Home of John & Laurie Stewart
{36 Chapin Circle, The Dunes Club}

If walls could talk, furnishings chat and floors whisper, you might well have to wear earplugs to tour the Stewart house.
Everything has a story.

Modeled after a 1786 home in Winnsboro, S.C., the Stewarts took a picture of it to architect Bill Pritchard 25 years ago and tasked him to design a new construction home that would immediately have a sense of history.

And then they proceeded to fill the give-or-take 3,200-square-foot abode with family keepsakes, original art, antiques, fine books and mementos to mark their travels and proud heritage.

Look to the stairway landing and there’s “Uncle Fred’s grandfather clock,” picked up in Japan “during the war,” hand-painted and inlaid with mother of pearl. Twin carved sleigh beds in the guest room came from Laurie’s grandmother. A solid wood farmer’s desk in the living room came from one of John’s agricultural ancestors. Two pristine Jacobean wood and cane chairs moved from Grandma’s foyer into the Stewart entrance hall.

A Civil War musket stands on duty over a doorway. A pair of Citadel swords becomes an accessory to the fireplace mantel. Primitive wood tables from John’s mother flank sofas in room after room.

And Laurie took in lifetimes of family heirlooms from artwork to ceramics to monogrammed silver cups. If no other family member claimed it, she brought it home.

Heads up history buffs and antique furniture lovers: Take your time on this stop on the tour to take it all in.

As John says with a joyful smile, “The only thing not inherited in this house is the house itself.”

Home of Tom & Norma Pegram
{322 Wildwood Dunes Trail, The Dunes Club}

You might say the Pegram family made a lateral move. At a time in their lives when health issues and lifestyle changes were imminent, the Pegrams traded in their multi-level home for a one story that included a suite addition for their daughter Ansley.

But they didn’t give up on square footage or style.

Built in 1961, the entire structure inches up on 5,000 square feet with Ansley’s newly renovated “daughter suite” taking up around 1,300 square feet.  

The two spaces needed their own identity and privacy, but to look and feel like they belonged together. That’s where interior designers John Gore and Susie Darrah of B. Graham Interiors came in.

Both Ansley and Susie “ugh” as they describe the former décor. “The whole addition was painted battleship gray. … The walls and shutters were gray, the carpet was gray. There was no oven and the bathroom was a total gut.”

All the carpet was replaced by wood floors and a creamy palette took over the gray. The back deck was also reworked to allow easy wheelchair access between the home and suite.

The main house had interesting features like a huge copper farm sink in the kitchen that piqued Norma’s eclectic interests. Norma’s aesthetic leans toward an Asian influence, but the Pegram collection of furnishings, art and sculptures spans the globe.

As you will see on this tour stop, the formal living/dining area is uber-artful in its design mashup of an antique French chest, real zebra skin rug, 1960s low-slung marble coffee table and dining walls covered in gold leaf cork.

“Now, we each have our own space that reflects our own individual tastes and styles,” says Ansley. “And I’m loving the reflection!”

Home of Jim & Brenda Cline
{26 Center Drive, Briarcliffe Acres}

The Cline home will give you an insider’s peek at a different side of Myrtle Beach. Off the busy main highway and into the woods of Briarcliffe Acres, you know the beach is only minutes away, but this place seems a world apart.

Shrouded by trees, the sprawling lots of pines and oaks and greenery could just as easily be a neighborhood set in the mountains. It smells earthy and is hushed from the din of traffic and mini-golf sound effects.

Designed by Jim’s brother, architect Gary D. Cline of Raleigh, built by Babb Custom Homes and with interior designer Lucy Emory Hendricks of Legacy Interiors, this two-story, Southern gentrified home is of a world all its own.

As soon as you walk through the front door, the stone fireplace wall of the porch grabs your attention from the opposite end of the house across the sightlines of the living room. Clad in tongue-and-groove cedar with airy phantom screening, you are at once inside the home but sensing the sights and smells of the outdoors.

In every aspect of its design, the house reflects the Clines’ refined tastes. There’s a wine room off the kitchen that’s filled with favorite vintages from Napa Valley. Unique pottery works from Earthborn Pottery in Alabama show up as a vessel sink in the powder room and as a decorative holder of wine corks and shells. A landscape painting by Paul B. Holtzclaw seems to be floating over a bronzed mirror above the living room fireplace and incredibly detailed wine art by Thomas Arvid raises a glass to their art collection.

This is an address on the tour to make note of architectural ideas, including unique window casings and the gamut of ceiling treatments from coffered and tray to whitewashed bead board with beams.

Tour Information:
The Art Museum’s 15th annual Spring
Tour of Homes to benefit the Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum

Saturday, March 7, 2015
10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tickets are $40 ($45 day of tour). A luncheon buffet will be offered at The Dunes Golf and Beach Club, 9000 N. Ocean Blvd., from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Tour of Homes ticket holders. Lunch tickets are $18 per person. Reservations are required. Call the Art Museum at (843) 238-2510.

Featured Homes
As of press time, the following homes were scheduled for the tour:

■ The Cline Home
26 Center Drive, Briarcliffe Acres

■ The Nardslico Home
7900 Beach Drive, Myrtle Beach

■ The Pegram Home
322 Wildwood Dunes Trail, The Dunes Club

■ The Shane Home
7846 San Marcello, Grande Dunes

■ The Stewart Home
36 Chapin Circle, The Dunes Club
 

Register to Win Two Tickets to the Art Museum Tour of Homes