'Savory' Wainscott Home Ready For Benefit Tour

A jogger on Sayres Path on a brisk November day might hear Billie Holiday on repeat coming from a white-shingled home with a navy blue Dutch door, the top half of which is almost always left open. Up the short pebble driveway and past a Moke beach car is the home of designer Jessie Della Femina, who’s putting the finishing touches on her new Wainscott digs.

She’s dubbed it “Salty Dog” after her two loves: savory foods and her dog, Nacho.

The manse of the daughter of “Mad Men”-era advertising executive Jerry Della Femina and fashion journalist Judy Licht is one of the stops on the East Hampton House & Garden Tour on Thanksgiving weekend. And it’s a good thing, Ms. Della Femina said, because the tour, which is in its 34th year, has played a significant role in her childhood spent in the Hamptons.

“This tour is honestly why I do what I do,” said Ms. Della Femina, who runs her design firm from a Sag Harbor office. “It’s inspiring. You get to see great ideas done by talented people. It energizes your mind, and it made me pursue a career in this.”

Joseph Aversano, the East Hampton Historical Society event’s chairman, said for guests to show up hungry for an array of architecture and design.

“We have a blend, from the ocean to the bay,” Mr. Aversano said. “We try to incorporate as much of East Hampton and the surrounding hamlets as we can. … We are not Williamsburg—we are not here to just preserve a certain moment in time. This is for the fabric and tapestry of the community.”

Mr. Aversano said he’s expecting a sizable crowd of architecture buffs, but also young people, whose attendance has grown in recent years.

“Jessie’s house is not the most enormous we’ve ever had on the tour, but it’s a house that a young couple looking for a house, designing a house, building a house or thinking of building a house would like to look for ideas from,” he said.

The small modern home is anachronistic with a cottage-like charm from the outside, but inside is where Ms. Della Femina’s personality comes through.

The open layout of the main floor has hidden nooks and crannies. Despite each room being in view of the entryway, the home’s L-shaped design keeps the kitchen, dining room, living room and library feeling self-contained. Through the doorway on the left, the arched, double-height ceilings and dueling 8-foot upholstered mirrors on either side of a wood-burning fireplace with a stone mantle make the living room feel larger.

In her free time, Ms. Della Femina is an avid estate sale hunter, combing through antiques on the East End as well as in Greenwich, Connecticut, which she and her husband call home during the week. Nearly all of the furnishings in the Wainscott residence are treasures she has found over the years. The walls are linen fabric wallpaper. A brass, oversized chandelier hangs overhead.

A notable centerpiece to the room are two antique chairs her grandmother passed down to her situated in front of the fireplace.

“They are from a time when everything was just smaller in scale, which I can really appreciate,” she said, pointing to the oval-backed chairs. “They are not something you would see being made now. They’re charming in a room of this size.”

The home looks polished. There aren’t many knickknacks on the shelves or on the coffee table.

“The age of the pieces is where character is found,” Ms. Della Femina said. A brass match striker and the wooden coffee table show imperfections and burn marks.

“When you go into a room that doesn’t have these signs of life—the furniture is pristine—that’s when you lack warmth,” she continued.

Across the short entry hall and behind a pocket door is the library. In comparison, it is much darker and cozier than the living room’s open entertaining space. The walls and ceiling are painted British Army green, matching the fresh cut flowers on the coffee table. A marble wood-burning fireplace separates a bar and a bookshelf stocked with true crime novels, biographies on political leaders throughout history and a spillover of high school reading list books including “Catch-22” by Joseph Heller. The official drinks of the Salty Dog are Woodford Reserve whiskey and any crisp white wine.

Underfoot in the living room and library are thick-woven jute area rugs, and eastern white pine hardwood floors.

“These one-foot-wide planks are not the most popular because they are super soft and so they ding like nobody’s business,” she said. Chances are high with a 70-pound bernedoodle running around.

“I actually like the lived-in look,” she continued. “It builds character to a new home.”

To the rear, French doors open to a patio. Beyond that is a pool and outside dining area. There are two other pairs of French doors—one that slides into the dining room—from the patio. Hydrangea bushes surround the property.

The kitchen has marble countertops and a large center island. There’s a whole wall devoted to refrigerators, freezers, beverage drawers and a wine cooler opposite ample storage space. The cabinets are painted pale gray and are flush against the matching walls “to contain the mess.” A neat addition are two small rolling doors over the countertops that lift up to reveal coffee makers and other appliances plugged inside and ready to go. A custom hood is situated over the range. Two oversized polished nickel pendant lights hang over the kitchen island with a sink.

The home includes four en suite bedrooms. One of the masters is on the main floor with double-height ceilings, recessed skylights, shiplap paneled walls and overhead beams. Above the four-poster iron bed is a large mercury gas lantern. A wood-burning soapstone fireplace is situated between doors out to a seating area with a brick fireplace. The attached bathroom has an indoor-outdoor shower shrouded by hedges and a wall of mahogany slats. A powder room is also on the main level.

The basement level includes a spa and steam room, a cozy television room, a guest room and a bunk room that sleeps 12.

Up the stairs there’s a guest room that’s decorated completely—the bed skirt, headboard, Portuguese vases, lamp shades, walls and ceiling—in a blue Indian block print. Think borderline paisley patterned. “This is not a pattern that you are just going to use a little bit of—you’ve got to dive into it with both feet,” Ms. Della Femina laughed.

The home’s name, Salty Dog, comes to light in the upstairs “presidential” bedroom. There’s a portrait of Nacho the dog painted as George Washington in an antique frame hanging over a bed with a linen canopy. “The internet is a deep place,” Ms. Della Femina said.

Also notable is an 18th century trunk retrofitted with an electric lift to conceal a television that pops out with the tap of an iPhone.

Mr. Aversano said the historical society tries to change things up with each house, pointing at the Salty Dog’s youthful but timeless design.

Also included on the tour are the freshly renovated David Huntting House—built in 1800—and William H. Babcock House—built in 1720; an Adirondack resort-inspired compound; and a modern home with interiors designed by David Netto that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean.

“We have grown over the years and we’ve come to realize it’s the perfect antidote to the Thanksgiving holiday weekend—you just want to get the family out of the house already,” Mr. Aversano laughed.

The weekend starts with a cocktail party—at $200 a pop, which includes entry to the home and garden tour—on Friday, November 23. The tours are from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Tickets are $65 in advance or $75 day-of, purchased at Clinton Academy Museum at 151 Main Street in East Hampton Village. Proceeds help fund museum programing and events by the East Hampton Historical Society. For more information, call 631-324-6850, or go to easthamptonhistory.com.