Manor Born

Palatial in scope but conspicuously lacking a formal dining room, the home of Allison Smith is an auteur feat: written and directed, as it were, by the owner herself, who leads an interior-design firm

Photography by TJ Getz

This Greenville châteaux, owned by interior designer Allison Smith, is a triumph of ultra-personal custom design.

Light consistently infuses the 5,000-square-foot house, located on the east side of Greenville, SC. But it’s a matte feel: the gesture of porcelain or baronial pewter. “Each room had a starting point, whether it was a fabric I loved or a rug,” says Smith, who shares the home with her daughter (her son is away at school) and her husband Jerry. She wanted airy and livable, but not too laidback: “We have a house on Lake Keowee that is more casual, so I was mindful not to do the same look in this house.”

As a design professional, she also observed the fashionable push for an outdoor room, even swapping out a separate indoor dining space in the process. Smith calls this an “unexpected choice,” given the home’s traditional exterior. “We simply never used the formal dining room we had previously, so instead, I chose to do the rotunda area off the kitchen.”

The al fresco element doesn’t mean a basic deck or patio, though. Covered, columned, fully outfitted, and emoting European sophistication from every tile pore, the back alcove is an all-season affair.

“We spend tons of time there, so we wanted it to be spacious, and also beautiful and functional,” says Smith. Surrounded by 1.8 acres, the house shelters four bedrooms, six baths, and a pool house/gym just shy of 1,400 square feet. Despite such dimensions, Smith swiftly filled out the dream.

Gus Fernandez-Rubio, president of Gabriel Builders in Travelers Rest, notes that this is his company’s third project working with the family: “We are so impressed with Allison’s exquisite taste, but more importantly, her organization and decisiveness.” These traits, he adds, can sometimes be “difficult to find” in the design world.

“I have to say, since I was designing for myself, the process was pretty easy,” confirms Smith. “Everything came together exactly how I wanted it to.”

Grande Jeté

A scroll chandelier hangs from a high, coffered ceiling in the formal great room. The atmosphere brims with French elegance, created by residential designer Mel Dias and interior designer Allison Smith, who is also the homeowner. Another Shannon Plourde painting, “Beauty Still,” hanging above the fireplace mantel (Francois & Co.), propels the color scheme in silver, antique white, and a range of soft grays. The plush sofa and chairs are from Hickory White; ottoman is Kravet. A jaipur rug meets the one earthy element in the room: stained white-oak floors from Jordan Lumber.

 

Island Unto Itself

The Heirloom Companies Stair and Iron of Campobello, SC, designed the striking range hood; its subtle textural pattern sets the tone for the rest of the kitchen. The “Statuary Marble” backsplash and perimeter counters were sourced from Star Granite Interiors. A soapstone island top brings the room’s darkest timbre, beautifully complementing the iridescent tile behind the hood. The play of light within the palette continues with pale dove cabinetry, made by Nicholas James Fine Woodworking of Greenville, and a set of smoky bar chairs from The Charles Stewart company of Hickory.

 

French Dip

Signature Luxury Pools and Outdoor Living installed the sweet spot in back of the house, its perimeter lined with bluestone. It’s a natural extensions of the house’s Châteaux-style embellishments — including an eyebrow window crowning the outdoor dining space and a turreted room topped by a conical roof. “The outdoor porch and pool area are a very important part of the design,” says interior designer/homeowner Allison Smith.

 

Al Fresco on a New Level

Allison Smith, homeowner and owner/principal of Allison Smith Interiors, eschewed the idea of a formal dining room and instead outfitted a posh outdoor cooking/eating/living space. There’s nothing of rusticity here; the screened room feels grand but essential — Tuscan columns impart a Mediterranean air, and the Walter Zanger tile reads like aristocratic whitewashed brick (Tara in Gone with the Wind comes to mind). Similar to the one in the indoor kitchen, a custom range hood by The Heirloom Companies, here overhanging a stainless-steel Wolf grill and surround, acts every bit the design element despite its practical purpose. “Mystic Gray” countertops are a smooth parallel to the clean-lined, polished table and chairs and bluestone flooring installed by Gabriel Builders.

 

Morning Mood

The master bedroom rests in a broad stroke of posh neutrals, with choice pieces old and new fulfilling the panorama. The twin nightstands are from Habersham Home; the upholstered-headboard bed and sofa respectively from Kravet and Gabby Home. An antique rug picks up the pattern and atmosphere of the Robert Allen drapes. Perhaps most importantly, the room leads directly to the al fresco rotunda — a gorgeous, columned space that takes the place of an indoor dining room.

 

Travelers’ Rest

The entire interior, saturated in the flavor of French town and country homes, was patterned after this painting by Shannon Plourde, a celebrated artist and, until recently, a resident of Upstate South Carolina. Enjoying pride of place in the parlor/sitting room, Plourde’s “A Certain Kneeling” is set against a wall painted “Mindful Gray.” The ruminative canvas overlooks an eggshell-hued sofa and Art Deco-ish end tables, both by Caracole and sourced from Hickory. Offering an overnight retreat for visitors, a Murphy bed is cleverly secreted inside custom built-in cabinetry by Nicholas James Fine Woodworking of Greenville. A refined chair-and-ottoman set and a silver Kravet rug are offset by a high-design modern chandelier from Hudson Valley Lighting. (Stained white-oak floors are by Jordan Lumber of Greenville.)

 

A Formal Approach

A mansard roofline, circular drive, and generally grand approach place the Smith estate firmly in Châteaux territory. The project was accomplished by Gabriel Builders of Travelers Rest and residential designer Mel Dias 0f Mel Dias Designs in Greenville. But the style also blooms in the details, Dias points out — including some windows that are dormered into the roof and others that appear as round nautical niches. “I designed it around the idea of a French townhouse,” says Dias. “The exterior was always going to be painted brick, and I like my houses to have a break with the foundation, giving them a plinth to sit on — thus the two-piece brick water table.” He credits landscape designer Dabney Peeples of JDP Design (Pendleton, SC) for picking up the curve in the scalloped stone retaining walls; the look also shows up in the pool deck. “Such a formal house had to have a formal approach,” says Dias. “From the beginning, [Dabney’s] vision and mine were the same.”

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