Annual Hampton Designer Showhouse Brings Its Best

Every summer, interior design enthusiasts flock to the East End to be amazed and inspired by the Hampton Designer Showhouse.

The annual showcase benefits Stony Brook Southampton Hospital and presents premier design talent from across the country, including both established and emerging designers.

“It is to the world of interior design what the runway is to the world of fashion,” said designer and author Steven Stolman, who is also a special consultant to Kohler Co., this year’s showhouse design sponsor. “It’s their one moment.”

Now in its 18th edition, the event features rooms curated by more than 20 designers inside a two-story Bridgehampton home by Southampton’s Barsalin Building and Design. This year’s honorary showhouse chairman is interior decorator Mario Buatta, known as the “Prince of Chintz,” and the honorary design co-chairmen are Jamie Drake, who helped popularize Modernism, and Alexa Hampton, of lauded Manhattan design firm Mark Hampton.

Though featured designers come from as far as the West Coast, the showhouse’s entry foyer is curated by Southampton’s own Sea Green Designs. Shannon Willey, the founder and owner of the company and shop on Jobs Lane in Southampton Village, is known for her coastal-style look, and often incorporates blue and green hues into her interiors. The designer also highlights natural and sustainable items in her curations, and this is seen in the grass cloth, linen and live edge maple wood furnishings of the foyer.

To the left of the foyer is the dining room, featuring a grand table seated for 10, and simple, minimalistic pieces and furnishings curated by Lisa Friedman, an award-winning designer based in Westport, Connecticut, known for her sophisticated, high-end residential interiors. Ms. Friedman’s signature look is uncomplicated and authentic, and the designer used natural elements and raw materials to represent herself in the dining room.

“I design in a very sophisticated, casual, elegant style,” she explained while setting up her display in the showhouse. “I’ve really been into not symmetry, but balance, because I believe in the flow of the room. I believe less is more. I don’t like your eyes to necessarily draw to one piece, I want to take in every piece.”

Jackie Young for Baltimore Design Group curated the eclectic powder room adjacent to the dining room and kitchen, featuring orange palm-printed grasscloth wallcovering and a sculpture of a glossy pair of lips above the mirror to greet guests upon entry. The powder room fittings and fixtures are donated by Kohler Co., who also contributed to the six other bathrooms featured in the home, as well as the kitchen and bar sinks.

“Bar L’Orange,” a small, but appropriately named bright orange space, was designed by Mark Addison, who also wrote the recent book, “Cocktail Chameleon.” Less of a room and more of a hallway passing through the kitchen and dining room, the space was inspired by Mr. Addison’s book, and transforms the vibrant photographs of cocktails from its pages into wall art. Though based in Palm Beach, the designer is inspired by the cocktail culture of the Hamptons, specifically at Bowden Square in Southampton Village. Now Union Cantina and formerly Publick House, the hot spot was considered a meeting place for high society on the East End when it was founded by Herbert McCarthy in 1936, and the bar pays homage to the late restaurateur in a photo secured inside a gold Baccarat crystal frame.

Other first-floor highlights include an extensive kitchen curated by Designs by Fernando, a quaint breakfast room by Barbara Page Home, and the “great room” created by Lisa Mende Design. This central room of the main level has no walls separating it between the kitchen and the family room, giving the space an open, inclusive feel, and boasts a chandelier draped in suede fringe.

Following the great room is the contemporary family room, curated by California designer Barclay Butera, and the junior master suite and bathroom by Shay Geyer of IBB Design. The bathroom, like several others in the home, features Kohler’s rain shower head, which uses gravity that allows water to fall like rain droplets, as opposed to a steady stream like standard shower heads.

The second floor is complete with four bedrooms, each flaunting its own unique style and color scheme. One guest suite, designed by Kate Singer Home and featuring furnishings by Garnet Hill, is a ballerina’s dream.

“I went with the soft ballet-pink color palette because it’s been my favorite color since I was a little girl,” the designer explained. “I thought it would be fun to use this color in a more sophisticated, not-a-little-girl kind of way.”

Ms. Singer hails from the North Fork, but she incorporates a South Fork touch with the focal piece of the room, an abstract painting by East Hampton artist Anne Raymond.

Mikel Welch Designs takes another guest room in a completely different direction, incorporating darker tones and Asian-themed treasures.

“We wanted the space to feel eclectic and traveled,” Mr. Welch said about designing the space, which features a 14-foot-high ceiling. “We wanted the pieces in this room to feel like things the homeowner would have collected throughout the years.”

Mr. Welch explained that each piece was carefully selected for the space, even if some were by accident.

“When I was getting a massage, the masseuse began to tell me how he and his family collect driftwood along the ocean, and he makes pieces of furniture with the wood and concrete,” he said, explaining the inspiration behind a half-wood and half-concrete bench at the foot of the canopy bed.

Other furnishings include an Indian watering vessel, an aged Chinese wedding cabinet and a Buddha temple figure, all from the 19th century.

The second floor also features a guest bedroom designed by Cocobolo Interiors, a master bedroom and deck by Reine Cenac for Lee Industries, and a master bathroom by Petrie Point Designs.

The basement is as lavish as the upstairs, featuring two bedrooms, one designed by Samuel Robert Signature Spaces and the other by Amal Kapen Interiors, an unconventional theater complete with two rows of couches designed by Extreme AVS Inc., a “boho-beach chic” recreational room by Katharine Jessica Interior Design, and a comfortable reading room by Mary T. Miller Interior Design, all greeted by a modern lounge that features a fresh take on the standard bar, curated by Laura Michaels Design.

“I thought, what could I make this room so it would be a room that wasn’t just a passthrough to other rooms?” Ms. Michaels explained. “It made sense for it to be a bar and entertainment space for the other rooms that it surrounded.”

While the standard home bar area typically presents darker hues, Ms. Michaels wanted to try something out of the ordinary for this space.

“Since it’s a bar, we wanted to house liquor on the wine pegs,” she continued. “The builder was particularly interested in them being lucite, giving off a very spa-like feel. I wanted to incorporate this vision, so we also changed the bar from maple into a white lacquer.”

The space also boasts artwork by Peter Mayer titled, “The Times They Are A-Changin,” which depicts the face of Bob Dylan, half of it being from when the artist was in his 20s, and the other half from his 70s.

The grandeur of the house doesn’t end inside. Outside features a terrace and covered patio designed by mother-daughter duo Denise Rinfret and Missy Rinfret Minicucci of Rinfred Design Group, and a vibrant pool surround by Kim E. Courtney Interiors and Design complete with palm trees, furniture by Lloyd Flanders, and a massive flamingo float to complete the “Hollywood meets the Hamptons” look.

Also outside is the French Moroccan-themed covered terrace by Rajni Alex, which was inspired by vibrant teal shutters imported from Marseille, according to the upstate New York designer.

“We wanted to blur the lines between the outside and inside,” Ms. Alex explained, adding that one of the ways she accomplished this effect was to use fabrics that are suited for the outdoors, but have the look of an indoor fabric. “We call it more of an outdoor family room.”

The showhouse will be open daily at 2148 Scuttle Hole Road in Bridgehampton from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. through September 3, but guests who want a first look can attend the preview gala on Saturday, July 21, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Admission to the party is $225, and admission all other days is $40 and includes a Showhouse Journal.

Children 6 and under, infants and pets are not permitted in the showhouse. For more information, visit hamptondesignershowhouse.com.