(2020) My Experience In Charleston, South Carolina
Welcome to Charleston, South Carolina
If you told me I could have a dinner reservation anywhere in the world, I’d choose a table for 1 in Charleston.
Not just for the delicious, melt-in-your-mouth food, but for the people, the ambience, the sunsets, the weather, and more.
I’ll watch the sunset change the colors of downtown Charleston while ordering anything off the menu from Slightly North on Broad Street.
I appreciate the people of Charleston because they know how to live. They sit lazily at night, under the warm glow of string lights, with their feet up on the railings and heads to the sky, taking in the cool sea breeze from the ocean (with a whiskey neat, in hand).
Where do I see myself in 5 years? Sitting where they are.
Are you getting the impression that Charleston was my favorite stop of 2020? You would be correct.
The Charleston Skies Are A Miracle
I thought it was an anomaly that the sunset looked the way it did on my first evening in Charleston. I thought I had stumbled upon something unique and wonderful.
Come to find out, sunsets like these are a gift Charlestonians receive daily. Their awe-inspiring nature helped me understand why the city got its nickname.
Technically, Charleston is known as the Holy City because it has steeples for as far as the eye can see, as well as being a religiously tolerant city.
... and there were a few miracles that did happen during my stay in Charleston. One of which was staying in the home of Susan Sully, an author who is best known for being the expert on Southern interior style. She has been called the “grande dame of Southern style.”
Who hit the jackpot? That’d be me.
Meet Susan Sully
Photo courtesy of SusanSully.com
“Susan Sully is the author and photographer of many books about architecture and design published by Rizzoli International Publications and The Monacelli Press, including Charleston Style, Savannah Style, Casa Florida, The Southern Cottage, The Southern Cosmopolitan, Houses with Charm, and Past Present: Living with Heirlooms and Antiques.
Sully has also co-authored and photographed books with leading American design professionals including Bobby McAlpine (The Home Within Us and The Poetry of Home), Susan Ferrier (Art of the House), Ken Tate (A Classical Journey), Jim Strickland of Historical Concepts (Coming Home), Norman Askins (Inspired by Tradition), and Phoebe Howard (The Joy of Decorating).
A graduate of Yale University with a degree in art history, Sully has contributed articles to The New York Times, Town & Country Travel, Veranda, Southern Accents, Southern Living, and other publications.
She lives in Charleston, South Carolina.”
You know Susan is the expert on Southern-style when you enter her home, which I was lucky enough to stay at during my visit to Charleston.
There are woven textiles, antique old pocket watches nonchalantly lying around, beautiful artwork, and books that appear to be centuries old.
She has elegantly mixed modern and classic styles together in one space.
It’s a Small World After All
The saying “it’s a small world” is often used when two strangers find out they grew up in the same city. Coincidence!
In my case, meeting Susan felt more like fate than happenstance. I found out that Susan not only grew up in the same neighborhood as my mom and the rest of the McKinley family but that she also knew my grandfather, Bill McKinley.
I suppose the odds of this happening are greater when you’re in the Holy City?
“And Thus The Shabby Becomes Chic”
In line with Susan’s words, check out these beautiful antiques that I stumbled upon at an estate sale. Would you just look at those beautiful pieces? From teacups to gold pocket watches.
Susan introduced me to the concept of Southerners being a group of resilient people. Seeing as the South was wrecked during the Civil War, people had to learn to reuse, make due, and mend.
A war-torn region understands the meaning of mending something back to life. The resilient embrace the wear and weave the destruction into their history.
When something is damaged but cannot be replaced, you fix it and retell the story of how it was damaged, and the mess becomes reborn as yet another story to be moved into another home and to be shared with another generation.
I love Susan’s quote on the subject –– “and then the shabby became chic”.
This is what makes Southern style so interesting and “eclectic”. It’s a combination of the antique French chair (that’s been mended 10 times over), coupled with some fun Target pillows, heirlooms, a painting of your great aunt from her Debutant era, and more.
The mixture of classic and modern styles give a room character.
“If opportunity doesn’t knock build a door”
- a quote I read and fell in love with somewhere in South Carolina.
Meeting Susan couldn’t have come at a better time. She re-inspired me that my decision to take a leap (leaving my corporate job in search of a new chapter) was the right decision. She speaks from experience, seeing as she took a similar gamble when she originally moved down to Charleston to become an author.
“I decided that I was a writer. I was writing all these grants and writing for other writers to write, that’s when I realized, I need to take a leap and do this for myself. I told myself, once I finish this ream of paper, I’ll be a writer.”
And she did, and she was, and now she has fully emblazoned me and my path forward. Thank you, Susan!