So says a man whose recent ports of call have included Palm Beach and the Bahamas, both periods spent working for designer Amanda Lindroth. Still, Charleston has captured Bertram’s fancy, so much so that he signed the apartment’s lease on the spot, before he was even ready to relocate. Now he’s gone into business for himself in the Holy City, whose colleges, tourists, and architecture remind him of Cambridge, England, where he was born and later earned a PhD from Trinity College. The subject? China’s impact on 18th-century English gardens and architecture.
His own decorative savvy, believe it or not, might just have found favor with the founding father, who, like Bertram, was fond of saturated colors, dynamic patterns, and Georgian furniture. “Every room can do with a big Georgian cabinet,”asserts the designer. Thus the Chinese Chippendale–style secretary that is a focal point of his living area, its shelves packed with “portable trinkets that make me happy,” among them Chinese ceramic foo dogs.
Most of Bertram’s furnishings have made their way from his previous addresses, some retaining their former appearance, others reinterpreted. Two demilune tables, once green, are now pale blue, just as some faux-bamboo armchairs have transitioned from brown to scarlet. “I’m very frugal and can’t throw anything away,” he says, adding, “You can do a lot with a fresh lick of paint.” He’s also a dab hand at recycling smart-looking tablecloths into cushions, curtains, or the like. And, Bertram explains, apropos a couple of armchairs found on Facebook Marketplace dressed in a deliriously pretty chintz, “I’m always game for something that’s old and on its last legs.”
