Blue Heron III

Marshfront Shingle-Style Home on Kiawah Island

Project: Blue Heron III
Location: Kiawah Island, South Carolina
Type: Custom marshfront residence
Style: Contemporary shingle-style architecture
Site: Tidal-marsh edge with Lowcountry views
Outdoor features: Raised terrace, negative-edge pool, dark-tile spa, covered porch
Defining elements: Cedar shingles, swept dormers, standing-seam metal roof, pocketing glass wall, black steel windows

Blue Heron III is a custom marshfront home on Kiawah Island, designed in the shingle style and composed around tidal-marsh views, Lowcountry light, and open-air living.

Blue Heron III settles along the edge of a tidal marsh on Kiawah Island, opening toward the water and the wide Lowcountry sky. Its architectural language draws from the coastal cottage, reinterpreted in a lighter and more contemporary form. Cedar-shingled gables and swept dormers gather beneath a standing-seam metal roof, creating a crisp silhouette against the marsh landscape.

The home's relationship to the water is most visible along the marsh elevation. Where the traditional coastal cottage kept its porch modest, Blue Heron III lifts and layers the outdoor living spaces across the façade. A raised terrace extends toward the view, holding a negative-edge pool and dark-tile spa that appear to cantilever over the grade. The arrangement brings the water closer to the house while preserving the openness of the marsh beyond.

Inside, familiar Lowcountry materials are refined through a bright, restrained palette. Whitewashed shiplap, white-oak floors, and beamed vaulted ceilings keep the interiors light and airy, while black steel windows draw precise lines across the surrounding landscape.

The great room opens through a full pocketing glass wall to a covered porch and the marsh beyond, allowing the interior and exterior living spaces to function as one continuous room. Nearby, a light-oak island kitchen with marble counters and a stone waterfall bar remains open to the living area, reinforcing the home's emphasis on gathering, sightlines, and connection to the landscape.

The primary suite offers a quieter retreat, with cerused-oak plank walls and a spa bath centered on a freestanding tub framed by a black-steel window. Vaulted bedrooms and a loft sitting room rise toward the treetops and water, extending the home's vertical connection to its wooded marshfront setting.

Rooted in the shingle-style tradition and adapted to its marshfront site, Blue Heron III is a contemporary Kiawah Island residence designed to open fully to the Lowcountry landscape.