Bluff Plantation

This house is based on the traditional "Beaufort T" Style house. The ancient oak alley just needed a nice big house at the end.

Crosby Residence Dog Trot

The Crosby's dog trot is true to the traditional form of two pens and a passage. The foyer is the dog trot with the master bedroom to the left and the great room in the "pen" on the right. The foyer has a custom gate in the front with a similarly detailed folding wall on the back. The entire house opens to a large terrace and swimming pool that overlooks tidal marshes and creeks. The large outdoor living space has a full outdoor kitchen and retractable screens. All photographs by John McManus

Outdoor Fireplaces

This is a post on some of our favorite outdoor fireplaces. This fireplace shares a chiminey with two interior fireboxes and one other exterior firebox. This cozy screen porch is perfect for cool fall and winter evenings.

A rice mill chimney was the inspiration for the form of this outdoor fireplace. It is connected to a small building with a screen porch on the lower floor with a fireplace and an office on the second floor.

This was the first house we designed when we moved to Beaufort 21 years ago. This fireplace has a grill on the upper level right outside the kitchen.

This small side porch is perfect for an evening meal.

Another rice mill inspired chimney. This is one of three outdoor fireplaces in this house.

This is the second of three fireplaces. This sleeping porch is complete with a murphy bed. The owners say they sleep out here most of the time.

The third outdoor fireplace in the house is actually a pizza oven.

The family room addition to the historic house created a wonderful opportunity for an outdoor fireplace.

Outdoor spaces

These are some of my favorite outdoor spaces that we have designed over the past twenty years. The fireplace to the left was designed for our first clients in Beaufort in 1989. We couldn't imagine the popularity that outdoor fireplaces would become. The cable porch railings are great because they don't block your view to the water. Large screened porches can allow you to open your house almost year round in our temperate climate.