Sweet & Low

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Interior designer Kelly Hinchman brings California style to South Carolina’s Lowcountry

Alligators by Mario Lopez Torres slither along a floor checkerboarded in wood inset with oyster shell tabby tiles, based on a traditional Lowcountry product that mixes oyster shells into concrete. Photos by Mali Azima.

South Carolina’s Lowcountry is quite far from where the owners of this vacation home in Palmetto Bluff originally encountered the work of San Diego-based interior design firm Studio H Design Group, helmed by Kelly Hinchman. “They knew our work from the homes we’ve done for the wife’s sister, so when they decided to build a vacation house, they reached out,” Hinchman explains. “They liked our lens of being from California, not just for the way that we’re able to connect inside and out, but for our sense of ease and our fearlessness.”

In the living room the cocktail tables were custom designed by Studio H, the limestone totem tables are from the Studio H Collection and the chaise is from Again & Again in Dallas covered in fabric by Élitis. Photos by Mali Azima.
In the dining room, a custom foliage-inspired chandelier by Cox London hangs over a table surrounded by chairs from Restoration Hardware. The bowl is from Studio H Collection. The wallcovering was discovered at Élitis. Photos by Mali Azima.

The parcel of land the couple had purchased was in Palmetto Bluff, an expansive stretch that is managed by the Montage. Hinchman jump-started the project by taking a deep dive into the area’s history and geography. “I wanted to understand it through our lens and create something that felt like it had been there for a while,” she shares. Set alongside the May River, which winds through the salt marshes that comprise the state’s legendary coastline, the location is a patchwork of wildlife and wetlands. “It’s very picturesque,” she remarks. “There are swamps and oak trees and palm trees and everything is just dripping with Spanish moss.”

In the kitchen, oversize custom pendants, created from hand-blown glass and walnut, echo the curves of the Cojo Bar Stools by Thomas Hayes Studio. The clients’ collection of vases, backed and illuminated by high windows, are transformed into a collection of sculptural still lifes. Photos by Mali Azima.
House of Hackney’s Babylon, in midnight and dusk, covers the walls of the powder room. The mirror is from Rejuvenation.
Photos by Mali Azima.

Not surprisingly, designing a second home engenders a different approach than a main residence. “The home needs to feel very connected to the landscape, because that’s why they’re there,” Hinchman notes. “It’s a place where they might only be spending a few weeks out of the year,” she points
out. The clients chose to mix high and low and reupholster older pieces, because furnishings that were low maintenance and had longevity were key. “They’re probably entertaining more often, or they may let friends use the house when it’s available,” she observes of the clients. “It needs to be casual and durable.”

In the primary bedroom, a custom sculpture by Beth Kamhi—a nod to the Spanish moss that drapes the area’s trees—is mounted on Arte wallpaper, purchased through Thomas Lavin. McGuire’s Waterfall nightstands flank a custom bed covered in Rose Tarlow’s Hartford Malt linen. Photos by Mali Azima.
The wide stripe of a wallcovering from Élitis balances the exuberant veins of the marble in the primary bath.
Photos by Mali Azima.

Inspired by the lush setting, Hinchman knew that she wanted to underline the link between the indoors and out. “You see nature from every room—there are dolphins, alligators, oysters and so much foliage—so I wanted to emphasize that.” She and her team began with the lighting. Witness the two chandeliers in the bunk room, crafted to resemble bold clusters of banana leaves, and the custom tree-branch fixture that canopies over the dining room. The client loves wallpaper; Hinchman obliged with a variety of flora- and fauna-inspired designs from Thomas Lavin, Schumacher, Pierre Frey and House of Hackney. She papered the elevator in Gucci’s Pink Heron wallcovering, bringing levity to the small space.

A pair of Varaluz’s Banana Leaf chandeliers illuminate the bunk room. Photos by Mali Azima.
A lush wallcovering by Pierre Frey is paired with a vessel sink from Studio H Collection. The tray and holder is also by Studio H Collection. Photos by Mali Azima.

To create intimacy out of rooms with ceilings that soared to 14 feet, Hinchman incorporated dense patterns, amped up the scale of the furniture and had fun with the “fifth wall.” “I’ve never been in a position where I wanted to bring ceilings down,” she marvels. In the dining room she specified a sculpted wood ceiling, an intricate parquet square for the floor and an oversize table. In the kitchen, she took the cabinets to the ceiling. Backed by high windows, light filters through an arrangement of sculptural vases in the uppers, creating a series of striking still lives. Their sinuous shapes are echoed in the sizable custom pendants that hang over the large island, grounded by substantial legs at each corner. “I like to add a lot of texture to big spaces,” Hinchman says.

A plush custom sofa, covered in Élitis’s Rio Cha cha cha, an outdoor fabric, is paired with custom chairs in another Élitis outdoor fabric and two Circula coffee tables, in large and small, from Blu Dot. Photos by Mali Azima.

Hinchman admits that the biggest issue was local infrastructure. “We’re spoiled with the amount of talented craftspeople we have in California,” she admits. To compensate, she simplified some of her original custom designs and chose to have others made in California and shipped across the country. Fortunately, the clients, who’d built close to a dozen homes, were familiar with the challenges
and delays inherent in the construction process. “It meant we didn’t have to spend a lot of time on education,” Hinchman points out. “We could get right into the work and have fun.”