It’s rare that a house decorated almost three decades ago still pleases its owner, but such is the case of the Water Mill home belonging to Caroline Hirsch, the founder of the comedy club Carolines on Broadway and the New York Comedy Festival.
In the 1990s, Hirsch hired architect Francis Fleetwood to build her a classic shingle style house like those designed by McKim, Mead & White. “It’s a true shingle,” Hirsch says. “We tried to keep it as authentic as we could.” Craving an equally timeless interior, Hirsch tapped interior designer Glenn Gissler to decorate the inside in a style befitting the architecture. Gissler drew inspiration from the Arts & Crafts movement and American Mission style to design a beach house with greater richness and depth than the usual white-on-white seaside decor. The effect was both of its moment and timeless.
Gissler and Hirsch became friends through the process, and Gissler has continued to update the house in the ensuing years, keeping it current for Hirsch’s lifestyle. Back in 2010, Gissler oversaw the expansion of the covered deck and patio and addition of a pergola. He also added furnishings to host outdoor dinner parties of up to 50 people, including the Stand Up for Heroes fundraisers Hirsch and Andrew Fox, her partner in life and the comedy festival, host to benefit the Bob Woodward Foundation.
More recently Hirsch asked Gissler to rethink some of the living spaces. After closing her namesake club in 2022, Hirsch and Fox found themselves spending more and more time at the beach, and, like so many people, they were working from home more often. They realized that the ground-floor guest bedroom and a small room that lead to the pool were underutilized. “I always wanted more living space on the first floor,” says Hirsch.
As part of the redesign, Gissler wove more rich color into the interiors, including many shades of blue. A painting by Yvonne Thomas, a mid-century female painter, hangs over the sofa.
Gissler purchased the distinctive Arts & Crafts dining chairs for the original decor.
The artwork in the hall is by Robert Motherwell. The custom bar was designed to feel domestic in scale but is fully outfitted to act like a commercial bar when the couple entertains. The beadboard backsplash harkens back to other parts of the house.
A Doris Leslie Blau rug sparked the palette for the new lounge, which features a custom L-shaped sofa and a pair of vintage Ward Bennett chairs.
The house’s close proximity to both the ocean and the bay inspired many of the sandy colors found in the house.
The new home office was designed to function both for work and as a sitting room when entertaining.
At the same time that they built the pergola, the pool patio was expanded to create more room for outdoor living.
The house always had a pool deck, but Hirsch realized she’d like a place to enjoy the ocean breeze without baking in the sun. So, Gissler designed an almost temple-like pergola to create a shady spot.
Refreshingly little has changed since Gissler designed the primary bedroom, including the custom mahogany bed.
New custom carpets in the guest bedroom update the room in a subtle-yet-fresh way. The antique table feels almost like sculpture against the creamy backdrop.
After a nor’easter greatly diminished the dunes in 2018, Hirsch had new sand brought in and replanted beach grass to restore the dunes.
Hirsch and Fox wanted more work space and room to entertain, but they also wanted an everyday place where they could screen movies and hang out. Working with his long-time senior designer, Craig Strulovitz, Gissler rethought these two rooms as a home office/sitting room and a new lounge and bar. “Caroline wanted something that was fresher, a little bit more contemporary feeling,” says Gissler of the direction of the redesign, which features much more color than before.
As they began making updates, those changes begat more changes (as home makeovers are wont to do), resulting in a significant refresh of most of the home’s rooms. Some traditional-leaning elements have been swapped out for more streamlined ones (notably: rugs). However, many pieces from the original decor remain. “You don’t need to change everything to make change,” says Gissler. For example, the dining room’s Arts & Crafts-style chairs remain, but look fresh with new upholstery on the seats and set against a water-y blue wall color.
To make the former guest bedroom and pool room feel more in keeping with the rest of the public-facing rooms, Gissler and Strulovitz added millwork, beams, and beadboard. “A lot of new houses are under-detailed,” confides Gissler. “Things like paneling and beams—whether they’re modern or traditional— bring character to a space.” Several art acquisitions, including mid-20th century works by Larry Poons, Alfred Leslie, Yvonne Thomas, Theodoros Stamos, and William Baziotes were also added.
Those layers of art and architectural character are also what makes the house feel relevant decades after its first design. “People toss around the word “timeless” so much that it’s become almost meaningless,” says Gissler. “But there’s a responsibility to make good choices not just based on trends, but on the house. You have to listen to what the house says and what the owners say—and find a bridge between the two.”
Hirsch says she couldn’t be more pleased with the refresh, noting that the lounge now gets used more than almost any other room. “It’s thrilling to still have a relationship—both with the client and with the house—and be able to make changes as I’ve changed, as she’s changed, and as the world has changed,” says Gissler.