Nothing Succeeds Like Excess: The 2025 Hampton Designer Showhouse

If designer showhouses are the canaries in the coal mines of décor, minimalism is dead.

In room after room of this, the 23rd annual Hampton Designer Showhouse to benefit Stony Brook Southampton Hospital, one will find umpteen examples of the exuberant use of tassels and trim, draperies, printed fabrics, objets d’art galore and that once-upon-a-time dirty word, wallpaper. Given that the Hamptons house of the moment is clearly a modern monolith with a floating staircase and clear glass banisters, such frippery is a delight. It softens the severity and brutalism of the current architectural vogue and does the seemingly impossible: bringing that illusive concept of patina to a brand-spanking new house.

Cases in point: Steven Walsh’s master-of-the-universe home office, with its walls covered in lushly silk-screened velvet. Or Washington, D.C., designer Jewel Marlowe’s sitting room adorned with a hauntingly beautiful scenic mural and charming touches like pleated silk lampshades, tables reminiscent of high-society darling Maison Jansen and rolled velvet bolsters trimmed with brush fringe. Even the less traditional presentations are knockouts, such as Atlanta designer Robert Brown’s chic living room, chockablock with carefully considered accessories set against walls painted the color of a bay leaf, along with large-scale tattersall open-weave curtains.

New Jersey designer Karen B. Wolf’s blue and beige bedroom is the definition of restful, while High Point, North Carolina, designer Nicole Culler takes a big risk by hanging orchid grasscloth wallpaper pretty much everywhere in her polished bedroom. The sweetness is tempered by the use of an artful botanical-themed fabric in soft blues and greens for curtains and bedding. The popularity of purple mixed with blue appears again in Ahmed AbouZanat’s great room, what with its boomerang-shaped sofa and mesmerizing floating sphere lamp. Seen through the softly veiled expanses of glass: Pittsburgh designer Betsy Wentz’s bohemian poolside lounging area, which conjures up visions of Talitha Getty in Marrakesh.

After years of a certain sameness in the designer showhouse world, this particular one is outstanding, bringing to mind the great designers of the past such as Albert Hadley, Mark Hampton and Sister Parish, whose torches continue to be carried by the still-extraordinary Bunny Williams. This showhouse would make her smile. Don’t miss it.

The 2025 Hampton Designer Showhouse is located at 293 Old Sag Harbor Road, Southampton, and will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday until August 31. Visit hamptondesignershowhouse.com for tickets.