Linda Fargo, the longtime senior vice president, fashion office and store presentation for Bergdorf Goodman, knows a thing or two about transformations. “I am able to take something that other people might discard and turn it into something different,” she says. “And I had always said to myself that if I found a modest property which was uniquely positioned, definitely non-suburban, and in a restorative and inspiring natural setting, I would at last consider the fraught leap into building a home.”
In 2019, after years of renting on the East End, Fargo found just the thing: a 1980s upside-down saltbox with no driveway, a useless carport, front stairs that didn’t lead to an entry door, and generally an air of disrepair. Located on more than two acres in the quiet enclave of Orient, it had a beautiful vista, and she felt it speaking to her.
Then came the transformation. Undaunted, Fargo rolled up her fashionable sleeves to bring her vision to life. “I felt a little bit like Eva Gabor in Green Acres,” she says, “a city girl trying to understand why tree roots might wrap around a well.” Fargo decided to forgo an architect to make the home as personal as possible and tapped into her own love of design and the style skills she honed over the years. “I was fortunate to have found a flexible and creative contractor, Bill Gorman, who became my true partner in the organic evolution of the house,” she adds, describing the building process as “somewhere between very organized and planned and also very responsive, as challenges or new ideas often presented themselves.” The pair decided to raise the home, transform the carport into a glass-walled all-season room, and add considerably more windows, all with the goal of maximizing the views overlooking the surrounding farm fields.
The pool sits between the house and an outdoor entertaining area decorated with a firepit and furnishings from Brown Jordan.
Sculptor Katherine Stanek’s The Guardian keeps watch over the pool and the vineyard beyond.
Furnishings on the lower deck and pool area are from Brown Jordan.
Furnishings on the lower deck and pool area are from Brown Jordan.
Homeowner Linda Fargo on the exterior spiral staircase by Paragon Stairs.
In the living room, a pair of Italian mid-20th-century chairs from Beall & Bell are covered in a lambswool from Kravet. The Noguchi-style coffee table features a driftwood finish by Jeanine Gerding of j9design.
Kitted out with a table and chairs from Brown Jordan, the upstairs outdoor dining area overlooks Fargo’s pool and surrounding vineyard.
Barstools from RH sit at a Caesarstone-topped island in the kitchen, which features cabinetry by Miralis.
Chairs from Interlude Home surround a table from RH in the dining area.
In the powder room, a custom mirror from Mirror Fair hangs above a driftwood-trunk vanity from Lumber + Salt.
In the primary bedroom, a bust sourced from Beale & Bell plays foil to a slab of driftwood from Lumber + Salt.
Wood-motif ceramic planks from Cancos Tile & Stone cover the floor and walls of the primary bath, which includes a driftwood-finish vanity from Porcelanosa.
A guest room features a bed frame from Williams-Sonoma Home and rope sconces from Palecek.
The all-season room features custom benches fabricated by New England Barns using wood from PID Floors and topped with cushions covered in a Kravet linen. EJ Camp’s The Rock hangs above the bar.
The vintage driftwood coffee table and lamp are from Lumber + Salt, the rope sconces are from Palecek, and the planter is from Rica Bath + Body.
Fargo and her partner, Tony Brand, in “Gianni,” a 1970 Fiat Cinquecento.
Fargo settled on “Driftwood” as the “namesake of the first residential home I have designed for myself, after 20 years of designing for my other ‘home,’ Bergdorf Goodman.” Her inspiration: piles of driftwood collected during many years of walking the local beaches, occasionally in competition with a local artist who would sometimes snatch from her piles. “I wondered, What am I going to do with all this wood?” Fargo recounts. “Maybe build something out of it someday.”
Driftwood appears in abundance throughout Fargo’s home, and its shades of gray establish the overall palette, from the “sauna-like” bathrooms clad in ceramic tile to the PID flooring, which she chose for its “untamed and essentially rather wild” quality. Fargo is also a design locavore deeply tapped into the North Fork retail scene. Beall & Bell in Greenport played a vital role in the decorative accessories and furniture, and she has also sourced special wood pieces and reclaimed objects from Lumber + Salt in Jamesport. Fargo’s home in the city is decked out in leopard, zebra, and all things exotic and fanciful, but her goal in the country was to show restraint and keep the spirit, like Orient itself, as “decidedly casual, functional, hearty, imperfect, and natural.”
Landscape architect Jonathan Paetzel helped tame the grounds and grasses, and then a pool was added, watched over by The Guardian, a sculpture by Katherine Stanek purchased at the William Ris Gallery in Jamesport. To “fence” the pool, Fargo decided to install a pergola and a mini vineyard with the help of local vintner Steve Mudd. The thick-growing vines, which do not produce fruit, animate and amplify the landscape. “Both the orientation of the pool and the linear vineyards,” Fargo comments, “intentionally lead the eye out and away to pastoral vistas.” Exterior furnishings around the pool, pergola, and decks, mostly from Brown Jordan’s H Collection, are fittingly “earthy and organic,” she adds. Now that the once dilapidated, nonsensical ugly duckling has been transformed into a thing of beauty, Fargo marvels at what might come next, especially with the additions to the indoor and outdoor living areas. Rather than being ephemeral and something merely collected on the beach, “Driftwood” has now become her home.
The print version of this article appeared with the headline “Linda’s Place.”