Forever Summer

The airy design of this Hamptons home makes it the ideal family retreat and the perfect foil for a vibrant art collection.

A holiday home in the Hamptons: these words alone conjure up images of glamour and exclusivity. This stylish house by the beach creates the sense that nature is pouring into a warm family home—a place that has quickly become a refuge from frenetic Manhattan life. The light-filled, 17,000 sqft abode features eight bedrooms and 10 bathrooms; it is big enough to accommodate the family of five plus 20 of their friends over the summer while being cozy enough for the parents to enjoy a romantic weekend for two.

Achieving all this took some clever design on the part of architectural firm SBP Homes and interior designers Pembrooke & Ives. These two firms often pair up to create the kind of sunlit houses that are becoming increasingly popular on America’s east coast. The challenge was to make this home’s design sufficiently different from another similar-sized holiday house that both companies had already designed for this family in Palm Beach.

The client wanted the home to feel like a contemporary beach house that was both comfortable and liveable.  As art enthusiasts, they wanted a home that would be a beautiful backdrop for their collection—the solution was to use their paintings as the starting point,  and base the aesthetics of each room around the artworks selected. The chosen pieces included works by German artist Janaina Tschape, American painter Katherine Bradford, and British artist Darren Almond.

As a holiday home, the pool and its surroundings were almost as important as the interior. The team worked with American landscape designer Nievera Williams to create a swimming area they describe as “simple, open and lounge-y”. The fact that the client likes to do laps each morning meant it needed to be long as well as deep. And no doubt it saw good use during the challenging past year, during which large swathes of New York have been shut down due to the pandemic regulations, and the Hamptons became a refuge for Manhattan’s elite.

In many ways, this extraordinary home couldn’t have been more of a tonic for the lucky family of five. “The house was completed from start to occupancy in a record 16 months; a huge feat for its size!”

By Melissa Twigg.
Photography by Read McKendree