Past Meets Present

With the historical fabric of TOH TV’s latest project house restored, a modern aesthetic reinvents the interior, making the most of the original building materials

- Jefferson Kolle

STROLL DOWNTOWN Charleston, South Carolina, past the carefully preserved facades of its early-19thcentury houses, and it’s not hard to conjure the top-hatted gents and hoop-skirted ladies who traveled its streets by horse-drawn carriage. And nowhere is that imagined pre–Civil War era more vivid than in the Ansonborough neighborhood, located on the east side of the city’s peninsula, and home to This Old House TV’s most recent project house.

Homeowners Kathleen and Scott Edwards searched for more than a year to find the perfect house for their family: affordable, just the right size, and not too formal. Many of Charleston’s period homes have lavish moldings and details—as much a nod to the fashion of the times as a way to shout out the owner’s affluence. The house the Edwardses finally settled on is a relatively simple, one-room wide “single house” built on spec in the 1840s after a fire ravaged the city and municipal funds were made available to builders of fireproof brick homes.

The couple’s goal for renovating the house was akin to that of most old-house aficionados: retain the charm of the original building while making it comfortable for today with modern amenities.

But more than just an update—adding bath rooms, upgrading the kitchen—the Edwardses wanted a contemporary look for their old house’s interior, with sleek surfaces juxtaposed against the hand-wrought 19th-century building materials, which they would highlight.

Early on in the renovation, and in consultation with their general contractor, Mark Regalbuto, the Edwardses decided to strip the plaster and lath from the home’s perimeter walls and ceilings to expose the structural brick and the ceiling joists. It was a big move, both in terms of the work involved and as a defining design element for the finished space.