Midcentury Meets Cottagecore In This Cheery Hamptons Farmhouse

Details

home exterior featuring array of...

The glossy black door and shutters of this Bridgehampton farmhouse preview the impactful use of paint seen throughout the residence. Terra-cotta pots planted with allium by landscape architect Michael Donnellan offer a cheerful welcome.

sunroom with white cushioned daybed...

“We wanted to create a happy formal entryway to the home,” says designer Augusta Hoffman. The painted checkerboard floors nod to classic English foyers, while the relaxed furnishings, including a vintage daybed and lounge chair, reflect a more traditional Hamptons look.

back entrace hall with silk...

In the back entrance hall, designer Augusta Hoffman used organic textures to create a welcoming vibe. Under a rattan globe pendant, a brass lamp and wabi-sabi-style reclaimed teak bench join a framed Gracie hand-painted chinoiserie silk panel.

living room with marble coffee...

“We peeled back the layers and focused on special pieces,” notes Hoffman. This approach is seen in the living room, where a TMBO settee in a Dedar fabric, midcentury Scandinavian lounge chairs and a Calacatta Viola marble table from Design & That surround a fireplace outfitted with Delft tiles.

rustic farmhouse kitchen with wooden...

The kitchen includes a vintage French island-table, a Méandre side chair by Design Frères and a metallic Mathieu Matégot pendant by Gubi. Hoffman updated the existing cabinetry with a coat of Benjamin Moore’s Onyx and maple hardware from Park Studio.

dining room with wooden oval...

Midcentury teak chairs surround a custom steel-and-walnut table from Luke Todd Studio in the dining room, which is painted Benjamin Moore’s Forest Floor. The English sideboard dates to the 1750s and the brass chandelier is a 1960s Italian design.

dark blue den with blue...

With its walls and ceiling painted Benjamin Moore’s Vanderberg Blue, the den features an RH sofa alongside an ottoman from Jayson Home, a wooden stool from The Somerset House and a Turkish Oushak rug. The wooden window coverings are from The Shade Store.

office with four windows, wooden...

In the office, the floor is painted Benjamin Moore’s White Dove to create contrast with blue walls. The burl wood desk is from CB2 while the midcentury teak chairs and handcrafted bronze pendant are Etsy finds.

primary bedroom with bed canopy...

Les Indiennes’ Japanese Trees covers the walls, ceiling and bed canopy. The Suzanne Kasler for Ballard Designs headboard wears a Jasper fabric slipcover. The wicker lamp atop the lacquered Lane Furniture dresser is from Jayson Home.

primary bedroom nook with white...

A faux-sheepskin-upholstered love seat and Nala stools by Ballard Designs custom-covered to match the room’s headboard create a cozy reading nook in a guest bedroom. The sconce is vintage via 1stdibs.

home rear exterior with wood...

The property’s mature trees and a grand lawn expanded by landscape designer Michael Donnellan take center stage in the pool area, which features a stone surround executed by Greg Darvin of Pristine Pools. The scalloped umbrellas are from World Market.

After years of long-distance dating, the owners of this Bridgehampton residence were eager to live in the same place. The young woman relocated from London to New York, and, together, they began hunting for a home of their own. A 1990s farmhouse set in a grassy lot with majestic mature trees quickly captured their imagination. Every inch of the property needed work, but who better to imbue some much-needed TLC than a pair of transcontinental sweethearts?

Enter Augusta Hoffman, a New York-based designer and longtime friend of the couple, whom they confidently tasked with reconceiving the abode as a happy, all-season retreat. For these owners, happiness meant “the juxtaposition of an elegant, traditional home that felt youthful and edgy at the same time,” notes Hoffman. It also meant a space designed for entertaining as, on the weekends, they regularly host upwards of 40 guests for lunches and cocktail parties.

Joined by general contractors Stephen Sisca and Vitaly Katsnelson of Renovation Partners in collaboration with locally based Carlos Mendoza of Eastern Chateau, the designer set about delivering their wish list with a series of clever, impactful updates. In addition to fresh millwork throughout, a new lighting program was installed to elevate the interior canvas. “We brought in a lot of thoughtful elements from traditional Georgian homes, which add to the refinement of the space,” Hoffman says. “One of the best decisions was to replace all the outlet covers and light switches with unlacquered brass so the rooms would feel much more architectural and considered.” She also gave the downstairs guest suites a hospitable feel by removing closets in favor of breathing room, and converted the former den into an expansive dining room replete with a built-in bar and French doors opening onto the garden.

Paint, meanwhile, was Hoffman’s secret weapon. Opting for bright palettes in rooms that lacked optimal sunlight, the designer leaned into maximalist jewel tones for the home’s heavily windowed spaces. To wit, the dining room was given a velvety emerald coat, and the office and den a rich indigo. And instead of gutting the rustic kitchen, Hoffman simply replaced the countertops and painted everything black. “By bringing in a bit of New York edge with dark millwork and new marble counters, we enhanced the space without actually doing much,” she explains. Even the floors were treated to dramatic paint transformations. The entry hall and dining room, for instance, now feature timeless diamond checks, and the sanctuary-like upstairs bedrooms’ wooden boards were painted a beachy white hue.

Formalizing the joining of their design sensibilities, the couple became engaged midway through the project, and many of Hoffman’s updates play to this tension. While the man’s taste had always skewed Scandinavian midcentury, his fiancée preferred a more classic British look inspired by her family’s home in the English countryside. And so, Hoffman embraced both influences when it came to fabrics and furnishings, deftly balancing notes of modern masculinity with Cotswold flair.

Take the dining room, where a set of teak midcentury dining chairs surrounding a steel-based table effortlessly mingle with an English George II-style server dating to the 1750s. Or the living room, where a medley of European and Scandinavian pieces gather around a fireplace composed of manganese Delft tiles. Twentieth-century furnishings with sleek lines similarly break up the unabashedly British spirit of the bedrooms, courtesy of elaborately canopied beds and layers of dainty floral and block prints.

Completing the transformation of this residence was a sweeping exterior overhaul. “We reoriented the entrance, moved the pool, highlighted the front door and shutters with black paint and beautiful brass hardware, and removed decaying trellises,” the designer recalls. And, imperatively, to create a grand lawn for parties, landscape designer Michael Donnellan opened up the parcel, pushing out the existing perimeter of hedges and accentuating it with classic hydrangeas. Those young plants have since blossomed and Hoffman’s clients are now newlyweds. As for their very first home together, it’s the toast of the town.