The Hodgepodge House

TO MAKE SENSE OF HER QUIRKY NEW HOME, DESIGNER TAYLOR HILL WASHED THE INTERIOR WITH WHITE PAINT AND THEN LAYERED IN HER CHARACTER-FILLED COLLECTIONS

- CAMERON BEALL

WHILE SHINY AND NEW often reign in this day and age, Charleston, South Carolina, designer Taylor Hill prefers to stick with more storied items-including the 1950s ranch she and her husband bought when moving from Greenville back to the Holy City, where she first started her design career. She was immediately drawn to this funky old place beneath live oaks on James Island. "I thought, I've never seen anything like this anywhere.' It's super weird, and at first it was pretty scary, but I knew that beyond the mess-I could make it work," Taylor says. "It was hot pink on the outside with a hodgepodge of shades of white inside and lots of materials cobbled together in a way that reminded me of Swiss Family Robinson." The designer was excited by the creative challenge, including a 45-foot-long main living space (shown at top right), anchored by a roomheight bookshelf built from old wooden trusses, a wall of windows, ceilings ranging from 9 to 25 feet tall, concrete floors, and a slew of other unique features.