Photo by Julia Lynn
Aldous stands in front of a plywood table he covered in blue-and-green marbled paper.
It all started when Aldous Bertram camped out on the front stoop of an old Charleston house for six hours, hoping the owner might show up. The affable, British-born designer and artist was living in Palm Beach at the time but scheming a move to Charleston, where he says the “walkability, British influence, and classical motifs” seemed better suited to his old-world affinities. “A friend sent me a Craigslist listing for a one-room apartment inside the house,” says Aldous. “I barely knew what Craigslist was!” But he did know he wanted to see the apartment.
Photo by Julia Lynn
Aldous decks the tree in ribbons to make up for his sparsity of ornaments.
Photo by Julia Lynn
Simple ribbons add festive flair around a red painted lantern. The room’s symmetry and impressive scale appealed to Aldous, who grew up in a similar Queen Anne-style home in England.
Photo by Julia Lynn
Aldous pieced together Lisa Corti tablecloths for his dining table. "The table rarely is used for its intended use," he says. “I don’t even have dining chairs.
With no replies from his repeated inquiries about the space, Aldous went old school DIY—in the same way he often does with his decorating—to meet the landlord in person. He waited on the front doorstep until the owner finally arrived and then sweet-talked his way in to see the apartment—and he signed a lease on the spot. “The bones were incredible,” Aldous says of the former ballroom in the 18th-century Charleston manse. It reminded him of the 1702 home he’d grown up in outside of Cambridge that he describes as “a Queen Anne beauty with similarly grand proportions.”
Photo by Julia Lynn
To amp up the antiquity ambiance, Aldous hung a medallion from Casa Gusto over his mantel and framed the fireplace with old architectural sketches.
Luck, pluck, and the designer’s cheeky talent are evident throughout the 13-by-70- foot space, a once “big empty box” that has become his chockablock abode. “Whatever I’d collected in Florida came with me, creating a base layer of colorful fabrics and decorative objects,” says Aldous, formerly a product designer for Amanda Lindroth. He gave the walls a wash of watered-down Farrow & Ball’s Pale Powder with panels outlined in his favorite green, Arsenic. “It feels vibrant and acidic, both 18th century and really modern,” he says. On either side of the main window, the designer painted faux architectural niches which he describes as “the best trick I’ve come up with”—though it’s far from his only trick.
Photo by Julia Lynn
Aldous painted a trompe l’oeil niche in two of the wall panels, calling it “my best trick.” He layered in favorite pieces, including a Victorian bird cage. The secretary was a Palm Beach find.
A large table covered in sewn-together tablecloths from Lisa Corti hides ample storage underneath and divides the room, with Aldous’s living space on one end and his canopy bed, cobbled together from a Lindroth headboard prototype and a footboard he found, on the other. “It’s perfect—my little room-within-a-room,” he says. A folding screen doubles as a closet, while a secretary he found in Palm Beach offers additional storage and, more importantly, display space for his Chinese porcelain Foo dogs, inlay boxes he buys with abandon, and his handmade marbled paper chain. “I’m still adding and acquiring,” confesses the chinoiserie expert with a Ph.D. from Cambridge’s Trinity College. “When you’re collecting things that are all beautiful, you can’t have too many.” To wit, while at a favorite Greensboro, North Carolina, antiques shop, he couldn’t resist two big black obelisks that he covered in green marbled paper. “They make a super dramatic addition,” Aldous says. “Just when you think your table is too crowded, you find something large and marvelous.”
Photo by Julia Lynn
Natural holiday garland hangs from the designer's rattan canopy bed. Block-print layers include a Serena & Lily quilt and a red Roller Rabbit throw.
When it came time to deck the halls and prepare for a holiday party, Aldous asked himself one question: “What would Jane Austen do?” As he explains, “Brits don’t take Christmas decorating as seriously as Americans do. So when I discovered these readymade garlands, I bought five.” He hung the garlands around the fireplace, window, and bed, and added ribbons and real oranges to the tree. “It feels very 18th century,” he says. To augment his sparse tree ornaments, the designer made some paper camellias that are “just enough to trick the eye.” He also confesses to making a Walmart run at the last minute. “I had to get gawdy tinsel and striped balls. Don’t judge.”
Photo by Julia Lynn
The apartment’s private piazza adds sunny living and gardening space. Aldous says of the wicker chair, “If you get the right stripe with the right width and color, it’s classic and timeless.”
It all adds up to a festive feast for the senses, complete with a gorgeous pavlova made by the designer’s associate, Miller Heiman. “She’s a great hostess and entertainer, and I’m not,” Aldous admits. Miller’s talents perfectly complement his decorating smorgasbord of delight. As guests nibble on delicacies, they can mill about discovering endless treasures and surprises— cloisonné parrots from a recent collecting phase, a mirror from the FLEUR x Aldous Bertram collection, a quirky John Derian cheese candle, and handmade paper geraniums, to name a few. “I’m crafty. I reuse things. I jumble things,” Aldous says. “There’s not much here that’s polished and expensive; it’s just fun.” Surely Jane Austen would approve.
By Stephanie Hunt | Photography by Julia Lynn
