hampton designer showhouse: a trip to the near east

last weekend, i took a trip to the hampton designer showhouse with my sister and mother to see what there was to see. we had a nice drive out - luckily, no epic traffic on the LIE - and found easy parking on the quiet water mill street outside the showhouse.

as we approached the house, we admired the size and expanse of the front yard, and i envisioned aloud the types of parties i could host on a lawn like that. i pictured a billowy white tent, live cole porter music and a discreet waitstaff with platters of champagne cocktails and killer hors d'oevres.

so involved was i in my little hamptons fantasy, that it was particularly abrupt when i was ripped out of my daydream by a mysterious dripping on my leg. apparently my water bottle didn't get the memo about classing it up for the day and decided to open in my bag, dripping shamelessly all over the showhouse walk and me. back to the car i went to remove everything from my soaked bag and leave it in the car. slick.


it was all uphill after that, and dry, which was nice. there were several beautiful spaces, and for some great overall coverage of the rooms, you should check out posts on the showhouse at habitually chic, one of my favorite blogs, where heather clawson heather discusses most of the spaces in detail.

so much has already been written about the house, and because i'm not an expert on interior design, and because somehow we missed the entire second floor of the showhouse (due to very poor signage on their part and apparently very little curiosity on ours), i've decided that rather than reviewing the rooms, i'm going to write about several aspects of the house that stood out to me as examples of concepts i'd like to emulate in my own spaces and events. i hope they're useful to you too. stay tuned for a post each day this week highlighting one of those such concepts.

and close your water bottles tightly.

first photo from www.hamptondesignershowhouse.com