Some people possess a natural talent for real estate. That gift involves being able to see the potential of a home long before any work has been done on it. The owner of this Sag Harbor cottage is exactly such a person.
“She’s not only a real-estate junkie,” says interior designer Kerry Delrose of his client, “but she also recognizes properties that are meant to have character and be fun to occupy. The moment she spotted this house, most of which dates from 1800, in Sag Harbor she said to me, ‘Kerry, I have my eyes on this one.’ And because she speaks her mind and makes decisions, she got it.”
Delrose and the client know each other well, as client and designer, but more importantly, as friends. He has done seven prior projects for her (she’s a private real-estate broker), ranging from a penthouse in Brooklyn to an apartment on Sutton Place to a home in Palm Beach. “This house was in good shape, it had been owned by an architect, but, frankly, much of the character had been taken out of it, with everything painted white. It was our job to put character back in.”
That inner real-estate eye the homeowner possesses allowed her to see the potential of the house the moment she first saw it and before work had been done inside. What appears diminutive from the street, though, proves deceiving, for the dwelling has four bedrooms, two upstairs, two on the first level, and a spacious sun porch where the homeowner lives as much of the season as she can. “While that room is seasonal, all you have to do is pull down the shades if it’s too bright or warm,” says Delrose. “She and I have had many rosé out there.”
In the sunroom, the coffee table and lounge chairs are from Walters Wicker.
The island and countertops in the kitchen are by Artistic Tile, and the bar stools are by Baker.
A painting by Thor S. White hangs above an antique Swedish console from Eileen Lane Antiques.
In the living room, window fabric by Coraggio and a coffee table by Mecox complement a sofa by Comerford Hennessy.
In the pool area, the umbrella and chaise longues are from Walters Wicker.
Dining chairs from Metro Retro Furniture covered in a fabric from Edelman surround a table from Knoll in the dining area. Artwork by Peter Anton titled Chocolates hangs on the wall.
A bed covering from Romo covers a bed by Stitchroom in the primary bedroom. The nightstands are from Frisman Vintage, and the artwork above the bed is by Gavin Zeigler.
The exterior of the cottage is covered in cedar siding.
In the primary bath, the tub is from Duravit and the tub hardware is from Waterworks.
While preserving the floorplan and doing minimal gutting (just the primary bath), part of Delrose’s role was to infuse rooms with color, while also figuring ways to highlight the homeowner’s enviable art collection. Perhaps the most arresting furniture element that comes into immediate view is a decidedly chic, vigorously geometrically shaped sofa in a green velvet. “She saw it at the Comerford Collection in Bridgehampton and insisted on having it,” says Delrose. The living room is a perfect exemplar of Delrose’s stated self-directive: “In every room, I always center the seating around something.” Here, his varied assortment of seating choices focuses on the fireplace. “She insisted that she didn’t need or want much furniture in the home, so whatever we chose is special and distinctive.”
Some of the homeowner’s artwork has a touch of whimsy about it. A dining room wall appears to offer guests an open box of giant chocolates, with some of the wrappers relieved of their bon bons. “It’s a 3-D work made of papier-mache and it really answered the homeowner’s desire to ‘be edgy,’” says Delrose of the Peter Anton artwork. To add even more edginess to the room, though, he used cowhide for dining chairs that he grouped at a black powder-coated Saarinen table.
Another unconventional, yet notable, detail that echoes throughout the home are Oriental Beauvais runners that are unfurled in somewhat unlikely places—notably the kitchen and the primary bath. “As the homeowner likes to tell me, ‘It’s my thing to have an Oriental rug wherever I can.’”
For the primary bedroom, Delrose chose a textured champagne-hued raffia wallcovering, not only for its inherent warmth but also because it works as an ideal backdrop for any artwork. A Warhol silkscreen of Mao gazes over the room, while behind the bed a series of striped artworks by Gavin Zeigler assume a rhythmic presence. But to look closely at what appears to be minimalist canvases is to see another layer beneath the applied paint. “Gavin takes old financial and bank statements, antiquated stock bonds and legal documents and paints over them,” explains Delrose, the effect being an intriguing palimpsest that evokes a sense of history.
Not only does the cottage now possess the character and sense of delight the homeowner had envisioned before work had commenced, but it also represents her. “I know it’s a cliché to say, but the house is a perfect representation of her, the perfect interpretation of who she is.”
