Rooms as Gracious as the South — Interior Decorating in Charleston, SC
Rutledge & Rowe decorates and styles gracious, layered, collected homes across Charleston — built on beautiful furnishings, fine textiles, and a warm Lowcountry sense of home.
Gracious Rooms Across the Lowcountry
A selection of the layered, collected homes we've decorated and styled across Charleston.
Homes That Feel Collected, Not Decorated
Rutledge & Rowe was founded on a distinction we hold dear: the difference between a home that looks decorated and one that feels collected. Anyone can furnish a room from a single catalogue. What we do is harder and warmer — we layer a home the way a life does, mixing beautiful antiques with new pieces, fine textiles with comfortable ones, colour and pattern used with a confident but gentle hand, and always a few collected things with a story. For sixteen years we've dressed the gracious homes of Charleston and the Lowcountry this way, from historic single houses south of Broad to breezy island retreats. We're decorators and stylists, not renovators — we work with the bones you have and make them sing, sourcing, arranging, and finishing a home down to the last cushion and candlestick. The result is a home that feels warm, layered, and gathered over generations, even when we bring it together in a single gracious season.
- ✓Collected and layered, never catalogue-decorated
- ✓Beautiful furnishings, antiques, and fine textiles
- ✓Colour and pattern used with a confident hand
- ✓A warm, gracious Lowcountry sense of home
How We Can Help
From dressing a whole home to styling a single gracious room.
Whatever the room, we'd love to help. Tell us about your home.
The Difference Sixteen Years Makes
Gracious decorating is a craft. This is what that craft brings your home.
Collected, Warm, and Layered
We dress a home the way a life does — antiques beside new pieces, soul in every corner, never a showroom.
A Discerning Sourcing Eye
Sixteen years of relationships with makers, dealers, and workrooms means furnishings and textiles you won't find anywhere else.
A Confident Hand With Colour
Colour, pattern, and texture used gently and well — the layer most people are afraid of, and where the magic is.
We Work With Your Bones
Decorators, not renovators — we make what you already have sing, no construction or upheaval required.
Every Detail, Handled
Sourcing, ordering, installation, and styling — we manage it all, down to the last cushion and candlestick.
A Warm Lowcountry Sensibility
A gracious, comfortable, unmistakably Southern sense of home that runs through everything we touch.
From First Visit to Final Cushion
A gracious, unhurried process — the way dressing a home should feel.
Consultation
We visit your home, learn how you live and what you love, and talk openly about scope and budget.
Design & Source
We develop the scheme — furnishings, textiles, colour, and collected pieces — and begin sourcing it all.
Order & Make
We place the orders and commission the custom drapery and upholstery, managing every workroom and dealer.
Install & Style
We place every piece and style every surface, handing back a home that feels gracious and complete.
Three Things We Believe
For a home that feels gracious and gathered, families across the Lowcountry trust Rutledge & Rowe.
Layered Beats Matched
The warmest homes aren't matched sets — they're gathered. We layer old and new, fine and comfortable, into rooms with soul.
Textiles Make the Room
Drapery, upholstery, and fine fabrics are where a room becomes gracious. We treat them as the heart of the work, not a finishing touch.
A Home Should Feel Like You
We never impose a look. We decorate around your life and your collected things, so the result is elegant and completely yours.
Warmth Lives in the Layers
Ask us what separates a gracious, soulful room from one that's merely furnished, and the answer is always the layering. It's the antique lamp beside the modern sofa, the worn leather beside the crisp linen, the collected painting over the new console, the trailing fern softening a corner, the three fabrics that shouldn't work together but absolutely do. This is the craft that catalogues can't teach and that most people are a little afraid of — and it's the whole heart of what we do. We layer with a confident, gentle hand, so a room feels rich and gathered yet calm and comfortable, never busy or precious. Nothing sits there just to fill space; everything earns its place and adds to the story. The result is a home that feels collected over generations — warm the moment you walk in, and lovelier the longer you sit and look. That's the art of it, and it's the difference a true decorator's eye makes.
- ✓Antiques and new pieces, layered with intention
- ✓Fine textiles that make a room want to be lived in
- ✓Collected objects with a story in every corner
- ✓Rich and gathered, yet calm and gracious
Words From Our Clients
We'd renovated our South of Broad home beautifully, and then it just sat there, empty and echoing, for a year — we had no idea how to make it feel like ours. Rutledge & Rowe transformed it in a few months. They sourced the most gorgeous furnishings and antiques, layered in textiles and colour and collected pieces, and turned a lovely-but-cold house into the warm, gracious home we'd dreamed of. Every guest asks who decorated it. Sixteen years of taste is evident in every room.
Rutledge & Rowe have the rare gift of making a home feel collected over generations, even when it comes together in a season. Our house is layered, warm, and full of soul — beautiful antiques beside things that are new, textiles that make you want to curl up, and not a single thing that looks like a showroom. It feels effortlessly, unmistakably like us. I could not recommend them more highly.
I've worked with decorators in New York and Atlanta, and Rutledge & Rowe are every bit as talented, with a warmth and a Lowcountry sensibility that's entirely their own. They furnished our Sullivan's Island house from top to bottom, managed every order and installation flawlessly, and delivered a home that is elegant, comfortable, and joyful. It's the loveliest home we've ever had.
Let's dress your home beautifully
Tell us about your home and the gracious, collected feeling you're after. Your first consultation is complimentary — and often where a house finally becomes a home.
Decorating Questions, Answered
What's the difference between decorating and interior design?
It's mostly about renovation. Interior designers often reconfigure spaces — moving walls, redoing kitchens and baths, changing the architecture. As decorators and stylists, we work beautifully with the bones you already have: furnishings, textiles, colour, art, and styling. If your home's layout works and you want it to feel gracious, warm, and collected, decorating is exactly what you need — and it's all we do, so we do it exceptionally.
Do you decorate a whole home, or just one room?
Either, gladly. Some clients bring us in to dress an entire home from top to bottom; others want a single gracious room — a living room that never came together, a primary bedroom that needs softening. We shape the engagement to your home and budget, and many clients start with one room and continue through the house over time as they fall in love with the process.
Do you source antiques and one-of-a-kind pieces?
Constantly — it's one of the joys of our work and one of our biggest advantages. Sixteen years of relationships with dealers, makers, and workrooms across the South and beyond means we can find the beautiful, characterful, and often one-of-a-kind pieces that give a home its soul. We blend those with new and custom pieces, so your home feels gathered over a lifetime rather than bought in an afternoon.
How is your pricing structured?
After an initial consultation we provide a clear proposal — a flat decorating fee based on scope, plus transparent tracking of all furnishing, textile, and sourcing costs in your budget. For smaller needs we offer hourly consultation. We talk numbers candidly from the first conversation, and we're happy to invest where it matters and save where it doesn't, so your budget goes beautifully far.
How long does decorating a home take?
It varies with scope and with the lead times on custom pieces. A single styled room might come together in a few weeks; furnishing a whole home with custom drapery, upholstery, and sourced antiques often runs several months. Beautiful things are worth a little patience. We give you a realistic timeline up front and keep you updated as pieces arrive and rooms come to life.
Do you work outside Charleston?
Charleston and the Lowcountry are our home — South of Broad to Mount Pleasant to the islands — but we regularly decorate homes throughout the coastal South and take on select projects further afield for the right fit. If you love our work and you're within reach, we'd be delighted to talk.
Book a Consultation With Rutledge & Rowe
Tell us about your home and the gracious, collected feeling you're imagining. We'll be in touch within one business day to arrange your complimentary consultation.
- Visit us48 Tradd Street, Charleston, SC 29401
- Call us(843) 555-0158
- Email ushello@rutledgeandrowe.com