Our East Hampton Beach House Makeover Starts With A Fresh Coat of Paint

 A Fresh Coat of Paint,
New Wainscoting
New Fireplace Tile-
            Our Home Renovation in East Hampton      

While the outside is constantly improving, 

last summer I looked around 

inside our twenty-five year old cottage,

 and thought to myself...

“Wow, this place is starting 

to look a little tired” 

The Before (above)

in the throes of change

when I first painted our walls grey (twenty five years ago) and the beadboard white I loved it but after time, the ochre orange, linen window valance fabric 

and all the dark furniture together, well, 

it just felt a little drab.  To me, the grey was not working anymore.

This past summer we were busy.  After a full year of wedding and planning then hosting our daughter's wedding in Tuscany, we simply couldn't put up our feet and relax. That would have been way too chill for us.  We love a good project! So, with the wedding behind us, we decided to tackle a new one. We gave our home in East Hampton a small design makeover.  This beach cottage is where we spend almost all our free time, and it's our respite. We bought the house while it was fully in the midst of construction and not quite finished so we had the opportunity to make it our own and change some of the designs and layout. All those years ago, we chose dark wood floors, changed the pool design that was in place, reconfigured the driveway, added a pergola and did some pretty heavy landscaping and fencing.  Speaking of landscaping- after our initial design of the interiors and during the past decade, most of our efforts went towards the outside of the house. We wanted the outside to match the inside of the home, and in the process my husband had morphed into quite the gardner.  

This once brand-new house has now grown into a classic beauty and it's aged with our family. Almost on cue, a twenty five year old home starts to have some failings with the quarter-of-a-century patina.  We've had to replace the boiler, the ac system, many appliances, the pool filter, fix the roof and it was expensive. We mostly left the interior design to the original way I decorated it all those years ago, and it mostly worked with the classic cottage aesthetic. However, last spring I looked around and noticed it was looking pretty tired. 

The renovation started with a fresh coat of paint in every room from top to bottom. With double height ceilings in the dining and kitchen, this was no small feat. We painted the walls a fresh coat of white paint, and the beadboard below a lovely blue-hue.  The dining room now feels refreshed, still with some dark wood furniture but we paired it with cooler blue hues, some white furniture, removed the dining chair slip covers to our simpler white upholstery on our antique Italian in-laid mahogany dining chairs, brought in rattan bar stools in the kitchen to add some texture, replaced the stove back splash with a sleek new stainless steel one, softened the room a bit with new window treatments (blue and white hydrangea valance from root cellar designs, and French linen cafe curtains.

We continued the blue beadboard and white walls throughout the entire downstairs dining, hallway and sitting room. We even painted the fireplace mantel the same color, Dusty Cornflower.  I chose the color because it was a cool blue that reads different from day to night. At night it's dramatic with a decidedly blue feel, and during the day,  it reads more like a neutral.  We also tiled the facing of the fireplace with my new Delft-inspired tile collection (Summer House) with Country Floors. We chose the "Collected Summer" pattern, a repeat of seashells in blue and white.  

we chose Dusty Cornflower, Benjamin Moore for all the wainscoting 

my summer house collection with Country Floors

These rooms flow better now in a sea of blue, creams, white and blending to blue/greens with some punches of color. I incorporated more seashell designs, some sculptures with unique porcelains and pottery I found at estate sales.  It's all wrapped in a crisp white so it feels fresh, a proper beach house aesthetic.

We had also recently painted the guest bedroom suite on the same floor a rich, green, Courtyard Green. The home flows much better wrapped in this palette, and gives the downstairs a cohesive and welcoming vibe. The former textiles and paint colors  were technically "warm" colors but in this beach house, it felt a bit muddy. 

Stay tuned for the next phase of our design makeover.  My wish list of sorts is  paint the upstairs, incorporate a few, new rugs, replace the dated granite counter top in the kitchen (big job) and a fresh coat of paint on the kitchen cabinets. We had painted them with Fine Paints of Europe fourteen years ago now, but they need a redo.  Side note- home ownership and design is never fully finished, and always a work in progress.  

Happy Nesting

XO Tamara

THE AFTER

the new makeover 

dining room/kitchen

I handpainted this faux bamboo vintage chair a pop of red and upholstered the seat with our Victoria Blooms in poolhouse color

we found a new oven backsplash 

 

the new fireplace mantel

The Guest Bedroom Suite makeover

In the guest bed's ensuite bath, we kept the original wallpaper I used when we built the house (a lovely Scalamandre with seashells in green and white) and white subway tile but changed the window treatments with French cafe curtains and painted the bedroom Courtyard Green, wainscoting white.

new, simpler window valances in our botanica fabric to hide the bamboo roll down shades and found a smattering of antique prints 

and art for the walls

new pillows on the bed from root cellar designs, 

Strawberry Field, Kandeel and Flutter patterns