Hampton Designer Showhouse Focuses On Fun

Fun—animal prints, vintage photos, bold light fixtures, orange for pop and flecks for sparkle—is all the rage in luxury vacation home design this year, if the annual Hampton Designer Showhouse is any indication.

It should be. The showhouse highlights the work of more than 20 local and far-flung interior designers. Set in an large new shingle-style home built by Parmount Homes of the Hamptons at 408 Pauls Lane in Bridgehampton, it opens July 20 and can be each day until September 1 for $35, which benefits Southampton Hospital.

“Mary, Mary, the hydrangeas need hydra!” sang out a svelte young woman as Mary Lynch, the showhouse manager, simultaneously tour-guided, cell-spoke and problem-solved during a press preview on Friday. Designers were still rolling out a lovely rug in the foyer of the 8,579-square-foot manse—not including 3,288 square feet of lower-level space. A photo shoot was in progress in the great room designed by Patrik Lonn. Things were coming together.

Melanie Roy had drawn the mud room card, playing her hand with a beach theme: surfboards, a Stark rug with a wave design, crab nets and straw mats in metal buckets, wire baskets filled with flip-flops, towels or balls. The challenge was that the room had no cubbies, said Ms. Roy, who used the baskets as well as boat cleats—for hanging stuff up—to solve that problem. A window seat/bench is upholstered in Duralee fabric, piped with jute, “so you can sit here in your suit,”

Upstairs, Elsa R. Soyars, in shorts, tank top and owl-frame glasses, was putting finishing touches in the master bath, which had the appearance of being her own little empire—an effect bolstered by a number of towels stamped with her own initial

Cindy Crawford prints peered from the wall—“there’s diamond dust on these things,” Ms. Soyars pointed out—and a sort of pop art hand sculpture held a towel on the vanity. A green, black and white leopard rug—Diane von Furstenberg—centers the room.

“It’s a beautiful space,” Ms. Soyars said, who described herself as a child of the ’70s. She wanted the master bath to be “playful. elegant, glamorous, and yet fun for the Hamptons.”

A geometric, multi-armed ceiling light picks up on a “Mad for Plaid” wallpaper in a guest room by Mabley Handler Interior Design of Water Mill.

Austin Handler said the wallpaper, which he called “trellis-y,” makes a nice juxtaposition to other geometric patterns “popped” with orange accents.

“Whenever we design a room, we design a room we would like to stay in,” Mr. Handler said. “We sort of specialize in fun and summer. We like the idea that they’ll walk into the room and sort of complete their vision of what a house in the Hamptons looks like.”

“Want to come have a party?” beckoned Judy Hadlock of Mecox Design Services in the dining room downstairs.Three square tables set with Lenox china posed multiple prospects for entertaining or just eating in: They could be moved together to form one large table, or used as buffet servers for smaller parties. On the walls are vintage photos of the beachy good life, “casual elegant living.” A wine cellar occupying another wall eliminates the need to travel elsewhere in the house for libations.

Ms. Hadlock’s partner, Sean Burns, said he was noticing a mix of old and new. “You can slam 1970 next to something from 1865,” he said. In addition, he noted that luxury increasingly were dedicated to activity rather than storage, with “no such thing as an attic or a basement.”

And, in fact, the lower-level space is devoted to such amenities—no go-carts, but a lounge, gallery, theater, rec room, game room, sauna and future gym, plus a kitchen and billiards room, although Patricia Loria, for the showhouse, has created an antidote to the man cave. “This is obviously an entertainment home,” she explained, and she chipped in with her “feminine, comfortable spot,” where she strove for “total glamour.” “There wasn’t any space for just the women to escape to,” she said. In the one she created, Ms. Loria envisions women drinking martinis and margaritas, and chatting or simply chilling out.The eight-bedroom, 9.5-bathroom house itself, which sits on 2.5 acres, is on the market for a little less than $14.5 million, with Vincent Horcasitas and Robert A. Tramondo of Saunders.

For more information about the showhouse visit hamptondesignershowhouse.com.