Feature: A Study in Sublime

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A cool palette and sparse look come together in a South-of-Broad Georgian, soothing all who pass through

Sitting in the Ronchettis’ living room on a Friday afternoon, it’s hard to tell what’s more obliging: the setting or Cindy’s natural under-the-radar manner. What’s more subliminally chic: her Chanel flats, or the Lars Bolander pear sculptures that line up atop the Donghia coffee table. Or what makes the place more elegantly comfortable: the collage of natural textures (linen, seagrass, slate, and wood, for example), or the black-and-white photos of the Ronchetti family (Cindy, her husband Joe, and their daughter Wallis) that season the gray and white backdrop. As the late-day sun sneaks in, highlighting studied vignettes, Cindy explains how their Georgian at the corner of Tradd and Church came to be an oasis of clean lines and crisp neutrals.

Though Joe hails from Boston, both he and Cindy were longtime Manhattan residents. For his part, Joe spent 30 years with Elizabeth Arden, a career that began in his native New England as a regional salesman and culminated with 17 years as worldwide president and C.E.O. of the company. As for Cindy, she raised Wallis while also working with a designer friend to fashion homes into magazine-worthy material. Focusing on the subject du jour, she says décor quickly “became a passion.”

In 1993, the Ronchettis were in need of a lifestyle change and sought a new place to settle close to Cindy’s parents, who had moved to Hilton Head back in the mid-1970s. They chose an 8,000-square-foot Italianate island manse near her family, a home with limestone columns and a 35-foot-long living room, and filled it with warm Tuscan colors and luxe touches like a baby grand piano, Aubusson rugs, and more. When the house was complete, they began looking for a pied-a-terre in a getaway town—that’s when Charleston’s South-of-Broad neighborhood beckoned.

“In New York City, you can walk everywhere, and Charleston is the same way,” explains Cindy of the early appeal. “That’s why we were attracted to this neighborhood; it’s close to everything—stores, museums, the water. A walking city is the kind of place my husband and I like to be.” (Plus, the proximity to her parents was a little more practical than the Napa Valley locale they’d also considered.)

The couple leased a house on Elliot Street for six months, during which time Cindy says she fell in love with the community and relished the “wonderful friendships” she’d developed locally. Emotional attachment pushed them to renew the Elliot Street contract for six months longer, and the pair began the hunt for a house of their own.

“When we first walked in here,” says Cindy, “I said, ‘My goodness, this has so much potential!’ It’s a corner property and elevated, so we have plenty of light. And there are plenty of historic properties to admire from the windows,” she adds, of the surrounding tableau: the stuccoed walls of a neighboring home, the canopy of oak trees on Church Street, and Bishops Cap chimneys here and there. “Also,” adds Cindy, “it was brick, and to live in Charleston with a brick or stucco house is a low-maintenance plus.”

At First Pass

The initial walk-through of the early-1900s home revealed a yellow color scheme, green grasscloth on the kitchen walls, wooden Victorian mantels, a carved arch between the living and dining rooms, and six-foot doors with transoms. The kitchen had been updated by prior owners, in granite, stainless steel, and pristine white cabinets (all done very well, notes Cindy). Upstairs, the three bedrooms were linked both to each other and the hallway, which meant there were doors at every turn. The entire place, not including the full basement, measured 2,600 square feet; in other words, nearly three houses like this one could fit in their Hilton Head home.
“But,” says Cindy, “being a city dweller for all those years really makes you learn to make every little inch count.” And the modest “closet designer” was more than up to the task. “I really wanted a contemporary look in an old setting,” she says. “I wanted it to surprise and I wanted it to be peaceful overall because it’s a small house, thus I didn’t think we needed to put a lot of color or furniture in any one room.”

Clean Sweep

Because the house was sound, Cindy’s architectural touches were superficial, for the most part. (The foundation dates back to the 1800s, but due to the Great Earthquake of 1886, and a fire, too, the current house is dwelling number three, raised in later years as a clapboard home, then bricked over in the 1950s to ensure stability and improve fire resistance.)

Cindy took out most of the transoms, inserting eight-foot doors in place of the old ones, and replacing the trim and hardware as well. She stained the wooden floors ebony and covered them sparingly with seagrass rugs and runners. She traded an ornate arch between the living and dining rooms for a more streamlined version and swapped slate mantels for the existing wooden ones throughout the house. Upstairs, she ended the connect-a-room door configuration, making one room a guest space and the middle room an airy sitting area that’s now part of the master suite. She added interior shutters, some solid panels and others plantation-style with louvers four and a half inches wide. When the walls throughout went gray (two separate shades offset with a glossy white trim), “That just did it for me,” says Cindy. “After that, everything inside them fell into place.”

Set Dressing

As for décor, much of what’s here has been recycled from the Ronchettis’ former homes—either elements culled from storage or things shopped from one house to feed another. “I believe in keeping what you have and just placing it differently,” says Cindy. “By creating new vignettes, the elements can look even better.” To that end, she reshaped and recovered the older upholstered pieces in various neutral shades of fresh-faced linen, all sourced from Midsummer Common. The sofa, for instance, went from being a warm, sleek silk couch to a cool, overstuffed white linen affair.

The dining room table is a favorite from their Manhattan apartment, and the late- 1800s rock crystal chandelier came from Hilton Head; the Dan McCaw still-life over the mantel last wore an elaborate gold frame when it hung in a prior house, but now it’s a bare-edged canvas in keeping with its current modern surroundings. Here and there, new touches spring up, like the hand-hewn iron canopy bed in the guest room, and the master bed headboard, which Cindy designed herself to fit the space and fade into the muted setting.

“Stylizing this house,” says Cindy, three years after she first took it on, “was the most fun I’ve ever had on a home. And of all our past residences, I’m most thrilled with this one,” she grins. As for the 8,000-square-foot number south of town? The Ronchettis warmed to their diminutive Charleston sister so much, they now live here full-time. “We like our comfortable house,” says Cindy, thoroughly settled and satisfied. “We’re happy here.”