Designer Aldous Bertram Refashions a Former Ballroom Into His Lively Charleston Home
Photo: Blake Shorter
In 1791, George Washington reputedly attended some sort of gathering in the sunny 17-by-30-foot ballroom that is now Aldous Bertram’s Charleston apartment. Then again, perhaps not. “I’m rather in love with that fact, but it’s not exactly a fact,” the tall and sprightly British-born decorator, artist, and author gingerly allows.
What has endured since that time, to Bertram’s delight, is the room’s neoclassical character, namely the recessed paneling, which he describes as “nice, naive, earlyish-pattern-book Colonial.” He’s also fond of the much later pressed-tin ceiling, adorned with rosettes and a central medallion, like that in a nearby church. “I think I could be happy here for ages.”
So says a man whose recent ports of call have included Palm Beach and the Bahamas, both periods spent working for designer Amanda Lindroth. Still, Charleston has captured Bertram’s fancy, so much so that he signed the apartment’s lease on the spot, before he was even ready to relocate. Now he’s gone into business for himself in the Holy City, whose colleges, tourists, and architecture remind him of Cambridge, England, where he was born and later earned a PhD from Trinity College. The subject? China’s impact on 18th-century English gardens and architecture.
His own decorative savvy, believe it or not, might just have found favor with the founding father, who, like Bertram, was fond of saturated colors, dynamic patterns, and Georgian furniture. “Every room can do with a big Georgian cabinet,”asserts the designer. Thus the Chinese Chippendale–style secretary that is a focal point of his living area, its shelves packed with “portable trinkets that make me happy,” among them Chinese ceramic foo dogs.
Most of Bertram’s furnishings have made their way from his previous addresses, some retaining their former appearance, others reinterpreted. Two demilune tables, once green, are now pale blue, just as some faux-bamboo armchairs have transitioned from brown to scarlet. “I’m very frugal and can’t throw anything away,” he says, adding, “You can do a lot with a fresh lick of paint.” He’s also a dab hand at recycling smart-looking tablecloths into cushions, curtains, or the like. And, Bertram explains, apropos a couple of armchairs found on Facebook Marketplace dressed in a deliriously pretty chintz, “I’m always game for something that’s old and on its last legs.”
Call it dégagé decorating. Smart stripes cozy up to confectionary florals. A vast printed Indian cotton stretches behind the bed. Paper flowers coexist with wicker urns sprouting real geraniums. And 17th-century architectural engravings cluster on the walls (though the cerulean frames exist sans glass, doing away with reflections and glare). The antique paneling, once cardboard-box beige, has been trimmed with Farrow & Ball’s Arsenic Green, a color that echoes the shutters of the house on the other side of the street. Inside the towering rattan canopy bed, curtained in another verdant tone, hangs a blue bird cage that houses a porcelain parrot. A molding on the pedimented fireplace proved to be just deep enough to display a collection of mignon obelisks made of semiprecious minerals.
“There is an English sensibility to this place: thrown together, seemingly over a long time, eschewing the American matching thing,” Bertram says of his decorative approach. Indeed, his one-room retreat feels a bit like a miniaturized version of a British country house inhabited by a magpie chatelain, albeit one with an inspiring ability to make magic out of the mundane.
Aldous Bertram’s home appears in AD’s November issue. Never miss a story when you subscribe to AD.
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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