Grand Entrance Among the Oaks | Charleston, SC

A curved stucco wall and Savannah grey steps that look like they were always there, built under live oaks with an arborist watching every dig.

The front of this Charleston home rises from the street behind an old retaining wall. We built a new one beside it, stucco over block with a brick cap, and shaped it to sweep into the existing wall so the two read as one. Brick steps in Savannah grey climb the wall to the house, the reclaimed brick you see all over old Charleston.

From the top of the steps, a bluestone walkway in full-range color, from blue-grey to rust, leads to the porch inside a brick border. Down at the street, the driveway and the entrance apron are salt-void concrete, and the apron is scored in a diamond pattern that gives the arrival its own moment. Gas lanterns flank the entry; we ran the gas lines and set the fixtures ourselves.

The live oaks set the rules for all of it. An arborist and the landscape architect were involved throughout, and every dig near the roots was done with care, so the trees came through the project healthy.

The planting was designed to feel settled under the oaks from the first season: sweetgrass and agapanthus for movement and bloom, ferns and mondo grass for the shade, and Japanese maples, lady palms, a windmill palm and saw palmetto to give the beds height and structure, with perennials for color through the year. The lawn is artificial turf, which stays green under the oaks all year, and irrigation keeps the beds watered without anyone thinking about it.

After dark, landscape lighting takes over, so the entrance works at night the way it does by day.