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For Bruce and Sonya Carrell, inspiration for their design is spawned from travels throughout the United States and Europe.
“Italy in particular, with the food, the wine, art, architecture, everything about it,” raves Sonya. “It’s fascinating to watch Bruce on a trip when we’re on a relaxed agenda – he’ll pull out his sketch pad and I’ll be soaking up the sun. He’s either sketching a model home or custom home for a client – I’ve seen him design floor plans or exterior elevations for a customer from a trip because he’s away from the day-to-day and can really focus. … You can tell at that point it’s not work for him.”
“Just wandering around the cities,” adds Bruce, “you can see where all of these ideas of true classical architecture came from – a sense of proportion, scale, and how these things play off of each other if done correctly.”
Also, if done correctly, a business – even two – will prosper from the efforts of a driven, motivated team like the Carrells.
Often times, home design decisions made by married couples – a he vs. she match-up of sorts – are as calculating as jabs in the boxing ring. But Bruce and Sonya, married seven years, could be typecast for the next TLC reality TV show that defies such home design doom – and casting would consider them to be perfectly photogenic.
Bruce, owner of Carrell Homes in Little River, and, with Sonya, owner of Grand Designs, Myrtle Beach, have found their homebuilding and interior design sister companies to be a knockout combination. The Grand Designs interior design/hard surface/wallpaper/fabric facet was added onto Bruce’s well-established 20-year-old home construction business five years ago. And, apparently, working together has been business bliss. “When we first met, we had to find a rhythm to working together, so it hasn’t been on autopilot from day one,” confesses Bruce. “But we’ve figured out each other’s interests, strengths and weaknesses.”
“We’ve worked together so long now, a lot of the times we’re thinking the same thing,” adds Sonya, laughing. “We really are! I know what train of thought he’s on – sometimes I know what he’s going to say about it if it’s a design challenge and how he’s going to solve it. He says if I don’t get what I want the first time, I just continue to ask until I get it. And for him, I can almost tell when no means no. I just don’t push that, and go on to the next thing. We work so well together. I just feel I admire so much what he had already built and it’s been a pleasure to come in and add to that and join him in on that.”
Our interview is in the Carrells’ Mediterranean-style living room in Castillo Del Mar, originally used as a model (designed by Sonya) before they decided to call it their “home sweet, luxury home.”
This Grande Dunes home, a la Mediterranean/Floridian forms of architecture, is one of Carrell Homes’ signature home plans, along with Lowcountry-style and traditional brick homes. There are nearly 10 high-end developments stretching from Pawleys Island to Calabash, N.C., which showcase the Carrell handiwork. “Some of the things we did early on were a lot of mouldings, high ceilings, arches and rounded openings of windows,” explains Bruce, “ architectural elements that are a little more interesting and high-end than run-of-the-mill construction.”
Bruce, an honors business graduate of Indiana University, calls himself a “third generation builder,” following in the footsteps of his father, a builder/remodeler, and grandfather, also a homebuilder. “But my interest was driven more in the design aspect, the drawing of the houses, creating plans, that sort of thing,” he says. “… And I think still after all this time, the design element is my favorite part … the creative part of it. Working with people and helping them get from an idea to a design to the construction process is rewarding for me.” He moved from Bloomington, Ind., to Myrtle Beach in 1985, and (no pun intended) built Carrell Homes from the ground up in 1987.
Sonya’s background involves commercial construction and training toward a law degree. “And I was really involved early on in real estate – even out of high school and college,” says the Greensboro, N.C., native. “When I met Bruce, I was working in North Carolina as a consultant doing industrial-commercial warehouse development. So it was really refreshing to be able to do residential. It just had so much more appeal – it’s a lot sexier.”
“She says she’s not a designer, but she’s really a natural,” interjects Bruce with a smirk.
“Well, I’ve always loved art,” says Sonya. “I would take all the art classes I could in school. And my mother would have us study with private art lessons growing up. That started my fascination with color, art, design. I never get tired of looking at other things for inspiration … other people’s work in magazines …
“For furnishings, customers will deal with [one of our designers], but I have specific things that I’ll get involved with,” she continues. “… Fabrics are very important to me. Tile, marble floors, granite countertops and cabinet colors are very interesting to me because that’s really the background palette we start from.”
Bruce and Sonya keep their hands on the pulse of their businesses – from finding a medium ground in design elements for spouses/potential homeowners to satisfying clients by completely personalizing a home to keeping a trained eye on growing trends in design. “There is a trend of traditional, Old World elements mixed in with cleaner, more simple lines,” says Sonya. “I think you ultimately see that in larger cities like New York, Atlanta.”
The Carrells’ hands-on design drive, however, doesn’t mean they have no time for play. Bruce is a student pilot and loves to cook. “I read recipe books, pick something out and he makes it,” laughs Sonya.
But fun, in fact, for them mostly revolves around their everyday career passions. “We’re both so fascinated with real estate. That’s a great weekend for us – we’re always up and ready to go on a Saturday morning,” shares Sonya. “Our vacation is to go to a new market, scout it out and see if there’s something we want to invest in or get involved in.”
Their recent projects involve condo conversions and renovations, including an older building in Atlanta and one to an historic Charleston estate with an attached chapel (currently an apartment, but soon to become a Carrell-created condo). “It has all of the arches built into it,” says Bruce. “Someone’s definitely going to fall in love with that. We update condos with more modern-day amenities like stainless steel appliances, plus cabinetry, granite, marble floors. … But we try to preserve as much as we can of the authentic interior without moving walls, cutting things down. That’s not our thing. We’re more about the aesthetics and love older buildings too much to do that.”
The love, too, the Carrells have for their dual design career is inspiring. Great care is taken from concept to construction to move-in day. “It’s just a great feeling for our clients to walk in and love what we did,” relates Sonya.”
Coastal Carolina HomeStyles
January | February 2007
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