A mansard roofline, circular drive, and generally grand approach place the Smith estate firmly in Chateaux territory. The project was accomplished by Gabriel Builders of Travelers Rest and residential designer Mel Dias 0f Mel Dias Designs in Greenville. But the style also blooms in the details, Dias points out — including some windows that are dormered into the roof and others that appear as round nautical niches. “I designed it around the idea of a French townhouse,” says Dias. “The exterior was always going to be painted brick, and I like my houses to have a break with the foundation, giving them a plinth to sit on — thus the two-piece brick water table.” He credits landscape designer Dabney Peeples of JDP Design (Pendleton, SC) for picking up the curve in the scalloped stone retaining walls; the look also shows up in the pool deck. “Such a formal house had to have a formal approach,” says Dias. “From the beginning, [Dabney’s] vision and mine were the same.”