Perfectly centered through glass doors, a shimmering pool dominates the view from the living room of this year’s Hampton Designer Showhouse in a new modern barn-style home in Bridgehampton valued at almost $5.8 million.Patricia Fisher, who decorated the room, imagines the doors thrown open for “a natural flow” when the homeowners and friends get together. “Hamptons light,” she called the decor—sophisticated and sparkly, with light colors and shimmering surfaces, including crystal and Lucite and gold.
Barbara Page Glatt’s dining room also focuses on fun, whether “Southsides and an elegant dinner with friends, or a casual Sunday supper with family.” Southampton’s ocean and privet hedges inspire blues with green accents, including teal-and-white awning-striped silk drapes and tufted blue chairs with green buttons and trim for contrast. Lucite, glass, a round gold chandelier, teal grass-cloth wallpaper, and Dorothy Draper-style white lamps also contribute to the “playful and sophisticated” vibe that the designer said she was aiming for.
In Melanie Roy’s recreation room, the centerpiece is a yellow lemon-wood pool table from Barcelona. It took two men, who traveled from Spain, 48 hours to assemble the table after it was delayed in customs. Its price tag is $150,000—“If anyone’s going to buy it, it’s someone in the Hamptons,” Ms. Roy pointed out.
The decor in the rec room mixes luxury and family-friendliness, Ms. Roy said: a leather game table, velvet sofa, chinchilla and mink throws, crystal and acrylic mixed with a Monopoly-board painting, sculptures of dice, a vintage popcorn maker just outside the screening room, and a statue of a melted yellow lollipop next to the fireplace. The ceramic wood floor—“It’s a big statement,” said Mary Lynch, showhouse manager—is a nod to family-friendly practicality.
Seashells help decorate many rooms in the showhouse, and starfish figure prominently in, among other places, Meredith Ostrom’s powder room, where they stud the ceiling as well as wall trim. Ms. Ostrom said the room’s blue-and-white wallpaper is meant to look marbleized, but it reminded her of waves. Fittingly, a whale diptych resides there, while paddles frame the mirror above the sink.
A game room features a camouflage-print sofa, along with handmade bows, arrows, and lots of hunting and fishing references—including a wallpaper in a game closet designed by the tattoo artist and graphic designer of one of the room’s designers, Gretchen Kubiak. Bruce Jenner can be found among black-and-white sports photos on one wall; meanwhile, croquet balls fill a coffee table bowl like pieces of fruit.
“I’m going to go home and burn my house down,” said one showhouse visitor on a tour led by Hedy Tufo of Sotheby’s, whose husband, Christopher Tufo, built the 6,500-square-foot (not including the lower level) house, which has upstairs and downstairs laundry rooms, five fireplaces, seven bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms, and a 445-plus-square-foot pool house. It sits on 3.4 acres on Old Sag Harbor Road.
And the visitor hadn’t even yet passed the coral pink ladies sitting room among the upstairs bedrooms, not to mention the master bath complete with a champagne bucket, remote-control gas fireplace, provisions for a TV above the bath, private privy, marble floor, and much more.
“Oh, my God!” said one visitor.
The 15th annual showhouse will open with a $225-a-ticket gala preview cocktail party from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Saturday and run through Labor Day, September 7. Admission to tour the showhouse is $35 and includes a Showhouse Journal, with proceeds benefiting Southampton Hospital. Visiting hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Sunday. Children under 6, infants, strollers and pets will not be allowed in the house. Further details can be found at www.hamptondesignershowhouse.com.