Herlong Architects

Herlong & Associates staff designed this small space, which is about 200 square feet, excluding the bathroom and kitchenette.

Just because a space is small doesn’t mean it has to be cramped, crowded and cluttered. When designing a small space for a house – whether it’s a powder room or a den – simply spending some time thinking about the use of the room and its layout can make it functional and cozy.

Our firm’s interior designers can do wonders with small spaces, which they demonstrated in a small room in the Symphony Designer Showhouse, a fundraiser for the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League Inc. 

Interior designer Theresa Bishopp looked at that small space as a challenge. And she wasn’t afraid to break some of the conventional “rules” of designing in small areas, such as shying away from dark paint colors, even on the ceiling. In fact, Bishopp often paints the ceiling so the eye doesn’t stop at the wall-to-ceiling demarcation line, which adds more height to the room.

“It should be a color you love,” she says. “If you love a dark color, you can still make a room beautiful and comfortable. My first priority isn’t to make a room look bigger, but to make it look better.”

The arrangement of the furniture in a small room is also critical. The focus should be on maximizing traffic flow. “If you can move through the space comfortably, it doesn’t matter how small it is,” Bishopp says.

At times, we like to share ideas with other designers, such as Parker-Sims Interiors here in Charleston. The owners of the design firm, Ivie Parker and Adrian Truluck, recommend homeowners put some thought into how they plan to use a room, particularly a small one. Deciding on a room’s purpose will help determine how to make the room attractive and functional.

Some of their other tips include:

* Using built-in shelving to maximize storage space without taking up floor space. Use wallpaper or paint along the back wall of a built-in shelf to give it some dimension and flair.

* Get creative with storage containers, using baskets, boxes, cubes or ottomans that double as seating and storage. Add fabric, trim or piping to the item so it matches the room’s décor. Especially in small spaces, it’s important to hide those items that would make the room look cluttered and busy.

* Mount lamps to the wall, which can free up valuable space on a bedside table or end table.

When it comes to building a home, the school of thought for the last several years was “the bigger the better.” But as the housing market dipped and the nation’s economy rolled into a recession, simplifying has become the new trend.

We’re seeing it with our clients who are scaling back on features such in-home theaters, surround sound and carefully hidden cables and cords.

Today, it’s more about creating a functional home and stretching the building budget. People are looking for ways to build homes that cost less. One way to do that is by creating shared spaces and multipurpose rooms.

Instead of having two separate guest rooms, an office and a media room, those spaces can be combined. Most people have guests only a half a dozen times a year, so it makes sense to put an extra bed or fold-out couch in your office. Or put a bed in the kids’ playroom and it makes a great space for your younger guests to spend the night.

In general, clients are looking to build a home that is smaller and more cost effective than the one they currently have. That means no wasted space and making the home as efficient as possible.

This is where we see many clients express an interest in making their homes green as a way to save money on water usage, energy and overall environmental impact. Clients really want us to research every possible way to make their houses green, but on their budget.

It’s important for us to talk with our clients to determine what is important in their lives and their priorities when it comes to building a new house. It may be that cost is the ultimate concern, so we plan for fewer windows or use two windows in a space instead of a pair of more costly French doors. Or, it may be that going green is a high priority, so we focus on how to build an efficient home on a budget.

Before approaching an architect, think about your priorities, your budget and your space needs. Our mission is to put all those together into a custom home you’ll want to live in for years to come.

When you live in a place as beautiful as the Lowcountry, you can’t help but spend lots of time outdoors. Along the coast, we continue to see a demand for outdoor rooms and living spaces that take advantage of marsh views and ocean breezes.

Particularly in this current economic climate, people are sticking close to home and curtailing their travel. This means finding a way to enjoy your time at home, and landscaping and outdoor rooms are a large part of that.

At our firm, we tend to design houses with a lot of outdoor space and porches, as well as lots of windows to maximize the views and continue to bring the outdoor feeling indoors.

An outdoor room can add significant value to a home. It becomes another useful space and adds to the homeowners’ quality of life. A typical 3,000-square-foot house can feel like a 4,000-square-foot house when an outdoor living space is factored into the home’s usefulness.

Many homeowners add outdoor kitchens and fireplaces to create an entire other room that has both aesthetic value and a high level of usefulness.

As you’re thinking about the design of your outdoor space, keep these tips in mind:

1. Make sure the outdoor spaces easily connect to the indoors. That indoor-to-outdoor connection is the most critical element. If an outdoor living space is tough to access or set apart from the rest of the house, it probably won’t get much use.

2. In the Lowcountry where mosquitoes are often referred to as the state bird, spending time outside could turn into an itchy aggravation. One option is installing an automatic insect spray system to keep the mosquitoes at bay. This eliminates the need for a screen that can obstruct your views.

3. Use care when selecting your outdoor furniture and equipment, such as a grill or outdoor cooking area. The salt in the air can quickly rust your new furniture or the fasteners in your chairs.

The kitchen before the Herlong team started its work.

The company’s interior designers, including Theresa Bishopp, Sarah Melançon and Elizabeth Horn, are always up for a challenge. So when the firm was selected to participate in the 2009 Symphony Designer Showhouse, they, along with marketing director, Laura Anne Moore, were hoping they would get to design one of the smallest spaces in the five-building complex.

Formerly the Maison du Pré Inn, the showhouse is at the corner of East Bay and George streets. Having been used as a bed and breakfast for the last 20 years, it is up for sale at $4.89 million. The late 19th-century property has three houses and two carriage houses, totaling almost 10,000 square feet.

The annual Symphony Designer Showhouse is a fundraiser for the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League Inc., made up of a group of volunteers that support the local symphony orchestra.

This was the first year Herlong was selected to design a space in the showhouse, and Bishopp was excited when the team was awarded the space they’d been eyeing – a tiny area with a bedroom and kitchenette. The space is on the second floor of the old carriage house and is accessible via a small stairway.

Herlong’s initial design inspiration came from a piece of orange and gold drapery fabric that Bishopp had turned into a dress. That fabric was the beginning of a vibrant color palette for the home. It reminded her of her daily commute across the Ben Sawyer causeway to the firm’s office on the Isle of Palms – orange, gold and purple sunsets, the green of the marsh and the blue of the sky. “So we took that palette and ran with it,” she says.

The Herlong team collaborated closely with the designers who were working on other rooms in the house. While each room is distinct, it was important they all flow and complement each other.

The kitchen after the Herlong team finished its design.

The result is orange walls in the bathroom, purple window treatments in the bedroom along with a duvet cover made of the initial inspiring fabric. The kitchenette is finished with a green marsh color of American clay by Artisan Clay. “It’s very organic, a very green product. You just want to go up and touch it,” Bishopp says. A number of local companies, including King Street Kitchen Co. and Ferguson Enterprises, donated cabinetry, appliances and lighting fixtures to help complete the space.

While most people think rooms should be painted a light color to appear larger, the Herlong team took the complete opposite approach. They painted the walls and the ceiling the same color, which allows the wall to flow into the ceiling and actually make the room appear larger, even if it’s painted a darker color.

Bishopp said she saw designing this room as a huge challenge. “We knew it could be cozy. It wasn’t cozy when we went into it. But I could see the potential for it to be a room you wanted to spend time in. It hugs you when you walk in and makes you feel really warm and good.”

The Symphony Designer Showhouse is open daily through April 19. Visit the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League Web site for more information. Additional photos of many designer spaces are available online.

This month, we’re all abuzz here at Herlong & Associates because our company is featured in the April issue of Coastal Living magazine.

The Sullivan’s Island house belongs to owner Steve Herlong and his wife, Susan, and is part of a feature on living green on the beach. Taking inspiration from a local lighthouse that had been destroyed by a hurricane in the 1800s, Steve and Susan designed a 4,200-square-foot house with a lighthouse tower facing the water, spectacular views and a comfortable feel – all created in an eco-friendly manner.

You can check out the article on the Coastal Living Web site and see the amazing photos of this home.

With a dream of being an architect since the sixth grade, Steve is inspired by Charleston’s history, open spaces and water views. His home is a combination of that history – with its tribute to a 19th-century lighthouse – and the amazing ocean vista that flows into the house through its large windows and open porches.

Even though the house has several green features, many are tucked away and are an example of how architectural design can incorporate green and gorgeous.

As pointed out in the magazine article, the living room has a cypress, V-groove, barrel-vaulted ceiling, but what’s behind the ceiling is a closed-cell spray foam insulation that seals the home and helps regulate the temperature. Low VOC paint was used in the house along with reclaimed wood countertops in the kitchen and light-colored steel that extends about 2 feet beyond the walls of the house to create shade for the windows below.

“To me, green architecture means designing an efficient and enduring house,” Steve says in the article. “It just takes a different way of thinking.”