The Memoire Guide
to Charleston
A city of storied architecture, hidden gardens, beautiful interiors, and unmistakable Southern charm. Our guide to experiencing Charleston through the lens of design.
Charleston is a city best discovered slowly. Behind its colorful facades and wrought-iron gates are quiet courtyards, lush gardens, beautifully layered interiors, and centuries of architectural detail waiting to be noticed.
It is a place where history is not confined to museums. It lives in the architecture, the gardens, the materials, the food, and the rhythms of everyday life.
For anyone who loves design, Charleston offers endless inspiration. Painted shutters meet weathered brick. Climbing vines soften formal facades. Antiques coexist comfortably with contemporary art. Porches become rooms of their own.
This is our Charleston: a collection of places, details, and experiences that capture the beauty of a city where good design and gracious living have always gone hand in hand.
“ In Charleston, beauty is rarely announced.
More often, it is discovered. ”
Begin With a Walk
Charleston rewards wandering.
Begin south of Broad and allow the streets themselves to become the itinerary. Look beyond the grand facades and notice the smaller details: fanlights above doors, intricate ironwork, painted shutters, brick pathways, climbing jasmine, and glimpses of gardens through partially opened gates.
The city’s celebrated single houses are particularly distinctive. Their narrow profiles and side porches, traditionally known as piazzas, were designed in response to Charleston’s climate and have become an enduring part of the city’s architectural identity.
There is inspiration almost everywhere, but much of it appears in the spaces between the landmarks.
Color, Texture
& Patina
Charleston offers a master class in combining color with materials that only become more beautiful with age.
Haint Blue
Soft, atmospheric blues overhead.
Garden Green
Magnolia, palmetto, ivy, and boxwood.
Warm Plaster
Quiet neutrals softened by age.
Old Brick
Warm, weathered, and imperfect.
Where to Stay
In a city as atmospheric as Charleston, where you stay should feel like part of the experience.
We gravitate toward hotels that capture a sense of place: thoughtful interiors, beautiful gardens, intimate courtyards, and spaces that feel collected rather than overly designed.
The Dewberry
The Dewberry is Charleston’s answer to understated, design-driven luxury. Its sophisticated mid-century aesthetic, custom furnishings, warm woods and beautifully considered details give it a distinctive point of view. It feels refined and fashionable without being overly formal, making it particularly appealing for design lovers.
Discover →Zero George
Zero George is discreet, residential luxury at its best. Set within restored historic residences and carriage houses surrounding private courtyards, it feels more like being invited into an impeccably designed Charleston home than checking into a traditional hotel. The small scale and secluded atmosphere make it especially intimate.
Discover →Hotel Bennett
Hotel Bennett delivers classic Charleston glamour on a grand scale. Overlooking Marion Square, the hotel blends European-inspired elegance with Southern hospitality, with lavish interiors, marble detailing, a rooftop pool and the jewel-box-like Camellias champagne lounge. It feels polished, celebratory and unapologetically luxurious.
Discover →
Where to Eat
Charleston’s food culture is inseparable from the city itself. History, seasonality, hospitality, and a strong sense of place come together around the table.
Our favorite dining experiences are the ones where the setting is as memorable as the meal: intimate rooms, garden courtyards, beautifully set tables, and restaurants that understand atmosphere matters.
Wild Common
A Michelin-starred tasting-menu experience with creative, contemporary cooking and beautifully executed presentation, making it one of Charleston’s most elevated special-occasion dinners
Discover →FIG
A Charleston institution centered around seasonal Lowcountry ingredients and exceptional seafood, with a refined yet relaxed atmosphere that has kept it one of the city’s most sought-after reservations for more than two decades
Discover →Vern's
An intimate Michelin-starred neighborhood restaurant known for sophisticated seasonal cooking and a stylish, understated atmosphere that feels very insider Charleston
Discover →For the Design Lover
Shopping in Charleston is best approached with the same curiosity as exploring its streets.
Seek out the places that feel individual: antique shops, galleries, independent boutiques, decorative arts, textiles, books, and objects that could only have been discovered here.
The best souvenir is rarely something that says Charleston on it. It is something that reminds you of Charleston every time you see it.
Hill House Home
A beautifully designed King Street boutique known for its romantic, feminine fashion and lifestyle aesthetic, with the added charm of Nell’s, the brand’s first in-store food and beverage concept.
Discover →Goldbug Collection
A playful, distinctly Charleston jewelry boutique featuring Lowcountry-inspired pieces and personalized designs, created by a fourth-generation member of the family behind Croghan’s Jewel Box.
Discover →Madison Mathews:
A Charleston-designed fashion brand known for effortless cotton and linen pieces, particularly its colorful block-print dresses that capture an elevated Southern resort style.
Discover →
What Charleston
Gets Right
The most beautiful Charleston interiors rarely feel new or overly coordinated. Old and new coexist. Natural materials soften formal architecture. Color appears alongside patina. Gardens become extensions of the home. The result feels collected, personal, and lived in.
Architecture, Gardens & History
Some of Charleston’s greatest design lessons are found outside shops and restaurants entirely.
Historic houses offer a glimpse into centuries of architecture and decorative arts. Gardens reveal the relationship between structure and landscape. Churches, gates, courtyards, piazzas, and preserved streets provide an extraordinary catalog of materials, proportions, colors, and details.
Give yourself time to actually look. The inspiration is often in a doorway, a garden wall, a painted ceiling, or the way a vine has grown around an iron gate.
Historic Architecture
Explore the streets south of Broad and notice the details that make Charleston’s architecture so distinctive.
Hidden Gardens
Charleston’s intimate gardens demonstrate how even small outdoor spaces can feel layered, romantic, and transporting.
Historic Homes
Step inside preserved houses to discover architecture, decorative arts, and centuries of Charleston design history.
The Waterfront
Charleston’s relationship with the water is essential to understanding the character, climate, and history of the city.
Bring Charleston Home
The best travel inspiration is not about recreating a place literally. It is about noticing the ideas that make it memorable.
Charleston offers plenty to borrow.
Mix formal architecture with relaxed furnishings. Allow natural materials to soften a room. Treat outdoor spaces as thoughtfully as interiors. Use color with confidence. Let antiques coexist with newer pieces. Choose objects because you love them rather than because they perfectly match.
Above all, allow a room to develop character over time.
The Art of
Southern Living
Embrace Patina
Not everything becomes more beautiful by looking perfectly new.
Layer Old & New
Rooms gain personality when different periods comfortably coexist.
Bring in Nature
Gardens, greenery, flowers, and natural materials soften formal spaces.
Use Color
Soft blues, greens, warm neutrals, and unexpected color give rooms life.
Add Woven Texture
Rattan and wicker introduce warmth and an unmistakable sense of ease.
Make It Personal
The most memorable spaces feel collected rather than decorated all at once.
A City to Remember
Charleston leaves an impression long after you leave.
Perhaps it is the contrast: grand architecture softened by unruly vines, formal rooms opening onto relaxed piazzas, centuries-old houses filled with the energy of modern life.
Or perhaps it is something less tangible. Charleston understands that beauty is often found in the accumulation of details, in objects that have acquired history, materials that show their age, and spaces designed not only to be admired, but enjoyed.
It is a city that reminds us of something we believe deeply at Memoire Design™: the most beautiful spaces are the ones that become part of our memories.
Until next time, Charleston.
The Charleston
State of Mind
Natural texture, graceful silhouettes, and pieces designed for rooms that feel collected over time.
Explore Woven Furniture →