Two years ago, interior designer Kay Douglass went to an open house for a Charleston single house on Wentworth Street in Harleston Village. The designer had recently remodeled a home on Tradd Street but was curious to see this property. Even though she is an Atlanta resident, Douglass has been a fixture on the Charleston design scene for more than a decade as the former owner of South of Market, a design showroom with locations on King Street in Charleston, and in Atlanta and New York City, that featured European antiques, upholstery, lighting and repurposed objects.
The designer has always worked in Charleston and maintained a home here, but she was drawn to a pied-à-terre property with more architectural features. “We wanted a presence but nothing too big or hard to take care of,” she says.
Douglass is a dedicated Francophile whose heart and design sensibilities lean toward the elegant magic of historic Paris apartments. Charleston architecture, including the single house the designer was touring, frequently mimics elements of iconic Haussmann style, including carefully crafted moldings, spacious rooms with tall windows, elegant fireplaces, French doors and warm wood flooring. “I love Paris,” Douglass says. “If I can’t be in Paris, the closest thing to Paris is Charleston.”
The Wentworth property was the bottom half of a wider-than-normal Charleston single house with all the right elements required for the Continental vibe for which Douglass is known. The home had 2,600 square feet of living space, two bedrooms and two bathrooms and opened onto a massive 700-square-foot porch. It also had the original doors, millwork, fireplaces, floors and light fixture pediments. Douglass was sold.
Traditional Charleston single houses are tall and narrow, with a central hallway with one room on each side. Most floorplans are two rooms wide and three rooms deep, with the narrow side perpendicular to the street.
Typically, a large, covered piazza spans the length of the house and is accessed by double doors from the interiors. The horizontal orientation of the style minimizes the street-facing footprint, with the sidewalk-facing front door merely serving as a screen between the street and the private piazza. The actual entrance to a single house is through a grand central door in the middle of the piazza.
Much like a traditional Moroccan home with a riad or central courtyard, Charleston singles are very private from the exterior and can appear to be just one room wide (some are). The true expanse of the architecture and elegant first impressions are reserved for those lucky enough to be invited inside.
Historically, guests would enter through the front door on the piazza, then be seated in a reception parlor (nearest the street) before moving into the formal dining room across the hall and to the back. Private spaces like bedrooms would be on the second level, while kitchens and laundries were located in a separate dependency.
Douglass is no stranger to the quirks of historical architecture. Her Atlanta projects usually involve designing modern spaces for contemporary versions of historic architecture or breathing new life into historic homes.
For her Harleston Village home, she arranged the layout with the dining room toward the front and the main bedroom in what would have probably been the bright, expansive receiving parlor.
The modern kitchen, guest room, large walk-in closet and bathrooms are on the other side of the hall. “What’s interesting to me is how differently we can use the house than the original owners. Our bedroom was a receiving room,” she says.
When the designer initially saw the home, it was full of traditional furniture. Her next challenges were creating a sophisticated, modern oasis that would not compete with the historical architecture and to ensure the individual spaces could serve more than one purpose.
Douglass’ signature style is equal parts European, minimal, comfortable and sophisticated, and this project was no different. “I like what I like,” she says. “I use things that are comfortable and that I am going to like for a really long time. This home has all my favorite pieces I have collected over the years. I wanted it to be warm with a little bit of color but not too much. With what I do, I get tired of things. I love texture and wanted solids, warm brown, black and white, and green. All of the historical elements were intact, so I took modern furnishings and mixed them in with the old architecture.”
Entering through the main door on the piazza, the dining room is to the right. Douglass uses this space for meals as well as to work. The room is uncluttered, minimal and elegant. “I love fresh, clean light fixtures, and I have an affinity for glowing things. The fixture over the dining table is a paper shade, and the one in the bedroom also has that glowing quality. I didn’t want to compete with the style of the house,” she says.
Just outside the dining area, the massive piazza has another dining table and double group seating from JANUS et Cie. “The porch was the selling feature for me,” she says. “It has so much space. We can pull in, unpack and go sit outside.”
In the living room, modern furnishings are anchored by one of two massive black-and-white rugs Douglass found in Paris. Two square green velvet chairs juxtapose a pair of armless white chairs the designer bought sight unseen from Dixon Rye in Atlanta. “I was trying to keep the living room muted. I didn’t want it to be too colorful,” she says. “The fact the black-and-white rugs from Paris worked in this room made me so happy. Using them to pull everything together was kind of risky because they’re so bold, but it worked magically.”
Throughout the home, black-and-white artwork from a Charleston gallery adorns the walls. “When I saw those, I bought a whole collection,” the designer says.
Large double doors lead to the primary bedroom, which also serves as an occasional workspace for Douglass’ husband. “It’s a small home so everything has to do double duty,” she says. “I put a banquette in the bedroom so my husband can close the doors and work in peace. I wanted it to be comfy and cozy because when we’re there, we usually have friends over, too. It’s a large space, so I filled it generously with larger-scale furnishings like a king bed and side tables. I don’t like a lot of things in rooms, especially bedrooms.”
Douglass left the kitchen exactly as it was but tucked in another custom-made banquette in camel-colored upholstery for extra seating. “I didn’t renovate the kitchen. It already felt European,” she says. “I snuck in a little custom banquette because it feels better, and you can use it in a couple of ways. I changed out the plumbing fixtures and appliances, but everything else is original to a previous restoration, and I just worked around it.”
The small guest bedroom is off the kitchen and features extra high ceilings and elegant, minimal décor. There is a large walk-in closet that Douglass plans to turn into a third bedroom.
“I love to do design work in Charleston. I love old houses and Charleston architecture,” she says. “My design strength is to take old things and give them a new life or keep old features and add little surprises.”
Robin Howard is a freelance writer in Charleston. See more of her work at robinhowardwrites.com.
