Hampton Designer Showhouse: Rooms to be Viewed

Last Saturday evening, I attended the gala benefit preview for the Hampton Designer Showhouse (HDS). I was accompanied by about 450 other design enthusiasts, making the event one of the season’s successes. The HDS featured the work of some 37 designers and architects in an 8500-square-foot custom home built by Farrell Building Company.

While there was much décor that was traditional in orientation, examples of vintage and contemporary modern design were also plentiful. Modern is the new traditional, I guess, and is either part of the mix or has become the focus of interior design schemes.

So, there was no shortage of Danish modern, Italian modern, Brazilian modern, mid-century American, 70’s modern, and current design for me to shoot. Lenders to the showhouse include modern design gallerists such as Barry Friedman, Chrisina Grejales, Wyeth, R Gallery, Espasso, and R.E. Steele.

A few favorites, idiosyncratic selected, include: Brad Ford’s enclosed porch, with its swinging settees, conjuring summer evenings in his native Arkansas, and the wall of porcelain chimes by Jennifer Prichard, easily one of the best features in the house; Kristen McGinnis’s paneled library, a masculine space making use of women artists such as Claude Lalanne and Michele Oka Doner; Jennifer Garrigues’s master bedroom, with its colonial narrative and aesthetic furniture; Nathan Egan Design’s bedroom, with its Nakashima headboard topped by a Sam Samore photograph; and contest-winning Parson’s grad Elizabeth Bailey’s downstairs bedroom, with its subtle and pretty coloration and its environmental slant.

Visitors to the HDS can also enjoy the 1.5-acre grounds, and the views of the abutting agricultural preserve. Located at 179 David’s Lane in Water Mill, the Showhouse is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through September 6. Admission is $30, and the HDS does not discriminate against pets—children under 6 are also precluded.

From top: downstairs bedroom by Elizabeth Bailey; porch by Brad Ford Interior Design; master bedroom by Jennifer Garrigues Interior Design; Finnish glass from Sy Interior Designs; guest bedroom by Nathan Egan Interiors; library by Kristen McGinnis Design. All photos by Larry Weinberg.