By TERRI GLAZER • Photography by RORY DOYLE
This eclectic Greenwood home is layered with art, soul, and Southern style
“Shirley has a very unique style. She’s eclectic, and I’m always so impressed by her personal style and how cool her vibe is. I think her house really reflects her personal taste,” says Rebecca Touchstone. The interior designer and owner of Howard & Marsh Exchange in Greenwood says her longtime friend and client Shirley McNeer’s flair runs deep, from her wardrobe to her home and garden. “She knows who she is and what she likes.”
In fact, McNeer says of the Acadian-style house she has called home for nearly 20 years, “I had wanted this house for years. A friend of mine lived here before, and I always loved it. One day I drove by and saw it was for sale—so I bought it.”
She was just as certain about who she wanted by her side when it came to the interiors. “Rebecca and I were friends before she ever opened Howard & Marsh. She had done a friend’s home, and I already loved her work.”
About twelve years ago, McNeer enlisted Touchstone for the home’s first remodel. When it came time for a refresh last year, bringing her friend back was an easy decision. “We work together so well—we really click,” she says.
The most recent project created a lighter, brighter backdrop for McNeer’s collections and furnishings. Decisions were always a collaboration between the decorator and client, including the agreement to hold onto favorite pieces from the previous renovation, then incorporate new items to add even more interest.
The transformation started from the first step inside the front door, where a newly painted white brick wall holds a colorful abstract by Mississippi native Catron Wallace, one of McNeer’s favorite artists. Below the painting a white teak root console table adds a natural element to the vignette. “Shirley saw that in my store, and she loved it. It was originally natural wood. We wanted it to have a more contemporary look, so we thought, ‘Okay, a coat of paint can fix that,’” says Touchstone. More works from regional artists line the walls of the entryway, creating a gallery-like feel.
Just behind the brick wall, McNeer’s living room blends colors, patterns, and styles to create a vibe that’s artistic, eclectic, and comfortable. Even the walls are out of the ordinary—cypress paneling laid on the diagonal, and now bathed in white. From a pair of stylized wing chairs upholstered in Hermes orange velvet to a chippy painted cabinet under the television to twin gold-tone end tables that flank the sofa to a vintage coffee table with a natural travertine top, the space is filled with the unique and remarkable.
A striking new addition has transformed the living room, becoming an instant focal point thanks to both its scale and character. Touchstone explains how the piece found its place. “It’s an antique doorway from Asia. Shirley has always been drawn to a more bohemian aesthetic. She saw it at Howard & Marsh and immediately loved it. I thought, ‘Where can we put this—and how can we make it work?’”
The solution was to reimagine the doorway as a mirror, custom-fitted with glass and installed—no small feat—with the help of four men. “It was quite the challenge,” she says.
Surrounding the piece, a grouping of four parrot illustration giclée prints—purchased during the home’s first design phase—enhances the collected, global feel, while tiger motifs on accent pillows add another layer of exotic charm.
The atmosphere shifts to moody and intimate in the dining room. Deep blue-gray walls play up the cool tones of McNeer’s hammered-metal table and the icy blue of the linear capiz-shell chandelier above it. A pair of original abstract paintings by Charleston artist Vicki Wood makes a dramatic statement hung alone on the rear wall. Completing the space’s transformation is an elegant bar cabinet. Standing on graceful legs and with a mirror-backed main compartment, the piece lends an extra element of formality.
The revamped kitchen now exudes the same fresh and bright feel as the living room. A complete gut job wasn’t necessary, says Touchstone, to achieve the new look. All it took was drenching the formerly dark wood cabinets in white paint, installing new Taj Mahal quartzite countertops and backsplash, replacing the hardware and fixtures, and adding new accessories like a trio of metal-and-acrylic barstools from Howard & Marsh.
Adjacent to the kitchen, a cozy keeping room is home to the lion’s share of McNeer’s extensive collection of McCarty pottery. The nutmeg-brown treasures look as though they were made to go in the distressed cypress cabinet that holds them: their beauty stands out against the deep terra cotta of the cabinet’s back panel.
More than a mere backyard, McNeer’s screen porch and garden are an extension of her home and bear her singular style just as the rest of her house does. With brick floors and board-and-batten walls in a deep neutral, the porch has a distinctly Delta feel. A reclaimed cypress hutch adds to the rustic ambiance. Natural elements like teak and wicker outdoor furniture, a jute rug, and green plants mingle with colorful regional art. Various groupings of wind chimes, from McCarty’s iconic small white shells to an oversized metal set, provide subtle music when a breeze blows through.
Soothing sounds also come from the movement of water in the backyard fish pond. Across a multi-level wood deck from the screen porch, vibrant goldfish bring color and a sense of serenity to the scene. Shaded by a large tree and surrounded by a lush assortment of flowering plants and ferns, the backyard oasis feels secluded and zen-like.
In a house filled with unique and personal treasures that she loves, McNeer says the porch and backyard are her absolute favorites. “We live right here,” she says, standing on the porch. “It’s perfect. The back door stays open, and the dogs come and go.”
It’s no wonder Shirley McNeer loves her outdoor paradise and the rest of her home. Comfortable, beautiful, and filled with an eclectic melange of one-of-a-kind furnishings and art she’s spent a lifetime collecting, it tells her personal story. It came to be thanks to her adventurous sense of style and with a little help from a talented designer friend who guided the process of translating her client’s personal panache into her surroundings.
