge pool, a familiar Lowcountry creature lurks alongside the water—a custom-carved limestone alligator fountain set into the tabby wall.

“We thought it would be fun to try to dress up this smaller pool with a fountainhead to be enjoyed year-round,” says Smyth. “I know some of the good people at the American College of the Building Arts, and wanted to see if they had a talented student or recent graduate stone carver who would have an interest in helping us with a signature piece.”

He was introduced to Cameron Hawkins, a stone carver and recent graduate who was able to bring the reptile to form. They hit it off and worked back and forth together on the design and details. Then Hawkins set to work.

“We wanted it to be proportionally correct, but figurative and with a subtle, knowing smile,” adds Smyth. After working out the water physics with pipes and pumps, the bespoke fountain was complete.

The plunge pool is surrounded by plenty of deck space, which is attached to a unique screened porch that features custom brackets with an exaggerated scale, stretched with a taller proportion, says Smyth. The intention is to evoke an almost stage curtain-like feel to frame the marsh views. This involved high ceilings made with native tongue-and-groove pine paneling.

Inside, an open concept kitchen with loads of storage features a large island set up for entertaining and indigenous bald cypress paneling—a material also featured on the hood surround—strengthens the sense of being rooted in the Lowcountry.

“We introduced the cypress into the house at various moments,” shares Smyth. “It’s a lovely material that grows naturally here (as opposed to) bringing in something from the West Coast or Europe. Cypress, much like pine, is native to the Lowcountry. It thrives in the swamps and other wet landscapes, and brings texture, warmth and a really nice color.”

The home’s interior decor was selected and assembled by Charleston-based interior designer Lauren Sanchez Design Ltd., who helped orchestrate neutral colors and materials to create cozy spaces. The kitchen leads to a dining area, which connects to the main living area.

“We defined the dining area with a square-shaped cypress ‘cloud’ on the ceiling, under which a round table is centered,” explains Smyth, which helps give it a defined space without walls. “The intention is to feel that you’re in the dining area, without being confined to a dining room, as defined with walls.”

As you enter the living area, more cypress paneling can be seen on the ceiling and walls. The eye is immediately drawn to the living room’s pièce de resistance—a fireplace which features natural stone and a cedar driftwood mantle that Smyth harvested himself by boat on a remote beach in the ACE Basin. 

“I kept an eye out for the right material for about a year while running around with family and fishing. I had an idea that the right driftwood mantle would be perfect for the space, and I finally found what I was looking for,” he says. “It was a native cedar tree that must have been in the water for years, and possibly buried in the mud for some of the time. The exterior was beautifully bleached and eroded and pitted by some sort of worm or other fauna. I found it washed up on a beach near the water.”

He returned the following day with equipment to harvest the wood, and took it to a friend who had the equipment to mill and create the flat sections that would mount to the stone wall and provide a shelf.

“It exposed the beautiful, red heart of the cedar, which when juxtaposed against the gray, sunbaked exterior really made for a beautiful mantle,” said Smyth. “That was a fun part of the project, to give it a little bit of life and to root it in the Lowcountry context. It tells a story.”

The first floor is complete with a laundry room, home office and tiled powder room, with an oak and cypress stairwell leading upstairs to the four spacious bedrooms. 

The star is the primary bedroom, which has custom closets and built-ins with wood tops, a bathroom with airy blue cabinetry, and an open-air balcony with unmatched views of the marsh. Each bedroom also has water views, a key goal of Smyth’s design.

“We like to make distinctive, interesting spaces in which people can relax and enjoy the company of their friends and family and to enjoy this beautiful place that we call home,” says Smyth.

Resources

Architect - Tyler Smyth

Interior Design - Lauren Sanchez Design Ltd.

Stone carver - Cameron Hawkins