OSMI NAIK-PATEL IS A STORYTELLER. SHE AND HER HUSBAND, Shailesh, purchased a double lot in Captain’s Island on Daniel Island and partnered with SHELTER Custom-Built Living to build a spacious family home for themselves. As a designer and founder of Life Story Events & Interiors, Naik-Patel has been crafting meaningful narratives through interior design for her clients for years. Now she had a chance to capitalize on her experience and turn her creativity inward to bring her own family’s story to life in a new contemporary home she calls “organic modern.”
Naik-Patel already had a strong working relationship with SHELTER; she had collaborated on a few of the builder’s projects, and SHELTER had renovated the family’s previous Daniel Island home. She also knew that SHELTER operates on the cutting edge of contemporary construction in the Lowcountry, so it was a no-brainer that this builder would be the right choice to help her envision and construct a larger home with everything her active, growing family could want and need.
SHELTER introduced the couple to architect Joel Wenzel of Thomas & Denzinger Architects. He walked the double lot with the couple to site their new home, with the goal of capturing both views of the marsh and Ralston Creek while saving the mature oak trees on the land. “Joel was brilliant,” says Naik-Patel. “The land on Captain’s Island feels like a hideaway, with the wildness of the marsh, creek, oaks and eagles. We wanted to experience all of it. He designed the home to capture creek views on the front and main marsh views on the back of the home. He was able to create spaces that captured the sunrise and sunset. And I made the land a main character in the interiors, too.”
The architect’s overall design is based on the idea of angled tectonic plates—there is a river view plate, an oak tree plate, a marsh view plate and a sport court plate—that intermingle to create a cohesive whole. “I played with the angles of the views and shifted the ‘plates’ until they were right,” Wenzel explains. “The plates, or pavilions, are connected by glass bridges. Those pavilions are located where they are because they are at the ideal angles to capture particular views.” The guest pavilion’s ground level, for example, opens onto the sport court, while second-level views overlook the court and the marsh, and the upper level provides sight lines of the marsh and the creek. The pavilions are arranged in a U shape and incorporate the existing mature oak trees into the courtyard, providing seclusion from neighboring properties. Separate guest and family towers provide an extra layer of privacy within the compound.
As a world traveler, Naik-Patel had a lot of ideas from upscale hotels in exotic locations she had visited. “I like to push the envelope with my design clients,” she says. “Sometimes I’ve had to pocket ideas that were not right for a particular client. It was a blessing to have some time during COVID [when the home was designed] to flesh out some of these ideas for my own home.”
SHELTER was the perfect partner to innovate with Naik-Patel. “Our level of expertise lends itself to implementing difficult details,” says Jenny Butler of SHELTER Custom-Built Living. “We’re ahead of the trends and the first to implement something new in Charleston. While most contemporary homes had straight lines, when we helped design and build this home, we injected a curved theme that is welcoming.”
One of those difficult details was fabricating the marble the team had shipped from Italy. “We could not find enough slabs in the United States for this home’s requirements,” says Butler. “Natural stone is a major element throughout the home. Fortunately, we could rely on our partnership with Construction Resources to come up with innovative techniques to achieve what we wanted to do. After a trip to Italy with the homeowners, we purchased 106 slabs of marble. Since those slabs came from the same blocks of stone, we had the amount needed to construct design elements and walls of marble specified for this home.”
The results of the marble fabrication can be seen in almost every room. The living room, for example, features a suspended Blackstone marble fireplace wall that SHELTER built from steel and wrapped in stone. Each side is curved to create overhead arches—a feat that had never been done by U.S. machinery before. “Construction Resources innovated on our behalf,” Naik-Patel says. “The company has now invested in the machinery that can cut curves so others will benefit from this application.”
Similarly in the kitchen, SHELTER’s craftsmen built a geometric frame for an oversize island that Construction Resources clad in Calacatta Viola Super Extra marble. A custom stone hood and range wall backsplash in a matching marble complement the island’s design. Two other seating islands in the kitchen show off natural stone finishes that coordinate with the cabinetry. “The curves of these islands play off of the adjacent living room fireplace and the archways that flank it,” Butler explains. “Impressive 13-foot-tall pivoting doors clad in marble connect the kitchen with the scullery and provide another unique touch.” These doors can be closed to create a solid marble wall when the family entertains guests and wants to keep the scullery hidden. German-based Poggenpohl architectural kitchen cabinetry completes these modern rooms.
In addition to curves and marble throughout the home, another leading character in the home’s story is the use of concrete to divide spaces. The architect added exposed concrete thresholds and architectural elements as a subtle indication of movement between pavilions along the glass breezeways. “I love the concrete,” Naik-Patel says. “It is modern and cool and helps balance the glam elements to create warmth.”
While huge expanses of glass add a contemporary touch and plenty of light to many rooms, the architect employed roof-mounted light monitors to allow natural light to flow deep into the home. These skylights can be found in several rooms, such as the kitchen, the primary suite, the kids’ pavilion and the gym. The architect’s decision about placement was informed by his initial site analysis of the property; he tracked the sun over the seasons to see where he needed to enhance interior light in the wintertime and mitigate its brightness in the summer.
Naik-Patel collaborated with SHELTER’s in-house designer, Kecia Heyward, and the architect to design interiors with a focus on organic elements. She used the interior elements of glass, natural stone, steel, walnut and concrete as the foundation to tell a different story in each room. Her clean, minimalistic style is modern and rooted to the landscape that surrounds the home. Naik-Patel used a soft and earthy neutral color palette, adding drama and warmth through splashes of jewel tones reminiscent of her Indian heritage and a sub-palette of metallics. “Green is a central color in the design, especially in the powder room, where we chose an Irish Green matte marble with lots of movement that echoes the green landscape outside the window,” she says. The powder room provided another opportunity for the SHELTER team to innovate. Craftsmen collaborated with Naik-Patel to design and create a sink that is integrated into the marble slab, making it invisible at first glance. It’s a novel idea that Naik-Patel picked up during one of her international trips; it’s an extra-luxurious touch that elevates the design.
The tiniest of details in the rooms tell the story of each special space. The daughter’s bedroom, for instance, is instantly feminine with a bespoke pink tambour wall with inset mirrors. The architect designed it, and SHELTER built it on-site to suit Naik-Patel’s specifications. The attached bathroom’s curved vanity continues a theme established throughout the home.
Other nuanced elements tell their own tales specific to the homeowners. Some of those stories are told through art, which is a focus for the family. Even a ceramic bowl on the coffee table made by a treasured artist imparts something that is special to them. “Everything in the house has a story,” Naik-Patel explains. “Even a wallpaper I chose is based on the Japanese wabi-sabi principle; there is beauty in the flaws of a handmade wallcovering. I’m always assimilating color, symmetry and texture in the design, but I’m also looking to incorporate the fourth dimension of authenticity. That’s the part that makes it your own design story.”
Naik-Patel designed this home during the throes of COVID, so she had time to ruminate and decide what was really important to the family. “I put everything in this home that we’d want if we had to hunker down,” she says. “My husband wanted a wellness space, and we also wanted a library to read and a rooftop lounge.” In addition, she specified rooms for her children to have private lounging and work spaces in their own pavilion. In the guest pavilion, guest quarters share space with the family’s gym, sauna and steam room.
Outdoor living spaces continue Naik-Patel’s quest for all-in-one living. A sport court, koi ponds, a pool, an expansive outdoor deck, an oversize fire pit, an outdoor kitchen with a pizza oven and a home theater ensure entertainment options abound at every turn.
“I think everyone on the team felt like they had a personal connection with the home,” says Naik-Patel. “We never considered another builder besides SHELTER. Despite the tragedy of losing Ryan [Butler] during the building process, we still feel his presence in every detail. He brought together an amazing team. He had a gentle power; we can feel that power in this home all the time.” *
Dana W. Todd is a professional writer specializing in interior design, real estate, luxury homebuilding, landscape design, architecture and art.
While huge expanses of glass add a contemporary touch and plenty of light to many rooms, the architect employed roof-mounted light monitors to allow natural light to flow deep into the home.
