This Layered Hamptons Home Is A Design Treasure Trove

On a grassy acre mere minutes from Water Mill’s namesake windmill stands a tidy, early 2000s abode with a shingled exterior, crisp white trim and freshly renovated interiors. When its owners decided to relocate to Connecticut, they rang their friend, real estate broker Michael Lorber, to engage his services as a listing agent. However, he had something else in mind: Having just proposed to his now-husband, Jeffrey Goldmuntz, Michael was looking to scale up from his cottage in Sag Harbor. Foreseeing plenty of dinner parties and cocktail hours on the horizon—and needing the requisite space to host—he bought the place for himself.

While gallery-white walls are a selling point in real-estate, they simply would not do for Michael, who prefers his surroundings dressed in maximalist layers. Enter designer Nick Olsen, a repeat collaborator whose fondness for rich hues, personality-forward decorating and historical references matches the client’s own and then some. As with their past projects, Olsen was given carte blanche to recast the dwelling with a colorful, patinaed storyline. Letting the location lead the palette, the pair leaned into oceanic hues and leafy greens, while carefully avoiding going overboard on coastal motifs and other expected Hamptons tropes.

A passionate and sentimental collector, Michael has amassed a trove of antiques and art which migrate from project to project. “I have things in this house that have been with me for six houses,” he admits. Adds Olsen, “It’s not like he strikes a match every time he moves.” Nor should he, when the pedigreed pieces include a George III console, a beloved Regency mirror and a vintage Goyard trunk, to name a few. Pop art treasures by Dubuffet and Lichtenstein, a collection of 19^th-century maritime woolworks and a painting by reclusive New York heiress Huguette Clark round out the mix.

To orchestrate a lively backdrop for those pieces, Olsen traded oversize neocolonial fireplaces for bolection-style surrounds and employed layers of paint, wall coverings, window treatments and rugs, lending each space its own distinct narrative. “They love to entertain, and Michael didn’t want it to feel like you’re encountering the same room over and over again,” Olsen offers.

Take the living room, where a panoramic wallpaper depicts a Turkish harbor scene, but, as Olsen points out “it could be the Hamptons in the 1500s.” Old-timey schooners and brigs sail across the walls, “propelling you around the room in a fun way,” he adds. Multiple conversation areas lend the space the feel of a gentleman’s study where friends can retire after dinner to nurse a snifter of something. “It’s sort of a wink-wink to a bygone era,” says Olsen. “That’s what decorating is. It’s creating a little stage set that works for your life.”

Long after the summer crowds wane, the house remains a comfortable year-round haven for the couple, who host Thanksgiving in the showstopping dining room. There, Olsen incorporated two round tables instead of one long one, so they can be styled as library tables when not joined together for a dinner party. His appreciation for design history drives every detail, from the floor-to-ceiling lattice, evocative of a French orangerie, to the painted floors, which are inspired by Bunny Mellon’s in Antigua and executed with mathematical precision by artisan Rene Escamilla. “That geometric pattern is based on the floors at the Chateau de Groussay, which Charles de Beistegui decorated in the mid-20th century,” shares Olsen. Transportive and pattern-happy, the space is a delightfully ecstatic buffet of blue and white. “It’s a real showpiece,” says Michael. “There’s a lot going on, but Nick made it all work.”

It’s that level of trust that’s solidified their partnership over the years. This was their fifth project together, and they’re currently tackling their sixth—a new apartment in the city. “Anytime I get a text from Nick sharing a new idea, I know it’s going to be great,” says Michael. “And he stays involved afterwards, dropping by to tweak things. A house is a constantly evolving canvas for him.”