Weller&Rue

We design roomsfor the houryou live in them.

Weller & Rue is a two-person interior design studio in Charleston. Before we choose a single fabric, we sit in your rooms at eight in the morning, at noon and at dusk, and we design for what the light does there.

Start a project See the work
Front parlor of a Charleston single house in limewashed plaster, with a curved boucle sofa, travertine coffee table, potted olive tree and tall sash windows onto the piazza.

Selected work, 2023 to now

We finish three or four projects a year. Most are old houses with good bones and bad wiring, and a few are small hotels where every room has to work for strangers.

Guest room at The Lark House with a channel-tufted rust velvet headboard, ochre linen bedding, a ceramic lamp and afternoon light through wooden shutters.
Savannah, Georgia

The Lark House

Two 1850s townhouses on Jones Street, joined at the back by a brick courtyard and turned into a fourteen-room hotel. The owners wanted it to feel like staying with a well-traveled aunt, so no two rooms match and nothing is bolted to the wall that does not need to be.

The rooms face west. We chose ochre linen and rust velvet because at four in the afternoon the shutters throw stripes across the bed, and those colors get better in it.

  • Scope14 rooms, lobby, courtyard bar
  • Timeline19 months, opened March 2025
  • ArchitectHollis Pruitt Architects
The Tradd Street front parlor: heart pine floors, limewashed walls, a worn Persian rug, a pedestal table with magnolia leaves and two old leather chairs by a shuttered window.
Charleston, South Carolina

Tradd Street

A 1790s single house, one room wide and three floors tall, with the piazza on the south side the way they were built to catch the breeze. The family had lived in it for eleven years without ever liking the front parlor.

We stripped the gray paint back to lime, kept the heart pine floors and the grandmother's rug, and moved the grandfather's leather chairs to the window, where they finally get used.

  • ScopeWhole house, 3,400 sq ft
  • Timeline11 months, finished 2024
2023

Low Tide House

A four-bedroom raised beach house on Edisto Island for a family with three boys and two dogs. Unlined linen curtains, washable slipcovers everywhere and an outdoor shower we are still proud of.

Edisto Island, SC
2027

The Mercer

A nine-room inn in an 1880s cotton broker's house on Bay Street, with a small dining room run by a chef from Bluffton. Currently in construction.

Beaufort, SC, opening spring 2027
Material board on a walnut table: travertine, walnut, linen and rust velvet samples, a brass pull, a plaster tile and olive and white paint chips over a pencil floor plan.

Every board is seven things, never twelve.

We limit each project to a short list of materials and repeat them until the house feels like one thought. Choose one to see it on the table and where it ended up.

Seven materials, three projects.Hover or tap a name.

How a house actually gets done

Honest timelines, because the furniture takes longer than anyone wants. These are for a full home. One Room runs on its own six-week schedule.

  1. Week 1

    The walk-through

    Two hours in your house, at a time of day you choose. We measure, photograph, look at what you own and ask how you use each room. $450, credited to your fee if we work together.

  2. Weeks 2 to 6

    Plans and the board

    Furniture plans for every room, the material board and a first budget, line by line. One full round of changes, then we meet at the studio to sign off.

  3. Weeks 6 to 14

    Drawings and quotes

    Lighting, built-ins and paint schedules your contractor can price from. We gather quotes from upholsterers and millwork shops we have used for years.

  4. Months 4 to 9

    Ordering and trades

    Custom upholstery takes 14 to 18 weeks. While it is made, we are on site every other week with the painters, plasterers and electricians.

  5. Two to four days

    Install

    Everything is received at our warehouse in North Charleston and goes in at once. You leave with the keys and come home to a finished house, beds made.

A typical whole house takes nine to fourteen months from walk-through to install. A small hotel takes eighteen to twenty-four.

Services and fees

Fixed design fees, agreed before we start. No hourly surprises and no percentage of what you spend.

Full-service home

Whole houses and major renovations, from the first walk-through to the last lamp on the last table.

  • Plans, boards, drawings and budgets
  • Trade coordination and site visits
  • Ordering, receiving and full install

from $18,000Most homes land between $28,000 and $65,000 depending on size and how much is built.

One Room

For the room you avoid. A living room, a primary bedroom or a dining room up to about 400 square feet, done in six weeks.

  • Walk-through, plan and material board
  • A shopping list with links and trade pricing
  • A half-day styling visit once it arrives

$6,500Fixed fee. Within Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties.

Hotels and hospitality

Boutique hotels, inns and guesthouses of up to about thirty rooms, plus the restaurant or bar downstairs. We work alongside your architect from schematic design.

  • Guest rooms, public spaces and FF&E specs
  • Prototype room before full rollout
  • Procurement, install and opening-week styling

By proposalHotel fees usually start around $95,000, set after a site visit.

Furniture, lighting and fabric are billed at our trade price plus 18 percent, which covers ordering, tracking, receiving and the inevitable repairs. You see every vendor invoice.

Adaeze Weller in cream linen adjusting a lamp on the curved plaster front desk of The Lark House lobby, with terracotta floors and an arched door to the courtyard.
Adaeze at the front desk of The Lark House, four days before opening.

Two people, one table.

We keep the studio small so the person who drew your plan is the same person standing in your hall on install day.

Adaeze Weller

Hospitality, color, the big picture

Adaeze spent nine years designing hotels for a New York firm, from Tulum to Nashville, before moving south in 2019. She grew up between Houston and Enugu and still thinks every house needs one color that is slightly too loud.

Thomas Rue

Old houses, drawings, the details

Thomas was born on James Island, the son of a cabinetmaker, and studied historic preservation at the College of Charleston. He can date a mantel from across the room and will tell you which walls to leave alone.

“They came back at six o’clock just to see the parlor with the lamps on. Then they moved one chair, and it was right.”
Margaret L., Tradd Street, Charleston

“Our occupancy was 81 percent the first summer. Guests keep asking where the headboards came from.”Desmond A., owner of The Lark House, Savannah

Questions we get

Do you work outside Charleston?

Yes. About half our work is elsewhere in the Southeast, mostly Savannah, Beaufort, Asheville and the Georgia and Carolina coast. Travel beyond Charleston County is billed at cost, and for hotels we budget one site visit a month.

Do we have to replace everything we own?

No, and we would rather you did not. We start every project with an inventory of what you have, and most finished rooms keep a third of it, often reupholstered or moved to a better spot.

How do you charge for furniture and fabric?

Your design fee is fixed. Furnishings are billed at our trade price plus 18 percent, which covers ordering, tracking, receiving and repairs. You see every vendor invoice, and you can buy anything yourself at retail if you prefer.

How far ahead are you booking?

We take on four full projects a year. Full-service and hospitality work is booking for spring 2027. One Room projects usually start within six to eight weeks of your inquiry.

Tell us about the house.

Thomas reads every inquiry and replies within three working days, usually with a few questions and a time for the walk-through.

Prefer to talk? Call the studio at (843) 555-0148, Tuesday to Friday, 9 to 5.

Thank you, truly.

Your note is with Thomas. Expect a reply within three working days. In the meantime, notice which room you end up in at six o’clock. We will ask.