Southern Home | October 2023

Norman Askins and Abbie South Create Luxe Lowcountry Home

Written by: Lydia Somerville
Photography: Emily Followill
Styling: Thea Beasley

When clients hired architect Norman Askins to design their new house in Palmetto Bluff, South Carolina, they enlisted one of the great architectural talents in the country. And then they set him free to design a grand house that’s warm, welcoming, and unpretentious. Some would say inheritable. “They are such lovely people,” says Askins. “I wanted to take their house to the top.”

With its double gallery, brick exterior, and pretty leaded glass transoms, the house evokes Louisiana building styles as well as its Lowcountry setting. “We wanted the house to look really aged. It’s quite a large house, but the rooms have the intimacy of older houses,” says Askins. That magic starts at the graveled driveway and a wooden bridge he calls a “clickety-clack” bridge. The transitions from paved road to gravel to the rhythm of the bridge all contribute to the effect of traveling back in time.

Designer Abbie South fashioned a French-inflected decorating scheme heavy on antiques. “The couple wanted a complete departure from their previous house, which used a lot of bold hues,” she says. “They wanted the feel of a French country house, with softer colors.” South began with fabrics, pulling together swatches of gingham, toile, and matelassé, establishing a Gallic theme for draperies and upholstery. From the embroidered drapery fabric in the primary bedroom to the charcoal toile in the dining room, the fabric choices exude subtle luxury.

Stepping into the entrance hall, the visitor is greeted by a sweeping staircase and gleaming herringbone floor, all built by craftsman Timothy Johnson in his workshop, then taken apart and assembled on-site. With its gilded furniture and crystal chandelier, the entry establishes the tone of a rural French chateau that builds as one moves through the spaces.

In the living room, pretty paneling and built-in shelves lend a sense of permanence. The same treatment appears in the dining room, where painted walls set off the lustrous antique furniture. South had a paint color firmly in mind for the paneling, but the purple-tinged gray she imagined proved elusive in practice. “We tried so many paints, but they weren’t quite right,” she says. “One day the painter, Bryan Dumas, brought me a flowerpot in exactly the right color, and I said, ‘That’s it!’” Dumas applied the paint with not a hint of sheen to give it a dry, worn finish to mimic the look of age. “There are deliberate cracks in the paint to ensure it looks old,” South says. In the wife’s showstopper of a bathroom, Askins decided to gild the groin-vaulted ceiling with platinum leaf. “Platinum doesn’t tarnish. We used all the platinum leaf in the United States and some from Europe,” he says. “It glows and purrs as you move around the bathroom.”

Even the kitchen captures the spirit of a historic house. Stained cabinetry and exposed brick suggest an old outbuilding claimed by the expanding main house. Marble countertops and the book-matched backsplash offer a nod to contemporary preferences, but the beams, brick, and oak flooring give the room timeless character. Given the rigorous architectural integrity and the embrace of classic furniture and textiles, one expects this house to age gracefully into the next century.