East Hampton House And Garden Tour Ushers In The Holidays

Tom Samet met the present-day owners of a home on Egypt Close at an East Hampton Historical Society house tour, where another house, featuring Mr. Samet’s interior design, was one stop. Mr. Samet didn’t have business cards on hand at the tour, so the owners used the brochure two years later to find him to design their own place.

That home, whose architects were the late Francis Fleetwood and his partner, Jim McMullan, will be a stop on the Historical Society’s Thanksgiving weekend house and garden tour on Saturday, November 26. It is described in this year’s brochure as a summer colony, Shingle Style-revival cottage that is infused with Mr. Samet’s “signature sense of interior design.”

Mr. Samet noted the home’s “friendly tone” during a brief preview this week. The designer persuaded Michael and Beverly Kazickas, the homeowners, to remove a planned wall to keep the layout open and hospitable—to “casualize” it. Instead of the standard—for Hamptons mansions—double-height entry hall, there is a first-floor ceiling to bring the home down to human proportions.

The view from the front door continues to the back of the property, from which the sun beams into the living room and kitchen from landscaped grounds that include a pool, a still-blooming hibiscus and seating around a fireplace, as well as a dining area.

Mr. Samet noted the “incredible light.”

“Even in winter it’s uplifting here,” he said.

Anchored by a pair of 1950s-era cabinets, the living room has beachy, neutral colors like sand and grays, plus a little bit of blue. An enormous island in the kitchen—Ms. Kazickas is said to be a baker and cook as well as a gardener—sets the mood for entertaining, and the open layout in fact helped do so for more than 100 guests in recent weeks.

“This is the way they really live,” Mr. Samet said. “It really is a year-round house.”

“They’re really lovely people,” said Joseph Aversano, the house tour’s event chairman.

Among the other stops on the tour, all within four miles, will be a Devon Colony house in Amagansett. It is one of five originals built in 1910 by the colony’s founder, Richmond Levering. “Its period architectural details, both interior and exterior, are enhanced by its recent interior design,” according to the Historical Society.

There is also the “White Farm House” resting on a foundation from 1750 and on the National Register of Historic Places. The original kitchen wing survives, but the main Greek Revival house is from the 1840s. The homeowners have restored the original interior proportions and remodeled the kitchen and the bathrooms.

The architect Thierry Pfister designed another house on the tour—a contemporary on the bay at Lazy Point that is said to have breathtaking views. And the views aren’t too shabby at the Maidstone Club either, where a cocktail party will take place the night before the house tour from 6 to 8:30 p.m.

Tickets to the cocktail party and house tour cost $200, and tickets to just the house tour, which is self-guided and runs from 1 to 4:30 p.m., cost $65 in advance and $75 the day of the tour. They can be purchased at the Clinton Academy on East Hampton’s Main Street or at easthamptonhistory.org.