Merrill Benfield helps clients separate the classic from the clutter
In English composition, students are advised to either kill your darlings or omit needless words, depending on whether the professor has a flair for the poetic or the prosaic. Regardless of how it is phrased, it’s sound advice. It keeps writing clean and orderly. The meaning of a story shines through more clearly when the meandering is stripped away.
But stories are hardly restricted to the printed page. Walk a guest through your home: a story is very much being told. What is important to you? What have you chosen to keep and why? How do the various elements of your personal style relate to one another? Is the meaning clear?
For more than three decades, Merrill Benfield has assisted clients not only in designing their living and work spaces, but also in transitioning those spaces when their needs change. The latter half of that sentence is important; one great truth of life is that our needs will change over time.
Today, he finds that many of his clients are ready for smaller, simpler, uncluttered surroundings. There may be economic considerations involved, but the rationale could just as easily be refinement. They still want their homes to tell the unique story about them, but with fewer “words.” Simply put, they wish to downsize with ease and elegance.
Merrill is happy to help them do exactly that. He assists with all aspects of the experience, from the selection of a residence that best suits a client’s furnishings to the design and decoration of that residence.
He begins, as a gentleman should, by ensuring that he knows his people well. The elements of design are, or should be, reflective of our passions, lifestyle and personal taste. Deciding what among the accumulated gatherings of a lifetime should stay or go is where the art comes in.
As he makes an assessment of what a client currently owns, he asks: which items fit into the new facet of life? What is the cost of keeping an item? What needs to be refinished, recovered or restored?
“Antique rugs may need to be restored and paintings cleaned or reframed,” he says. “Whatever is required, including items being moved, sold, restored, or refinished, I will handle all aspects of it for my client.”
Equal consideration is given to the disposal of pieces that won’t be making the transition to the new space. “Antiques might be gifted to heirs or sent to the level of auction house that will best represent them,” he notes. “Some items may be given to charity for the tax advantages.” These decisions, for each item in question, are made to best serve the individual needs of the client
The transition does not end in the home’s interior. Collector cars are one of Merrill’s specialties, after all, and choosing which car or cars will carry a client through the streets is every bit as important to him as balancing color and light in a living space. See his 1952 Rolls Royce Silver Dawn parked at a curb in Charleston and you know: Ah, Merrill is around. That’s the heart of the idea. The objects with which we surround ourselves should comment on our characters, tell the story of our personalities, the life we’ve lived and the people we’ve loved.
Merrill comes by his exquisite sense of taste honestly. Early in life, he antiqued with his mother, who helped acquire pieces for the White House during the Kennedy Administration. He’s made the finest things in life, and especially the presentation of them, his expertise over the length of his career.
It’s not simply which antiques and artwork are placed in a room, he reminds us, but how they are arranged in relation to one another, as well as how the colors and light all work together with these furnishings to achieve a desired effect. “Chic and elegant” is the effect that’s most often desired when downsizing, according to Merrill. And he is happy to help clients achieve that.
“Most of them are empty nesters,” he says. “They are ready for their next phase in life, and they’re ready for it to be designed with perfection.”
Merrill Benfield Design
28 Hasell Street
843-452.5600
