This Charleston Home Balances Southern Charm and Subtle Drama

For interior designer Lily Warren, Charleston’s rich architectural history has always felt like a personal invitation. So when she stepped into a weathered 1908 Colonial Revival just blocks from the Battery, she knew she had found a rare opportunity—not just to preserve history, but to write a new chapter within its walls. “It had good bones and bad wallpaper,” Warren jokes. “But I saw soul in every creak of those original floors.”

The 4,800-square-foot home had endured multiple renovations over the decades, many of which left behind remnants of 1980s minimalism and early-2000s coastal kitsch. But Warren wasn’t interested in erasing time; she wanted to thread each era into a narrative that felt both grounded and gently theatrical. The result? A home that feels like stepping into a Southern novel—one where texture, memory, and color are as important as the people who live there.

“My goal was to bring back its elegance without turning it into a museum,” Warren tells House Beautiful. “I wanted to reintroduce warmth and detail in a way that honored its roots, but also gave the family a space to really live.”

FAST FACTS

Designer: Lily Warren, Warren Interiors
Location: Charleston, South Carolina
The Space: 4,800-square-foot Colonial Revival home with four bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms
Built: 1908
Renovation Timeline: 11 months

FOYER

Where Warmth Meets Welcome

The original mahogany staircase was still intact—though dulled by decades of wear. Rather than refinish it to perfection, Warren embraced the patina and contrasted it with a modern pendant light by Visual Comfort and a vintage Persian runner that spills warmth onto the cool marble tile floor. “We kept the original transoms and just had them cleaned and resealed,” she says. “They’re imperfect and wavy, and I love them for that.”

A petite French antique console displays a rotating collection of brass candlesticks and ceramic vessels from local artist Eliza Talbot. “The foyer sets the tone,” Warren adds. “It tells you this home is about story—not perfection.”

LIVING ROOM

A Study in Understated Drama

The living room boasts soaring 11-foot ceilings, two original fireplaces, and a gracious bay window that floods the room with late-afternoon light. Warren leaned into a palette of moss green, ecru, and deep ink blue. The walls are painted in Mizzle by Farrow & Ball, a shade that shifts with the light. “It’s soft on a cloudy day, moody on a sunny one,” Warren says.

She used texture to deepen the palette: velvet armchairs from Lee Industries, a vintage linen sofa reupholstered in Schumacher’s ‘Hawthorn’, and a low, monolithic travertine coffee table that adds weight to the space. “I love mixing Southern softness with unexpected sculptural elements,” she explains.

Two oversized pieces by Charleston painter Maris Bell hang above the fireplace—florals, yes, but abstract and in moody pastels. “They soften the room while still making a statement,” says Warren.

DINING ROOM

History, Reframed

The original oak pocket doors between the dining room and kitchen were warped shut for years, but Warren had them painstakingly repaired and restored. “They’re now a centerpiece,” she says.

A custom oval dining table made of reclaimed pine anchors the room, surrounded by modern spindle-back chairs in matte black. Overhead, an antique lantern from a Savannah estate sale floats just above eye level—dim, romantic, and oddly perfect.

“I think people expect dining rooms to be stuffy,” Warren muses. “But I like them to feel like a warm pause. This one is quiet, grounded, and surprisingly fun at night.”

KITCHEN

Classic Lines, Contemporary Function

The kitchen was a full gut job—but Warren opted against the all-white trend. Instead, she paired lower cabinets in a custom sage green with cream-toned quartzite counters and unlacquered brass fixtures. “We wanted it to feel aged, like it had always been here,” she says.

Upper shelves are open, styled with vintage glassware and handmade pottery, while a dramatic, oversized range hood (plaster-finished) adds European flair. The floors? Original pine, painstakingly sanded and left slightly uneven on purpose. “They squeak when you walk,” she laughs. “It’s a Charleston lullaby.”

PRIMARY BEDROOM

A Soft Place to Land

The homeowners wanted their bedroom to feel serene, so Warren wrapped the space in a muted blue-gray grasscloth and layered the bed with Belgian linens, vintage kantha throws, and a dramatic olive velvet headboard.

A pair of antique Gustavian nightstands flank the bed, each topped with alabaster lamps found at a flea market in Asheville. “This room is all about rest,” says Warren. “Everything is quiet, hushed, like a whisper.”

The adjoining bathroom features a soaking tub beneath an arched window, with limestone floors and handmade zellige tiles from Morocco. It feels like a private sanctuary—rooted in old-world charm but made for long, modern evenings.

SUNROOM

Color, Light, and a Little Whimsy

Perhaps the most charming room in the house, the sunroom was once a neglected side porch. Now enclosed and insulated, it’s been reborn as a space for reading, tea, and Sunday morning crossword puzzles.

Rattan chairs mingle with an overstuffed settee upholstered in a leafy block print. The floor is hand-painted in a checkerboard pattern (Warren’s own design), and the windows are framed with linen café curtains that catch every breeze.

“I wanted one room that didn’t take itself too seriously,” Warren says. “This one makes people smile—and that’s important too.”

OUTDOOR COURTYARD

A Hidden Escape

Behind the home lies a small brick courtyard, shaded by crepe myrtles and hemmed with ivy. Warren added a built-in bench, a round concrete firepit, and vintage string lights to bring in just enough magic.

“Charleston evenings are made for slow conversations,” she says. “This space is for that.”

ABOUT THE DESIGNER

Lily Warren is the founder of Warren Interiors, a Charleston-based studio known for blending historic preservation with layered, emotionally rich design. She studied architecture in Savannah before turning her passion toward interiors, and her projects span historic townhouses, coastal bungalows, and weekend cottages across the Southeast. Her work is rooted in storytelling—always nostalgic, never predictable.