Herlong Architects

House on Sullivan's Island

People take a great deal of pride in their homes. Even in a housing development with just three or four variations of house designs, the residents like to set their homes apart. They carefully select the color of the exterior, the trim or the front door. They add landscaping features, plants, water fountains, flags from their alma mater – all items that make their homes as unique as possible.

But by having a home that is custom designed, you can go beyond the extra garden gnomes and have a house that really is one of a kind. Aside from the zoning or building code restrictions, working with an architect allows you to create a home that is truly yours. If you want a lot of windows, you can have a lot of windows. If you want to add some personal touches, a window seat or a corner home office, those are possible when your home is designed from the ground up.

As firm owner Steve Herlong points out, “The benefit of custom design is your house really is your house. It embodies your personality, interests and day-to-day living needs.” 

Our firm enjoys working with clients from the ground up. We start from scratch and make the home fit the client, instead of trying to fit the homeowner into a standard design that may or may not mesh with their personal tastes and space needs.

Aside from having a floor plan and design that really fits your life, other benefits to working with a professional architect include:

• Architects understand the restrictions and special needs of your area. In Charleston, we have to understand how to build along the water or how to build or renovate in historic areas. A professional can walk you through that process.
• Making your house fit the size of your lot. If your property is an odd shape, such as wide and shallow or long and narrow, you can benefit from having a custom house plan that works within those constraints.
• Having a custom home design also benefits your landscaping. Your property may have several existing trees you’d like to save. Architects can help figure out the best way to keep those trees and use them to enhance the aesthetics of your home.

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.”

When it comes time for homeowners to start the interior design process, most focus on the color of paint, whether to select carpet over hardwoods and how to match the window treatments to the furniture style, but those elements don’t mean as much if you haven’t had an architect keeping tabs on the interior design from the beginning.

Interior architecture is about those little details, those finishing touches that give a house that “wow” factor. As architects, we don’t just figure out where to place the bedrooms and how to make the best use of closet space. We focus on continuity and the proportions. Often, in our work, we define spaces with interesting beams and ceiling design, but unless the details are harmonious and the proportions are correct, the entire balance of the space can get out of whack.  A comfortable summer cottage can lose its charm with heavy-handed formal beams and trim.

Coordination among the architectural beams, the cabinetry, the lighting and the plumbing were critical to the success of this kitchen. Had any one element been ignored, the focus would immediately shift to the element that was not symmetrical. Instead the balance achieved creates a harmonious and welcoming space.

In simple terms, our job is to make sure a house fits and flows. Dozens of hands touch a house during the building process. The builder handles the construction of the entire house, but then there’s a trim carpenter, a plumber, an electrician and a whole team just to put in the kitchen cabinets. It’s the job of the architect to bring consistency to all those various pieces.

For example, we pay attention to how the details of the wainscot in the living room complements the style of the cabinetry; whether a room’s sense of balance is thrown off-kilter by beams that are misaligned; and how the lighting works in the entire room. We’re coordinating all those efforts, so the end result is a beautiful home.

We architects first look at each room and make sure the interior design fits together in that one room. Then we look at each room in relationship to the other rooms and the house as a whole.

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As pictured below, an old Sullivan’s Island cottage is transformed to a bright comfortable space well suited to today’s lifestyle. Though undergoing a major change, the basic comfortable cottage feel was retained by the use of simple trim details that stay true to the home’s island character.

You’ve just purchased an amazing home with a great view of the Atlantic Ocean. You can’t wait to enjoy those ocean breezes and multicolored sunsets. But, first you’re thinking of making some changes, maybe adding a master suite and another guest room to accommodate your friends and family.

Sounds simple, right? Well, maybe not, depending on just how much renovating you plan to do. It’s easy for homeowners to get excited about their renovation and addition plans and forget about those pesky little details like building codes.

Anyone who lives in a Lowcountry flood zone should pay close attention to building codes and flood ordinances. The FEMA flood ordinance has been in effect since the mid-1970s. Originally, houses were required to be elevated approximately 6 feet off the ground in a flood zone, but every few years the codes are reassessed and the building height requirement rises like the tide.

OK, so what does this have to do with adding on a room or two? It’s all about the 50-percent rule. Take the appraised value of your current structure, and if you’re spending more than half that value on your addition project, you have to bring the entire house – old and new – up to code. For example, if your house is appraised at $300,000 and you plan to spend more than $150,000 on the additions, you’d better get the whole house in line with the current codes.

Here’s an example of how your budget can take a real hit. The current FEMA flood ordinances often require oceanfront houses to be built 21 feet above the height of an average low tide. The average grade on a piece of oceanfront property is 8 feet above low tide, so that means the house would need to be built 13 feet in the air.

If you’re following that 50-percent rule and need to bring your house in line with current codes, you just might have to jack up your house, which might only be elevated 6 to 8 feet in the air, and build a whole new foundation to raise it up a few feet. That’s quite a big task – with quite a big budget.

Plus, it requires extensive design and planning to build a house that meets those requirements and looks aesthetically pleasing and proportional.

Your best bet is to first get in touch with a design professional. With a quick call to our office, we can help you understand the ordinances and figure out if you need to scale back or create plans to accommodate a bigger budget.

Whether it’s cleaning products, office supplies or food containers, just about everything comes in a green option. But when we’re designing and building houses, just how green can you be?

When we talk with clients about designing an environmentally friendly home, we focus on creating a high-performance structure, particularly on the Charleston coast where houses need to be designed to withstand hurricane-force winds and the potential window-rattling earthquake.

And with the air conditioning cranked up in July and August, you want a home that is energy efficient, ultimately costing less to cool in the summer and heat in the winter.

Making decisions to build a green home start long before selecting bamboo floors or dual-flush toilets. It means starting at the drawing board. Even a large home can be built efficiently if you take the time and effort to focus on the planning process.

Consider how the sun hits the home and design extended overhangs to create more shade. Spend more time on the placement of the mechanical systems, ensuring the unit is running at maximum efficiency.

Is the building envelope durable from the frame to the siding? Starting the green process at the beginning gives the house a cohesiveness that allows all systems – from the HVAC to the plumbing – to function together.

We work closely with clients, discussing the design and the budget and how to achieve a green home. It’s often those little things that turn a vision on a blueprint into a high-performance house.

And being green doesn’t always mean you have to make expensive choices. Yes, solar panels to heat your water are pricey, but you can make an equally important impact by putting 15-cent water flow restrictors on your shower heads. If you don’t have an endless budget, start with less expensive items and work your way up.

By putting some thought into green building before the hammer hits the first nail, you can achieve a high-performance house.

In recent weeks we’ve been hearing from clients who want to make the move to a better property and build, but are hesitant to take the next step. Because our company does mostly high-end, custom projects, our clients can afford to build, but they feel guilty about spending any money when so many people are struggling.

But now is the best time to build. Lot values have hit levels we haven’t seen since 2003. Building costs – both labor and materials – are the lowest they’ve been in a decade. Costs are down about 30 percent, letting you take advantage of significant savings.

With less work on the horizon, materials and subcontractor labor costs are dropping as they compete for what work is out there. In fact, prices are becoming as competitive as they should have been in recent years.

Homeowners are at a distinct advantage. You can build the home you’ve always wanted for less money, which means you can add that swimming pool, sunroom or spa-like bathroom because you’re spending less money on the entire project.

We also stress to clients who can afford to build that they are in fact stimulating the economy. Don’t feel guilty about building a new house; instead, see it as an opportunity to employ your neighbors. Hire an architect, a contractor, painters, interior designers and cabinet makers. They’ll be grateful and happy to have the business.

People may be tempted to put their lives on hold because of an uncertain economy, but there’s never been a better time to build. And, predictions are the economy will improve next year, so if you don’t start the design and building process now, you’ll miss out on the lower costs.

Consider building your new home today – there’s no time like the present.