Michael Ward and Manel Garcia Espejo are fluent in the language of colors. As creators of The Salting, the much-coveted, hip clothing brand carried in stores around the country, including Bergdorf Goodman, and as homeowners of this 1890 Victorian house, they describe with precision the colors they live and design with.
“Upon first buying this house to be a weekend destination,” says Ward, “we white-washed the interiors as a backdrop. Later we did a renovation, then years later we decided to make this our full-time residence, and that’s when we started adding colors to rooms.” When asked to describe the soft, varied palette that appears throughout their three-bedroom home, situated a mere five-minute bike ride from their new freestanding store in Bellport, the couple starts citing the colors, with so much enthusiasm that they talk to, and over, each other. “Aged-whites, sail-cloth shades, khaki greens, soft blues, robin’s egg blue, sage blues, antique whites…,” they say, alternating.
An open-air porch wraps around the house.
The staircase leading to the upstairs quarters.
A vintage speckled charcoal flannel fabric covers custom upholstered Ralph Lauren Home armchairs in the living room. The coffee table is a Paul Evans mid-century original prototype.
In the living room, teak shelving is from Modernica and custom ottomans are by The Salting.
A Calvin Klein wool jute rug complements a custom sofa from Williams Sonoma in the living room.
In the kitchen, pendants from Visual Comfort hand above a vintage island from Laurin Copen Antiques. The custom cabinetry is hand-painted by Christopher Bland Builders, Inc.
In the dining room, custom chairs from Privet House are covered in a vintage French fabric from Richard Lambertson, also through Privet House. The table is from RH.
The primary bedroom is an oasis of calm.
The primary bath’s vintage sconces are from Lauren Copen Antiques, and the vanity is from RH.
The tub is vintage.
A guest bedroom’s vintage side table and lamp.
Trees fill the backyard.
The backyard includes a view of the bay.
Michael Ward and Manel Garcia Espejo.
Just as the couple has taken, says Ward, “a huge leap of faith by doubling-down on our clothing brand and opening a store,” so, too, have they done the same with their home over their years. Their renovation phase included flipping certain rooms in the layout, reversing a fireplace so that it opens to the living room, and better integrating into the house a wing that had been added in the 1970s. “Another chapter we want to mention, too,” says Ward, “is the one when we got married in the house eight years ago.”
Espejo recalls the moment they first encountered Brookhaven Hamlet and this particularly quiet region of the East End. “We were invited to a lunch those years ago, and we already had so many creative friends out here—architects, fashion designers, and the like. After looking at houses, we chose this one, the first one we saw.” Both he and Ward were taken with the purity of its Victorian profile, the wavy panes of glass that they have retained and through which they see lawn and mature trees, and the house’s proximity to a contemplative marina with views to Fire Island. “That’s all so close that we walk there with coffee mugs in hand,” says Ward.
The old house had only had a few owners over the years, so much of its original character remained. “Once we decided to really renovate and reorient some rooms, we saw that as our opportunity to blend the back modern part of the home with the original Victorian-era front,” says Ward. “We wanted to bring our consistent stamp from the back to the front of the house.” The sunroom, kitchen, and dining room that are housed in that wing now meld effortlessly with the rest of the original house. Among the biggest changes they made was to remove skylights and crossbeams in the kitchen, cut in new windows for views, and design novel shelving units around the cabinetry.
Ward and Espejo are well known for their keen fashion sense, yet they admit to relying on interior designer Courtney Taylor, of Providence, Rhode Island, as an unbiased source for bouncing off some design ideas. “She was happily our best friend during the whole process,” says Ward. “She was always on our shoulder, on speed dial.”
Not only do Ward and Espejo admit to being fashion designers who share the same aesthetic, but also, as married partners,
they easily agree on furnishings, finishes, and accents for their home. For years, too, they have worked closely with artist Julie
Bowers Murphy, who often paints canvases of figures that don clothes from The Salting collection. They have purchased goods from Privet House in New Preston, Connecticut, notably dining chairs that now sport a vibrant back stripe. They recovered a pair of 1940s club chairs in a soft Italian wool for the library. As for the primary bedroom, “We quite simply chose colors that were the most calming,” Espejo emphasizes, “misty, neutral sage-blues,” he adds in keeping with his ability to speak in colors.
We’re very happy with how the house is at this moment,”says Ward. “But our tinkering mechanisms are now at work on things outside the house—specifically, the new store in town.”