| Issue #27, September 29, 2006 |
book review: designing the hamptons
Designing the Hamptons is a sumptuous book brimming with calming interior landscapes. An eclectic mélange of designers’ work is showcased and their designs represent cutting-edge interpretations of every style, from 1950s primary colors and plastics to ultra-modern slate and bed-sized sofas. In the book, eighteen homes, each with a unique style and ambience, are depicted in crisp colorful pictures that exhibit a balance of beautiful interiors and refreshing views.
Mayer Russ’s opening essay describes the traditional Hamptons home as decorated with “cast-offs, junk store finds and hand-me-downs,” but he doesn’t seem to grasp that the reason for this style resides in the fact that most Hamptons households are constantly being bombarded with sand, muddy dogs, and horse paraphernalia. Hamptons houses need to be the livable equivalent of a Boston Whaler, a.k.a. hose-n’-go.
While a few of the homes in the book seem to disregard this fact, with their lacquered floors and bright white upholstery, many designers are more savvy than that, and have designed gorgeous, livable spaces inside houses that many Hamptons folks will recognize instantly.
The most remarkable part of the interior designs in this book is the sense of calm which radiates from each picture and dove-grey quotation. And although it is probably not the most wash-n’-wear home in the book, Enrico Bonetti and Dominic Kozerski’s house on the beach which looks like it has risen from the dunes, creates a gorgeous frame for its expansive ocean views, with its whitewashed walls and oversized, weathered wooden tables and chairs.
Another stunner, Thom Felicia’s modern farmhouse, was designed to encourage its owners to “relax, have a drink, kick (their) feet up” and not worry about anything until Monday, every weekend home owner’s dream. The old farm wheels and red accents draw the reader into a city-dweller’s farmhouse fantasy which looks comforting and very relaxing.
And, although the opening essay seems to regard the classic Hamptons blue and white color combination as passé, Jamie Drake’s soothing stunner replaces the traditional toile-patterned blue-and white, with Tiffany blue accents in a bright, airy living space. This room honors both classic Hamptons style and New York City propriety while creating a modern, livable setting made for quiet relaxation.
Perhaps the most un-Hamptons house of them all, Southampton’s own castle on Herrick Road, is also included in this book, and its design is perhaps the only true wash-n’-go Hamptons home in the book. Designers Bill Sofield and Dennis Anderson explained, “there’s nothing precious about the décor. The reality here is three dogs, wet bathing suits, and gardening dirt. Everything has to be user-friendly.” Within the castle’s red-brick walls, soft-colored rooms stuffed with fluffy couches and indoor-outdoor sisal-braid rugs give this stylized house a warm, summery atmosphere. In keeping with the unique exterior, exotic fabrics and tasseled curtain pulls give the interior a touch of mystery, and its stained-glass globe fixtures and mounted antlers acknowledge the house’s medieval inspiration.
Arthur Dunham takes on a more traditional Hamptons space in his shingled windmill house decorated with wooden-plank walls and overstuffed furniture. His rooms are not quite as balanced as others in the book, with some rooms bursting with furniture and books and flowers, and others sparsely decorated with monochromatic walls and simple woven rugs. This style might be a tribute to the Hamptons houses of yesteryear, decorated with a hodgepodge of pieces retired from the city-house or found in Grandma’s attic; the very same style that Russ’s introduction paints as outmoded.
Other highlights of the book include Michael Haverland and Philip Galanes’s art-filled, 50s and 60s home, which makes a black-framed glass box without a view into a lush live-in greenhouse oasis, and John Barman and Kelly Graham’s cottage, which sits in the midst of farmland near the dunes, otherwise known as paradise, and is decorated with simple cream-colored walls and splashy circus red and yellow furniture that manages to look elegant, even when paired with a large zebra-skin rug. This pairing of unexpected pieces and patterns with classic lines and bright, open spaces seems to be the hallmark of this book’s style recommendation. According to the designers within Designing the Hamptons, Hamptons style is less about using certain pieces or referencing certain time periods than about keeping the setting of your home, and its purpose, in mind. And, in that respect, each of the designer homes in this book captures the essence of what a Hamptons home should feel like. Because of its myriad pictures and tiny tidbits of text, this is a book to flip through as you chat on the phone or lounge around on some weekend spent in your own Hamptons oasis.
Designing the Hamptons is published by Edizioni Press and is available at all local bookstores and amazon.com.
–Sabrina C. Mashburn
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