Quirky Design: Trendsetting Or Just Plain Odd?

Q

uirky:

adjective;

characterized by peculiar or unexpected traits.

When it comes to Hamptons homes, there’s no shortage of quirky requests, say master builder Michael Davis and interior designer Arthur Dunnam. The two have entertained everything under the sun when it comes to their clients, from trendsetting ideas to far-out desires, on the cutting-edge East End.

“Usually when clients ask for quirky, they’re just ahead of the curve,” Mr. Dunnam said during a telephone interview last week. “A year down the line, these requests are not so unusual at all, and might even be the norm.”

That was not the case at a consultation meeting two years ago, the pair recalled. When their shared Bridgehampton client explained to the duo one of his ideas, they thought he was kidding. Mr. Davis struggled to keep a straight face, he recalled.

But Mr. Dunnam couldn’t help himself. He burst into laughter, he said.

“He wanted a ‘Batpole’ from the second story all the way down to the lower level,” Mr. Dunnam recalled. “Like, a fireman’s pole, from the second floor through the first floor down to the basement so he could make a quick escape in case the house was besieged by I don’t know what.”

The unusual requests made by that particular client didn’t stop there, they said.

The plan was to “access it from the library, from a hidden panel in the library. It was part of the bookcase,” Mr. Davis said during an interview at his office in Sagaponack last week. “You’d pull the book and the section [would open] up as a door, and you could get onto the pole that way. That’s a cool one, isn’t it?”

Ultimately, the client gave up on the Batpole after realizing its dangers with small children roaming the house, Mr. Dunnam said.

“Quirky can be negative or it can be interpreted as unique and interesting,” he said. “That’s how I would categorize it. I don’t think any of my clients are outlandish. I don’t think they’re the ones you read about in ‘Expose.’ They’re sort of relatable folks who are building their dream houses.

“It’s great that they have these unique things they’ve thought about,” he continued. “It makes the house speak specifically of them, not a generic house like everybody else’s.”

In many cases, the requests are all about convenience and peace of mind—whether it’s installing indestructible kitchen countertops, a smart light control system or perhaps something more extreme, like an underground tunnel, Mr. Davis said.

In Sagaponack, there sits a one-bedroom, two-story cottage right on the side of the road, Mr. Davis said; the property owners—clients of Mr. Davis—sought to build another house on the land, but the cottage was too tall to be considered an accessory structure. The only option, so it seemed, was demolition.

“But I proposed that if we connected the cottage to the main house by way of an underground tunnel, it would be attached and you can build back from it,” Mr. Davis said.

The cottage is about 50 feet away from the main house, he explained, and will soon be connected by an 8-foot-high, 4-foot-wide, air conditioned and heated tunnel.

“My homeowner was delighted because it’s a kind of unique thing to go down to your finished lower level and have that,” Mr. Davis said.

On a smaller scale, one of Mr. Dunnam’s Sagaponack clients is extremely concerned about her laundry room—a room she will likely never step foot in, he said.

“She basically wants it bulletproof: industrial stainless steel countertops and industrial porcelain tile on the floor,” he explained. “She wants her laundry room to look new all the time. She said, ‘I know people in there wouldn’t take care of it, so I won’t have to worry about it this way.’”

Also in the village, there lives an automobile collector whose three-car garage can no longer house his hobby. So, Mr. Davis built an elevator from the first level to the lower level, where he can now store more cars, he said.

“It’s practical and a great idea if you have a one-car garage and need room for two cars,” he said.

Oftentimes, requests that seem quirky or unusual at the time end up catching on and becoming hot trends. Fifteen years ago, wine rooms, gyms and screening rooms were all unusual elements in any home—but not anymore, Mr. Dunnam said. Today’s design has its own examples, too, he said.

For instance, the first time one of Mr. Dunnam’s clients asked him to furnish her house with indoor/outdoor furniture, he said he thought it was a little odd. Now, it’s a choice he sees all the time, he said.

“Especially couples with young kids and pets,” he said. “They say, ‘I know this is going to cost a lot, but I don’t want to have to be freaking out if someone spills something. I just want to be easygoing and if everything is indoor/outdoor, I know I’m in good shape. We’ll be fine.’”

Indoor driving ranges are catching on, too, said Mr. Dunnam, who has designed two of them out here so far—one in Amagansett, the other in North Haven. Surprisingly, the indoor driving ranges don’t require much space, he said. Just a 10-to-12-foot ceiling and 25 feet of driving space, with a net down at the end to catch the ball, he said.

Dog showers in laundry rooms are also gaining speed, Mr. Dunnam said. Instead of a showerhead, the dog-wash area utilizes a hand sprayer and doesn’t have a door so the bather can stand on the outside. The rods are placed higher up so it can double as a drip area for wet clothes, he said.

“The whole thing about quirky requests is not having to worry about things,” Mr. Dunnam said. “There’s a practical streak. They don’t want anything too delicate. Ten or 15 years ago, that wasn’t the case at all—silk this, hand-painted that. Now, it’s all about easy living.”