A Boston family’s annual trips to the island evolved into this custom retreat where interiors exist in harmony with nature
The densely wooded lot posed a challenge that Cumulus Architecture & Design overcame by fitting the home in the spaces between, creating a tree house-like feel and softening the volume of the 5,500-square-foot home.
The beauty of the Lowcountry is easy to take for granted, but there are moments when it catches you by surprise: a spoonbill wading through the marsh while you walk the dog or a sunrise over the harbor as you cross the bridge. Then there’s Kiawah, where the landscape makes it nearly impossible to forget the splendor surrounding you. Along the winding road toward Ocean Park at the island’s eastern tip, marsh vistas open beside dense maritime forest, while dunes roll toward the Atlantic. It was this setting that captivated one family so completely that they abandoned a long-held family tradition to put down roots on the barrier island.
Noreen and Frank Britt had always traveled by one rule: never vacation in the same place twice. The world is too big, they told their three children—Tyler, Lexi, and Clayton. Over the years, the family checked off Alaska, Italy, Hawaii, the Caribbean, and a 14-day national parks tour through the Midwest. The system worked perfectly.
Then came Kiawah. In 2013, the couple visited on the recommendation of close friends, bringing along their three teenagers. Everyone fell in love with the island immediately. “There’s something for everybody—golf, biking, tennis, swimming, and the beach, not to mention the independence being in such a safe place afforded our kids,” says Noreen.
On the flight home, when the family would normally begin planning their next adventure, the children unanimously requested a return trip. “We reminded them of our rule, but they said, ‘Please, just again,’” Noreen recalls. “And that ‘again’ was again, and again, and again. We returned every year—it was hook, line, and sinker. It became our happy place.”
Eleven years—and one quietly retired family rule—later, that happy place has a permanent address in Ocean Park. Designed by Cumulus Architecture & Design, built by Bennett-McLuen Homes, and furnished by Jenny Keenan Design, the 5,500-square-foot residence embraces both the natural beauty that first drew the family south and the way they envision gathering there for years to come.
The path to building it, however, was anything but immediate. After that first visit, the Britts returned to Kiawah every summer, renting a different house each year while learning what worked best for them. “Our children would weigh in,” Noreen says. “‘I don’t understand why they have this space.’ ‘These light switches don’t make sense.’ It was very interesting to see them have opinions. So, when we got to the design process, it was a collaborative effort.”
Noreen and Frank—who are from New Jersey and New York, respectively, and met at Syracuse University—were drawn to Ocean Park for its openness and distinct character. They purchased a lot there in 2015, intending to build eventually. When a house went up next door making the Britts’ view their neighbor’s yard, Noreen devised a new plan: sell the lot and find another on the marsh side. Frank considered it unlikely, but to his surprise, she pulled it off.
The second lot offered exactly what Noreen had hoped for. “I never wanted to be on the ocean,” she says. “I love the view of the marsh. It changes all day long. The light, the birds, the tides going in and out; it’s never the same.” A bonus: the trees. “We specifically wanted a lot with more trees,” she says. “And this one had 20 live oaks. The most stellar one is the one in the back that we built around. We’re so grateful for the way it shapes the landscape.”
From the start, Noreen’s brief to the design team was clear. She wanted a home that could comfortably gather family across generations, including a bunk room for future grandchildren. An open-plan living area connecting seamlessly to a screened porch was essential, creating the indoor-outdoor flow so characteristic of Lowcountry living. Another priority: an office for Frank—the CEO of Aescape, a robotic and AI-powered wellness company—complete with extensive shelving for his ever-growing book collection. Above all, Noreen envisioned interiors that felt warm, contemporary, and timeless while celebrating the surrounding landscape.
Designing around 20 mature live oaks presented both a challenge and an opportunity for architects Robbie and Abby Lesslie. From the street, the house appears almost cottage-like, tucked discreetly within the wooded lot. The home gradually expands toward the marsh, with large windows and outdoor living spaces that embrace the views beyond. “Out of all the homes we’ve designed on Kiawah, this lot had the highest concentration of grand live oaks,” Robbie notes. The team carefully mapped the canopy with laser measurements to ensure the structure could fit among the trees. “The end result is the home feels almost like a tree house.”
Inside, expansive walls of glass frame marsh views on one side and dense greenery on the other. White-oak ceilings warm the open-plan main living area, where a floating staircase rises dramatically through the center of the home. Added late in the design process, the staircase became one of the project’s defining architectural elements. “It brings light down the stairs and creates a sculptural feature that lends excitement to the living spaces,” Robbie explains.
For Keenan, the interiors were always intended to complement—not compete with—the natural beauty outside. “We wanted to have your eye go there as soon as you walked in, and everything inside needed to work with the landscape around it,” she says. The resulting palette layers creams, rich browns, and warm wood accents, with muted blues, greens, and soft pinks throughout the smaller spaces.
In the living room, a fireplace with a fluted marble surround introduces texture, echoed in the detailing of the custom white-oak bar nearby. Wrapped in a geometric block-print wallpaper and lined with brass-railed glass shelving, the bar creates a special moment in the open-plan room. “I love the bar,” Keenan says. “It’s like a little jewelry box.”
Just off the great room is Frank’s office, drenched in a deep, calming blue and filled floor-to-ceiling with bookshelves. “It’s very moody and soothing all at once. It envelops you,” says Noreen. But the room’s best feature is hidden in plain sight. One section of the bookcase pivots open to reveal a concealed reading nook papered in an ethereal cloudscape mural. The space originally appeared on the plans as a closet before Noreen proposed transforming it into a secret retreat. “It’s a space where if my husband wants to actually escape and not have anybody bother him, he can hop in there and do that,” she says.
Her favorite small room is the butler’s pantry, painted a softer blue and finished with grasscloth walls and a small desk beneath the window. “When you have a big family and you’re constantly entertaining, it’s necessary to have a space like this,” she says. “And it includes my little office. The morning sunlight streams in there and makes me happy.”
At the center of the main floor is the kitchen, outfitted in white oak and natural stone, with a slab of marble for the island and a full wall of sliding glass doors opening onto the screened porch. During family gatherings, the boundaries between indoors and out nearly disappear. “Last Thanksgiving, when everybody was here, the doors were open for the entire five days that we had family,” Noreen says. “It created this massive space that was perfect.”
The primary suite, also located on the main level, faces the marsh. Early plans included his-and-hers closets in the hallway leading to the bedroom, along with a walk-in closet, but Noreen realized she preferred something more personal. Working with Keenan, she transformed the spaces into dressing nooks lined with sections of a botanical mural. “I saw this mural and loved its elements and color, and asked, ‘Can we just cut out what we want?’” The pieces Noreen chose became the basis for the bedroom’s soft palette. “It’s quintessential South Carolina: the birds, the flowers, the crescent moon. It is where we are.”
For the Britts, the Ocean Park home represents far more than a vacation retreat; it’s their own creation, designed around family gatherings and eventually retirement. “It’s beautiful and very functional,” Noreen says. “This is why people build, right?”
South Carolina has continued to draw the Britt family even closer. Tyler, the couple’s eldest son, and his wife, Brittany, recently moved to James Island and just welcomed the family’s first grandchild, Hadley. Their daughter, Lexi, will marry her fiancé, Brett, in Charleston next spring, and the youngest, Clayton, continues returning from San Francisco to enjoy Kiawah’s golf courses and family gatherings.
The Britts first came to Kiawah intending for it to be just another stop. Instead, it became the place they return to—again, and again, and again.
