Situated on a one-acre lot surrounded by established trees and beautiful hydrangea bushes, this traditionally styled shingle house is a classic example of a Hamptons holiday home. Like a lot of older homes, though, it lacked the flow that modern life requires, explains interior designer Steffani Aarons of DHD Architecture. “It was kind of a chopped-up house. Rooms were really isolated. The family wanted to live in a summer way with lots of friends and family but the house was set up to be quite formal.”

To counter this, Aarons and New Zealand-born American architect David Howell worked to open the home up to the garden, replacing the back walls with sliding glass doors and merging the kitchen, dining and living spaces on the ground floor. The colours of the garden gave Aarons her palette when choosing materials and furniture for the interiors.

“The client is very calm and sophisticated and didn’t want a bold colour palette but she loved the hydrangeas and the colours outside. The outside became the accent for the inside. We brought in a few blues and watercolour pastels but, otherwise, it remains quite neutral.”

Once the living spaces were opened up, Howell and Aarons needed to resolve issues around changes in ceiling height and also delineation of areas. A wall removed between the living room and the main entry was replaced by a set of timber louvres, which helps with the transition between the double-height ceiling above the stair and the single height of the living room.

“We had to find a nice way to resolve that, without it being a wall, so that there was a sense of openness right from when you walk in. This way, we could create a sitting area where you didn’t feel as though you were sitting in the middle of the house,” says Aarons.

The kitchen was moved to the front of the house to allow for more natural light. The clients requested a Boffi kitchen and this was custom-built for the space in a U-shaped arrangement around a knife-edged, marble-topped island. A Lindsey Adelman Agnes chandelierhangs overhead, adding a contemporary touch.

A large-scale photograph of icebergs by Olaf Otto Becker is the hero of the dining area, which also features some beautiful Bartoli nubuck leather chairs from Property in New York. “We saw that photograph early on in the piece and centred the whole dining area around it,” says Aarons. “That was about as colourful as we went in the whole house.” 

The Roll & Hill light fixture above the dining table was chosen for its refined simplicity to avoid interference with the large art piece. “The challenge with open planning and open living is that everything has to go together,” says Aarons. “The fixtures in each area have to work as one and you can’t have too many or it starts to look like a lighting showroom. But you still need them to be a little different from one another so you have a sense of separation and delineation.”

The main bathroom was completely reconstructed to create a more casual, beach-house vibe. A Sheetrock fireplace and an excess of wooden mouldings was replaced by a sleek stone fireplace with a floating tub, twin vanities and some millwork shelving. “The style throughout the house is soft and beachy. Minimal can be contemporary and cool but this house was stripped down for ease of living and ease of the eye, and it’s still very inviting,” explains Aarons.

Outside, the existing pool cabana and the pool surrounds were decked out with Paola Lenti outdoor furniture, sunbeds and lighting. “The home feels open and airy,” muses Aarons. “It’s not a New Zealand bach – there is still some formality to it. For summers in the Hamptons, you gravitate to being outside and this is where most of the living and dining is done – there is even an outdoor kitchen. Our aim was to be able to look at the plants, flowers, lawn and trees from both inside and out.”

This article first appeared in Urbis magazine.

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