At Ease at a South Carolina Beach Hideaway

Time slows to a different pace on South Carolina’s Edisto Island, from the moment one crests the bridge, fifteen miles or so before reaching the beach. As the two-lane National Scenic Byway roves past eighteenth-century white-frame churches, oak-lined horse paddocks, King’s Farm Market, and the old-school shrimp shack Flowers Seafood Co., all that’s tense unwinds like the salty creeks spooling off in curlicues across an endless expanse of marsh. Priorities winnow down to tossing a cast net for shrimp and shucking an oyster. “It feels frozen in time,” says Amy Pastre, a Charleston-based brand strategist and a cofounder and creative director of the design agency SDCO Partners. “Like you’re worlds away from Charleston, though it’s only an hour.”

Pastre began visiting the island years ago with her husband, David, whose boss had a beach cottage there. The Pastres would invite along their close friends—Amy’s SDCO business partner, Courtney Rowson, and her husband, Carter—and they too fell for Edisto’s low-key allure. Before long, the four began thinking about a beach house of their own. “We loved Edisto’s understated quality,” Rowson says. “It’s so easygoing and comfortable here.” Pastre adds, “At home our work and our lives are all about going to the latest Charleston restaurant or attending events, but here it’s just about being together.” When the couples first walked into the circa-1950s cottage with its original cypress paneling and cozy beadboard bedrooms right across the street from the ocean, they knew they’d found the perfect distillation of Edisto’s charms.

Even for two creatives who’ve built a thriving business retooling and refining other people’s brands and logos, the cottage’s existing moniker was hard to improve: “At Ease” pretty much sums it up. “It truly had that natural character,” Pastre says of the home, which has one central living area with two bedrooms and a bath on either side: an ideal fit for two families, each with two kids about the same ages.

They did, however, employ their knack for storytelling to amp up the cottage’s vintage verve. Old nautical flags from an Atlanta antique store signal smooth sailing in one of the children’s bedrooms, while a collection of framed paint-by-numbers add folksy nostalgia to another. A mishmash of wrought iron, brass, and wood bed frames all dressed in simple whites feel as if they’ve paraded right out of Grandma’s storage unit. In the living area, a narrow wood dining table encourages post-meal conversation, and an assortment of wicker, rattan, and upholstered sofas and chairs welcome sandy feet and wet bathing suits. Even the furnishings, many of which conveyed with the house, are fully “at ease”—nothing looks matchy-matchy, but everything melds.

“The beauty of this cottage is that no one had messed it up,” Rowson says. “No one ever painted the cypress ceilings and walls or removed the beadboard.” And while the Pastres and Rowsons added exterior cedar shingles, a culinary-grade kitchen, and fresh but retro renovations in the bathrooms, their updates retained the cottage’s pared-down appeal. “The house just feels good to us,” Rowson says. “It’s collected and eclectic, and has this baked-in story, this sense that memories have been made here for decades. We’ve just edited and added to that narrative in a big way.” They hunted down vintage sailing and fishing photos—hung casually, as if they could be Hemingway’s family gallery, in a bedroom hallway—and scoured eBay and thrift stores for old portraits and paintings. They layered in seashells, a collection of ships-in-bottles, a dusty yacht club bylaws book, and other maritime ephemera that “seem like they would belong here,” Rowson says. “That beautiful cypress has the feel of a ship’s woodwork.”

Photo: PETER FRANK EDWARDS

Custom cups by SDCO are the perfect happy-hour addition.

As for creating their own memories, the two families enjoy weekends and holidays together on Edisto, and also come down on their own, inviting other friends. The offseason in fall and winter is a favorite time. “It’s even quieter down here,” Pastre says. “We light a big fire, linger over coffee and a big breakfast. The boys might go fishing at Botany Bay. Someone’s working on a puzzle or playing backgammon, the girls are doing a paint-by-number.” Meanwhile a taxidermy jackrabbit keeps watch from over the bar—a gift from good friends who’ve stayed with them and appreciate the cottage’s quirky mélange. Another friend donated beachy black-and-white photos from her attic to the house’s art collection, knowing they would fit. “It’s cool to see how others chime in and add to our narrative,” Pastre says. “It speaks to the spirit of the cottage,” Rowson adds. “It’s a place we love sharing with our family and friends.”