On The Water, This Quogue Home is Feng Shui Approved
Most people know it as Quogue, but the residents of this contemporary vacation home refer to the area as “Smart Hampton” due to its ease of access to Francis S. Gabreski Airport. “It’s easy to get to,” says the husband of the convenient location of his family summer house designed by architect Stuart Disston and project manager Joshua Rosensweig. The location was a big selling point but so was a second factor: the availability of a rare triple lot with 275 feet of oceanfront expanse. “We wanted an unbelievable property where we could build,” the husband says, “because we could never find anything existing that we loved.”
Together with builder George Vickers, Jr., interior designer Andrew Sheinman and landscape architect Brad Spaulding, the team manifested the homeowners’ dream: an 11,000-square-foot beach house with seamless indoor-outdoor transitions, sleek contemporary furnishings and panoramic views that sweep from the ocean to the bay. The effect is dramatized by an open double-height living area enclosed in glass, where the scenery on opposite sides is visible straight through the house from floor to ceiling.
The first level consists of the main living spaces, the kitchen and three bedrooms. Additional sleeping quarters, including the master bedroom, as well as a bar and playroom are housed upstairs. A glass-enclosed wood bridge suspended above the living room leads to the master suite and echoes the 8-foot-wide private boardwalk that extends from the entry terrace to the ocean. That passageway begins between the ipe-and-Bulgarian-limestone-wrapped house to the right and a guest wing to the left, then goes over the pool and down to the water. “It creates a nice procession,” Disston says. To get to the beach, the homeowners don’t even have to step inside. “Imagine if you’re having a pool party,” the architect says. “You can have guests walk straight out to the beach and pool.”
If the setting sounds especially enchanting, it’s because it is. Before purchasing, the homeowners hired feng shui master David Cho to analyze the property to ensure it was suited for good health and success; indeed, it was. (Some of Cho’s insight: A home should be higher than the road, because height offers protection, and having a body of water in front—such as the bay—is beneficial because it attracts opportunity.) “I wouldn’t buy a property without a feng shui analysis,” the husband says.
When it came to the interiors, the family took cues from the surroundings. “Because this is a summer home for the client, they wanted it to have a beachy feel,” Sheinman says. “We created big open living spaces to maximize the water views and chose materials like limestone that call to mind the color and texture of sand.” The palette is a cool beige, so “pops of white feel fresh and modern,” the designer says. That translates to a yacht-like white lacquer that retains its color—“a non-yellowing white,” he says. Furnishings are sleek and unobtrusive, like stacked rectilinear cocktail tables and sculptural end tables. Even the sectional in the panoramic living area lacks armrests and, in parts, back rests. Coupled with a white Barcelona daybed, its minimal nature serves a purpose: Why interrupt the view?
Chrome, silver and nickel are sparkling accents throughout the house, from glamorous pendant lighting in the dining area to the bases of barstools that overlook the ocean. Vickers notes the attention to detail at every turn, adding, “Even each bathroom has its own particular theme based on using very unique fabricated stone slabs for the backdrop of the showers.”
Altogether, it was those details that gave the homeowners the ultimate sense of satisfaction when, after not seeing the project for eight months, they finally visited a completed house. Today, the husband entertains business colleagues at the spacious home just as easily as he and his wife host their children and a gaggle of friends. “It’s a beautiful, magnificent feeling when you come into the house,” the husband says. “I can’t believe the energy, and everyone says so. It’s just unbelievable.”
— Liz Arnold