Suddenly, Greenville, South Carolina, seems to be the city on everyone’s lips. But its recent surge in popularity certainly didn’t happen overnight. Nurtured over decades of careful urban planning, the city’s downtown has steadily revitalized, inviting boutiques, art galleries and eateries into the industrial vestiges of its textile-industry past. Today, Main Street fizzes with activity on dining patios, walking trails and the gracefully engineered single-suspension pedestrian Liberty Bridge, all embracing the master-planned Falls Park at the city’s heart.
The beautification of this popular urban center proves the power of design to transform the identity of places and spaces. It was largely that principle that governed the creation of one couple’s new condominium there, found at Camperdown Plaza in downtown’s vibrant core. Enticed from classic suburbia (they also have a weekend home on nearby Lake Keowee), the pair hoped to transform their initially nondescript unit into something “homey, modern and befitting the energy of the city,” the wife describes. As avid hosts, they “also wanted an intimate place to have friends over for cocktails before dinner or a Broadway show at the Peace Center,” the husband continues.
Home Details
Architecture
Mitch Lehde, MHK Architecture
Interior Design
Cynthia Masters, Panageries
Home Builder
Larry Myers, Inéo Builders
Styling
Thea Beasley
The couple—who share a teen son and a daughter in her 20s—turned to residential designer Mitch Lehde and interior designer Cynthia Masters to add comfort and custom details. Aiming to balance the unit’s existing concrete and steel, they took “a softer, more organic and textural approach,” Masters notes. Rich alder wood millwork now brings dimension to walls, doors and storage cabinetry right from the front threshold, where an elongated entry hall with a low ceiling helps carve out a sense of arrival. As Lehde explains, this space “creates a compression point that then releases” guests into the sunlit great room, where floor-to-ceiling windows reveal views of office towers, restored red-brick industrial buildings and the tree-covered foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains beyond.
Realized by general contractor Larry Myers, this extra layer of alder millwork serves as the apartment’s defining feature, camouflaging the kitchen’s appliances and pantry, gracing bespoke bookcases and more. The custom casework even extends to a wet bar Masters accented in industrial style, integrating hand-forged iron cabinets by local artisan Daniel Marinelli complemented with frosted-glass details. Enhanced by an antiqued mirror backsplash, the vignette offers a subtle nod to Camperdown Plaza’s past life as a 19th-century textile mill.
Rich finishes and bespoke features envelop this Greenville, South Carolina condo.
Breaking up the abundance of rich wood throughout, stone specimens in lighter, cooler tones add contrast. Slabs of inky San Simone marble tumble down the powder room’s walls and vanity, accenting its fluted wood cabinetry; white Macaubas quartzite clads the kitchen’s countertops and backsplash; and bookmatched graystone inlays the primary bedroom’s bespoke alder wood platform bed. “We actively tried to repeat materials and motifs, so all spaces in the home would flow together and feel connected,” Masters shares.
But the apartment’s fusion of wood and stone reaches a grand crescendo in the midcentury-inspired great room, where an integrated alder wood media unit helps furnish “everything the clients could ever need for entertaining in one large, open space,” the designer says. Here, Masters composed a genteel atmosphere using plush seating, including a clean-lined sofa and tufted armchairs that swivel for ease of conversation. “We made sure to juxtapose the rectilinear elements with soft curves, so arrangements never feel stiff,” she notes. Emphasizing comfort are touchable upholstery textiles such as mohair velvet, leather and bouclé. All look debonair in cocktail-hour shades like cognac, smoky gray and peacock blue (the wife’s favorite hue). Throughout, a sophisticated lighting scheme by Kerry Penwell deepens the apartment’s layered ambience, accentuating its interior architecture while bathing gathering areas in an amber glow.
Seen straight ahead from the entry hall and found just a step beyond the kitchen, an open-air terrace extends the living space, allowing the family to savor downtown’s sights and sounds from sunup to sundown. From their bird’s-eye view, the owners catch regular firework displays exploding over Fluor Field baseball stadium, gaze at the cascades of Reedy River Falls and witness the turn of the surrounding trees to autumnal color. A year-round calendar of festivals fulfills their zest for life, as do frequent cocktail parties with friends. Concludes the wife: “We love that we can feel the energy of the city along with the peace of the mountain views, but that we’re also above all of it.”
A trickling fountain by Concrete Canvas softens the city sounds on the terrace, which is floored with Tesoro’s Craft porcelain in Yarn from Clayton Tile. Miramar armchairs sit alongside a Mesa side table and coffee table—all made of weather-ready teak by RH.
In the great room, a fireplace of Aquabella quartzite from Ciot fits snugly within surrounding custom alder wood cabinetry by Americraft, Inc. Lee Jofa’s Menger Velvet and Kravet’s Windsor Mohair swathe the swivel chairs and sofa, respectively. Noir’s Tamela Stool stands between.
Counter stools covered in Jerry Pair Leather’s Incredibull in Cork sidle up to a kitchen island capped with Ciot-sourced white Macaubas quartzite. The same material clads the countertops, backsplash and hood. The iron display cabinets are by Daniel Marinelli Studios.
Extra-fine arrowroot grass cloth by Phillip Jeffries lends tactility to the walls of the study, where Eames lounge chairs by Herman Miller flank Wildwood’s Homer Lamp atop Bernhardt’s Benson Side Table. Visual Comfort & Co.’s Anette Picture Lights illuminate the bookshelves.
San Simone marble from Ciot cascades down the powder room wall and surrounds its Kohler undermount sink, which also features Brizo’s Levoir faucet. Instead of hanging in the expected spot above the sink, the mirror is integrated into bespoke cabinetry by Americraft, Inc.
A trickling fountain by Concrete Canvas softens the city sounds on the terrace, which is floored with Tesoro’s Craft porcelain in Yarn from Clayton Tile. Miramar armchairs sit alongside a Mesa side table and coffee table—all made of weather-ready teak by RH.
Boasting an inlaid panel of Ciot-sourced graystone, a custom Americraft, Inc. alder wood platform bed coordinates with the fluted wood base of Baker’s Aemilius Bench, underscoring the condo’s rich material palette. Sherwin-Williams’ Alabaster coats the walls.
Rich finishes and bespoke features envelop this Greenville, South Carolina condo.