Children often have a hard time believing that their parents were once children, too. Whenever James, the daughter of Jeffrey Alan Marks and Greg Block, wanders into the attic of their house in East Hampton, she uncovers toys that Block played with as a boy, when his family spent summers and weekends in the house. “She takes out simple things like his old blocks with A, B, and C’s on them,” says Marks, “and is amazed that he had played with them. She loves to put on her grandmother’s wedding dress, too, that’s in a trunk up there and walk around the house, which is hilarious.”
The house, which began its long life on Main Street in East Hampton, was moved in the 1920s to this bucolic site on Hook Pond, within a golf hook’s drive from the Maidstone Club—and positioned, coincidentally, on Jeffrey’s Lane. The Colonial-style dwelling is set on a five-acre plot of land that has been in Greg’s family for decades. “My goal was to freshen up the house rather than change it,” Marks emphasizes. In fact, by lopping off some awkward 1970s-era additions to the house, he actually reduced its footprint, though he maintained and emphasized the original weathered beams that course the ceilings, notably in the kitchen and three upstairs bedrooms.
Although the family of three considers their main residence to be a recently acquired 1960s Modernist house in Montecito, California, the East Hampton dwelling functions as their summer getaway, with visits occurring also at Christmas and Thanksgiving, “times of the year when the house becomes a really cozy refuge,” Marks says. While many rooms incorporate Kravet fabrics, Rug Company creations, Palecek furniture, and other items from Marks’s collections for such brands, some rooms, too, are accented with antiques found in that attic, a space which seems to almost grow nostalgia, as well as other vintage finds gathered from local sources.
Jeffrey Alan Marks, his husband Greg, and their daughter James sit on the dock.
A Perennials fabric covers vintage sofas in the living room. The rug is from The Rug Company, and the ottoman is custom by Jeffrey Alan Marks.
The chair fabric and pillows are from Jeffrey Alan Marks’s Kravet collection.
In the kitchen, florals are placed in vases by Jeffrey Alan Marks for Palecek.
Chairs from Richard Wrightman surround a dining table by Jeffrey Alan Marks.
In the dining room, the plates are from Maccarello and and the napkins are from March.
In the library, wall décor from RH complements a custom sectional by Jeffrey Alan Marks with a fabric from Rebecca Atwood.
Chairs from Rose Tarlow are covered in a linen from Rogers & Goffigon. A settee from A. Rudin is covered in fabric from C&C Milano. The tray and vases are by Jeffrey Alan Marks for Palecek.
A vintage armchair covered in fabric from Rosemary Hallgarten complements a bed covering from Matouk. The rug is from Jamal Rugs.
The chair fabric and pillows are from Jeffrey Alan Marks’s Kravet collection.
“I wanted to infuse the house with a little bit of my personality,” Marks explains, emphasizing that many items in his namesake brand collections embody the quintessential beach house. “When I first saw this house, I really fell in love with the landscape,” he says, pointing to the tranquil pond and bay waters, the golf-course fairways, his and his neighbors’ lush lawns, inlets and coves, and a misty quality that signals the nearby ocean. He and Block were married on the grounds, in fact, eight years ago. “When we’re out there, we’re outside all day—on a boat, on a kayak, playing golf, tennis, picnicking on the lawn. James has learned about gardening and tends her own dahlia garden now.”
To further foster the outdoor feeling, Marks has kept many of the windows free of coverings, and he’s positioned furniture to take in views. Window seats in the kitchen, for instance, look directly to the yard and swing where James often plays, and sunroom doors slide open wide to terraces and lawns.
In keeping with both his native California coastal landscapes, as well as those of the East Coast, Marks has infused the rooms with a variety of mesmerizing blues. He had trouble finding a blue-hued rug to anchor the living room floor, and so, the versatile designer he is, Marks fashioned one for The Rug Company, and another rug composed of bold blue geometric shapes for the dining room. “For so many years, the house had been monochromatic, with virtually no color,” Marks says, referring to his initial visits to it. “To give it some color, it was a good excuse for me to use my product selections.”
Whenever they do all arrive at the house from California, Marks describes the enthusiasm with which the now five-year-old James leaps from the car with Sister, their one-year-old white Labrador, to run out into the land—and maybe make another excursion up to the attic.
“It’s nice to feel anchored in a house that has so much history to it,” says Marks.
