Designers Flex Their Creative Muscles At The Showhouse

No rules, no reins, no clients; just 29 designers invited to each transform one room of a shingle-style home that would soon become the Hampton Designer Showhouse.

What ensues is a creative laboratory, a sort of design think tank. And by the end of all the preparations, on Saturday, July 23, this year’s Showhouse, on Scuttlehole Road in Bridgehampton, will resemble a three-dimensional interiors magazine spread—bursting with colors, patterns and, above all, experimentation.

“You’ve got to be daring,” said Port Washington-based designer Keith Baltimore while he put the finishing touches on his assigned second-story guest room last week. “It’s a ... free for all. Interior design is like art. You’ve got a canvas. You get to paint it. No one’s on your back telling you what you can and can’t do—and that’s what this Showhouse is all about.”

He looked around the mid-century-meets-modern-day room—housing a floor-to-ceiling walnut headboard and bed he built himself and antiques interspersed with new pieces—and laughed, unexpectedly.

“You get to reinvent yourself,” Mr. Baltimore said, throwing his hands in the air. “This isn’t typically my interior design look. Anyone who walks into this room is going to be like, ‘This is not Keith, no way.’ It’s a total departure, an absolute exodus from my visual. I never get to do things like this. That’s why we do showhouses.”

The Showhouse usually draws 7,000 people during its six-week stretch, according to Hamptons Designer Showhouse Marketing Chairman Tony Manning of Mitchell Manning Associates. He said that he expects that the 11th annual event will be no different.

The designer-room pairing in the $6.45 million, seven-bedroom, nine-bathroom house—complete with a game room, wine cellar and pool—is determined by lottery, based on each designer’s top three picks, according to Mr. Manning. After the selection, the rest is left to the designers.

“The designers don’t consult with one another,” said Showhouse Operations Manager Mary Lynch of Mitchell Manning Associates. “If you see sharply different colors from one room to the next, that’s why.”

The second floor—comprised of five bedrooms and a landing—couldn’t be a better example of Ms. Lynch’s point. Down the hall from Mr. Baltimore’s room, each bedroom door leads into a universe completely different from the last.

Designer Patricia Fisher kept her room fresh and simple, she said, primarily with whites and a custom aqua, highlighted by the Venetian plaster wallpaper

and bedspread. With the world as her oyster, she said she fine-tuned the room’s possibilities by thinking about where she was.

“The Hamptons is so summery and blue, and there’s the ocean and water and sea and sand,” said Ms. Fisher, who has offices in Manhattan and East Hampton. “That narrowed it down for me from the get-go, as far as colors and lightness. I’m a big believer in the room reflecting where it is. Wherever I work, I think that’s important.”

One door down is Arkansas-based designer Tobi Fairley, who in 2009 was selected as one of the top 20 young designers in America by Traditional Home magazine, the Showhouse’s sponsor this year. The designer is recognized for her use of colors, textures and patterns, she said.

The concept for her bedroom began with Jade Nanjing fabric—an Asian pagoda print—by F. Schumacher, she said. She then brought in coral and peach tones, which she said gives the room, and those in it, a very healthy glow. But, just as she is known for, there is a color surprise in the room.

“And I always try to throw in a little unusual pop of color, just to make things a little bit quirky, unique, which is where the chartreuse came in,” she said. “Showhouses are places to really ramp things up and show something unusual. We have no-holds-barred.”

The tricks to mixing color and pattern are editing and restraint, Ms. Schumacher said.

“It doesn’t look like it when you see this room, but it’s there,” she continued. “You’ll notice there’s a lot of pattern, but it’s almost all the same pattern. I’ve used this large pattern on several different pieces, and most everything else in the space is a solid.”

Most who wander the Showhouse won’t want to replicate the rooms exactly, due to either budgetary restrictions or personal style, several designers pointed out. But they will walk away from the visit with some new ideas about design.

Anne Maxwell Foster and Suysel Depedro Cunningham of Tilton Fenwick Design in Manhattan understood that going in, they said, and aimed to create a space in the basement’s family lounge that echoed practicality while still reaching outside the creative box.

Four peridot banquettes, paired up and placed back-to-back, are the focal point of the room. It’s a design choice that Ms. Foster said is hard to pitch to clients.

“But here, you can see it works,” Ms. Cunningham added.

The duo’s budget-conscious philosophy—which stems from both their husbands being bankers, they joked—is reflected throughout the room, they said.

“The coffee table is $6,000. The tray on top of it is from Pier One and $10,” Ms. Cunningham said. “That’s what we’re about. It’s about investing in the key pieces—the showstoppers, as we call them—and then filling it with a lot of stuff you love, so you get that mix. You can make it work.”

The Hamptons Designer Showhouse will open with a “Gala Preview Cocktail Party” on Saturday, July 23, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets cost $225. The Showhouse will be open from Sunday, July 24, through Sunday, September 4, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Children under 6, strollers and pets are not allowed in the Showhouse. Admission is $30 and proceeds will benefit Southampton Hospital. For tickets or more information, call 237-1475 or visit hamptonsdesignerShowhouse.com.