Feature: A Gentleman’s Quarters

Printer-friendly version

Bachelor pad: Those dreaded words which have long struck fear in the hearts of tasteful people, conjuring unsavory images of recliners, Futon mattresses, and beer coolers doubling as end tables. In short, the term usually describes a makeshift space awaiting the benefit of a female significant other’s refined hand. But Earl Carrara is hardly your typical bachelor, so it would follow that his home is no ordinary abode, and certainly undeserving of such a label.

Yes, there are the requisite “toys” (read foosball table, Vegas-style slot machine, tricked-out sound system, and large-screen TVs), but they’re all in service of this gentleman and gracious host’s love of entertaining, an interest second only to Connecticut-bred Carrara’s passion for travel. In fact, his décor is comprised of stunning masculine pieces culled during frequent bouts of wanderlust, a collection that has brought to bear a sophisticated and worldly tableau where family, friends, and neighbors regularly convene for recreation and revelry.

Carrara discovered Charleston and her charm as a young boy in 1978, when his parents bought property on Kiawah Island for their retirement home. “This place really grabs you—life’s just so good here,” he says of his introduction to the area. It was 20 years later that Carrara bought the circa-1840 Greek Revival home that existed, at the time, in a state of neglect and disrepair. After years of use as student apartments, its rooms were chopped up and its general condition utterly broken down. But the seasoned real estate expert trusted his instincts and set about the daunting task of restoring this colonial dame’s former grandeur. “It was a shame what had been done to it, but the house had great bones, and in my heart, I knew the building was special. It practically called out and said ‘Bring me back,’” recalls Carrara, who purchased it on the spot without even having it inspected. “Everyone I know said I was out of my mind. But the more I tore it apart, the more I discovered to love about it,” he adds.

And so Carrara took on the painstaking two-year renovation (“Every single element had to be reworked, including the plumbing and electricity—even the landscaping”) armed with ideas, old-fashioned determination, and the help of revered local contractor Happy Finucan and a battery of master craftsmen. Of course, it didn’t hurt that innovative concepts were readily available for off-the-cuff inspiration courtesy of the spectacular Kiawah Island homes he sells.
Today, the naysaying he was subject to early on has hushed. The home’s second floor is now his admitted hub, anchored by a spacious kitchen where wide-planked floors burnished to the perfect shade of sweet tea and warm, oil-rubbed cabinetry conspires with sueded olive walls, black granite counters, and the glow of a custom copper light fixture that Carrara designed himself.

Though his culinary tendencies lean toward the Italian—his family is of northern Italian descent—Carrara jokes, “Being a bachelor all my life, you could say my cooking’s really more about survival.” And about the kitchen’s hearth-like exposed brick fireplace (unearthed from layers of sheetrock during renovation), he swears, “If you discover life with a fireplace in the kitchen, you’ll never do without again.”

Each of the second-floor rooms opens onto a wide piazza, where a smattering of comfortable chairs invites repose, and visitors can feel free to lounge and catch up while a meal simmers on the stove. A large potted rosemary plant proffers fragrant leaves for just such an occasion, and the oversized carved table seems a perfect place for a generous buffet. Piped-in music, available in all the rooms and the piazzas, provides any given corner of the house a lively soundtrack.

The dining room’s rich espresso walls continue the home’s inclination towards polished masculinity, while the long, narrow table—hewn from a single piece of narra timber—has the handsome, straightforward lines of a parson’s table and speaks of Carrara’s favorite travels in the Philippines. Indeed, living among the curios he’s collected in distant places is important to him. “Travel is one of the best things people can do for themselves. When you bring back things that remind you of the places you’ve visited, it makes great memories present all the time. I’ll pass by a piece and get an instant flashback of an antiques fair in Singapore, an artist’s studio in Thailand, or a rice field in Bali,” he says.

Throughout the house are similarly nostalgic reminders of the far-off places he’s been known to travel. In the living room, a 400-year-old farm table from Manila bears a collection of family photos and, though much of his artwork was found in Bali, a sunny painting in the upstairs guest room features the riverside vista and candy-colored houses in Bassano del Grappa, the town in northern Italy where Carrara’s family originated. Interspersed in the decorative touches, a few Far East accents, like pillows embroidered with elephants and palm frond motifs, hint at the exotic, while the intricate arabesques of silk Persian rugs purchased during trips to Singapore punctuate the floor space, creating engaging tapestries of color and texture.

Where his furnishings are concerned, including those hailing from far-off lands as well as those bought stateside, “I just buy what appeals to me or means something to me and I make it work,” he admits. One example of this decidedly laissez-faire philosophy is the third-floor master bedroom, a tawny sanctuary with fawn-colored walls and olivine dupioni draperies. The bed was a local find, made from patterned iron gates, their motifs showing themselves beautifully against crisp white linens. A burled wood three-on-three chest with tooled leather accents makes a swarthy contrast to the Greek Revival fireplace surround hand-finished in a distressed shade of alabaster. A heavy Balinese cabinet carved with acanthus leaves, birds, and grape clusters houses the large high-definition television.

Creature comforts are requisite throughout the house for Carrara, the likes of which can sometimes be difficult to fit into an historic Charleston home. Making use of an extra bedroom by converting it into the master bath, he used a portion of the space to transition from bedroom to bathroom by way of a commodious closet and the ultimate bachelor’s accoutrement, a wet bar. Additionally, the corner-set variegated marble shower features a sleek waterfall fixture. “I’m a big fan of water pressure. I even dug up the street to put in special water lines that would put out 90 pounds of pressure,” he says of his predilection. A little sheepishly he adds, “There were some things I just wasn’t willing to live without.”

And while restoring this home has been a great joy in his life and a proud accomplishment, Carrara admits that it is a gradual evolution and a perpetual work in progress. Next up: Restoring the 2,000-square-foot carriage house behind the main house. In the meantime, he will, of course, go on entertaining and continue his travels. An upcoming trip to Italy will no doubt mean more acquisitions and new elements for his home that will remind him of fond experiences and far-off places, giving a better name to bachelor pads everywhere.