With cedar shingles, a gambrel roof, working shutters, and clipped boxwood balls, this summer cottage designed by Sawyer Berson looks like it could have always been a part of East Hampton Village. However, up until recently a pokey 1950s ranch house occupied the lot on Egypt Lane. The property’s owners are longtime friends of architectural designer and landscape architect Brian Sawyer and architect John Berson, the co-founders of the firm Sawyer Berson.
“We’d talked about doing something with their house for years,” says Sawyer. But after nearly three decades the owners decided they didn’t want to renovate, they wanted to start over completely–and of course, they wanted to work with their close friends. Sawyer and Berson brought on H.F. Swanson Construction to build the new house.
The owners desired a timeless house set up for indoor-outdoor living with a primary suite on the ground floor and as many bedrooms as they could fit on the second. (The couple loves to host.) They were restricted in how many square feet they could build, but Sawyer and Berson, masterfully fit three ensuite bedrooms and a sitting room with a pullout sofa into the second story. The architects also made strategic use of dormers in the roof line, including one which accommodates the handsome stairwell. Downstairs, the living spaces all flow into one another with the primary suite tucked away into one corner.
The gable ends of the two ground floor wings lend a sense of monumentality and contrast with the gambrel roof of the main body of the house. The rear terrace is all rigidly geometric, in contrast to the house’s more traditional silhouettes.
The kitchen feels larger than its footprint thanks to windows on three sides and a banquette built into the corner. “It is incredibly efficient,” says Sawyer.
Painted in Benjamin Moore’s Cottage Red, the island and the Louis Poulsen pendants overhead draws focus in the kitchen. Opalescent tile adds richness.
Sawyer Berson had the dining table custom made to pair with the vintage Charlotte Perriand chairs. The pendant lamp and metal chairs are also vintage finds.
The arched opening under the stair adds charm to the interior architecture while providing clear sight lines through the ground floor.
The living room is filled with classic 20th century pieces that have been reupholstered. A painting by James Gilroy pops against the cream-colored walls and millwork.
The primary bedroom is a calm retreat thanks to streamlined furnishings, including a RH bed and Wohnbedarf stools.
Swathed in a hyssop-hued grasscloth, the media room is dominated by a L-shaped sofa from RH.
In an upstairs bathroom, the sink vanity tucks neatly into half of a dormer. The walls are clad in classic white Ann Sacks tile.
Sawyer and Berson studied local historic houses for architectural inspiration, including the unusual crutch-shaped columns. “It was a delight to use those profiles,” says Sawyer.
Janus et Cie lounge chairs and Santa Barbara Designs umbrellas round out the pool patio.
The H-shaped configuration at the back of the house creates a patio between the primary bedroom and the kitchen, effectively creating an outdoor living room. Careful planning also went into how the house interacts with the patio, lawn terrace, swimming pool, and pool pavilion, all of which feel deeply connected to the house. Sawyer was also responsible for the planting design, which includes a perennial garden, punctuated with arborvitae and witch hazel against a backdrop of clipped hedges and London plane trees.
Sawyer and Berson say their foundation of friendship with the owners helped the project run especially smoothly. “We knew each other so well we were finishing each other’s sentences,” says Sawyer. “We have a similar point of view, similar taste, and the process was very organic and comfortable.”
Sawyer Berson works in a wide range of architectural styles, but in this instance they looked to local historic homes for inspiration. “We like very rigorous, historically-inspired interior and exterior detailing,” says Sawyer of the house’s architectural language, which references 18th and 19th century profiles. The exterior detailing of this house is particularly successful, including how the pitch of the roof sweeps dramatically down to the front porch. “We exaggerated the rake profile under the eave at the gable side,” explains Sawyer. “These sorts of details become really important–when you get them right, they feel great.” However, that refined architectural detail is counterbalanced by a few moments of architectural levity–including small square windows punched into the house for the stairwell and a shower. “This kind of house needs a little bit of a silly gesture too,” says Sawyer of the quirky openings.
The interior decoration departs from tradition with more modern furnishings, a juxtaposition that helps the house feel fresh. The subdued materials palette feels at home near the beach with light-colored wood floors, creamy paints, and printed cotton fabrics throughout. But there are a few surprises thrown into the mix, including a media room color-drenched in lavender, a bold red kitchen island, and playful shearling upholstery on the Marco Zanuso chairs in the living room. The mix of new and vintage pieces, including several iconic designs, gives the house the feeling of having been collected over time, even though they had started from scratch with the furnishings.
What Sawyer and Berson love most about the house they designed for their friends has nothing to do with the refinements of the architecture or the very tasteful furnishings–it’s the overall feeling of the place. “The house lives really well,” Sawyer says. “There’s a level of comfort to it that is joyful.”