Design Guide To The Many Worlds Of Style

In designer Annie Selke’s mind, and in her debut book, “Fresh American Spaces,” style is grouped into a few different worlds: Everyday Exuberance, Refined Romantic, Happy Preppy, Nuanced Neutral and Cultured Eclectic.

And when it comes to the Hamptons, it’s nothing short of “Über Happy Preppy,” she said.

“I think it’s a retreat, essentially,” Ms. Selke said during a telephone interview last week. “While there’s a whole lot of activity going down in the Hamptons, people are retreating from the city. Sure, there’s plenty of uptight people out there, but you’re by the water and there’s an instantly more casual, more relaxed approach to life. Sneakers, sand and an inherent mess. And I love that.”

The 48-year-old designer, who summered on the East End during her high school and college days, said she’s observed a shift in the Hamptons crowd and style during her now occasional visits. The area has a myth and legend it never used to have, she said.

“It’s turned up a bunch of notches from what it used to be,” Ms. Selke noted. “It’s fancier.”

The designer, who owns home textile companies Pine Cone Hill and Dash & Albert Rug Company, as well the licensed collection Annie Selke Home, now spends most of her time between her two homes—one a big Victorian farmhouse, the other a mid-century, modern house, both nestled in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts—where much of her book was photographed, Ms. Selke said. Her bedroom is featured in the Refined Romantic chapter, marked by sleek, not sickly-sweet, design, she explains in the book.

“I also have a Nuanced Neutral living area with pops of everyday exuberance,” she said. “Once you master it, you can mix it.”

Nuanced Neutral utilizes a range of colors—from black to white and brown to ivory—and enhances interest by layering fabrics, shapes and textures, Ms. Selke explains. Everyday Exuberance is an explosion of color; Happy Preppy, tradition and a primary palette with a twist; and Cultured Eclectic breaks boundaries with curated collections and personalization.

“It’s not all one way. It’s more about finding something you like and responding to it,” Ms. Selke said. “It doesn’t come naturally to people to look at a space and know exactly what they’re going to do to that. For me, it’s a blessing and a curse. I can say, ‘I’m going to do this and this and this,’ and be pretty darn definitive about it.”

For non-designers reading the book, the author doles out lessons on proportion, shape, color, texture and layers.

“My goal was to demystify and break down that process that comes so naturally to me,” she said. “It was a brain twister to pull out what goes through my head when I’m going through it myself. That was the hardest part of it all. It’s a lot of information I’ve gathered. I’m like a sponge. I just grab visual information.”

Ms. Selke began collecting fabrics at age 6. And starting at age 14, she worked every summer in Manhattan, she said, enmeshing herself in the world of fashion. In 1994, she founded her textile company, Pine Cone Hill. She later went on to create Dash & Albert Rug Company and her collection, Annie Selke Home.

“Cape Calm,” which Ms. Selke calls her newest world in Pine Cone Hill, uses a simplistic palette with soft, neutral linens and clean lines. These days, less is more, she says.

In contrast, pops of orange are also trendy now, she pointed out.

“You saw it in the ’70s, but in a really bad way,” she said. “That’s a color I feel I’m using a lot more. What’s out is all the superfluous stuff. You need what you need and you have what you love. At least that’s where I’m at. I want things I find beautiful. I don’t want it just to have it.”

Though style is constantly on the move, Happy Preppy will prove to hold its ground, according to Ms. Selke. And so will the Hamptons aesthetic, she said.

“It started as a very preppy enclave with a lot of traditional, classic elements,” she said. “But it depends on who’s moving in there and what is their aesthetic. If you have a lot of Russian billionaires coming to the Hamptons, it will change it somewhat. Who’s the ruling class? And that speaks to what will continue there. However, I think the Hamptons is so seeped in a certain style because people are attracted to it for that style.”