In the Hamptons, a Young Family Conjures a Classic Summer Getaway

The study is clad in Eastern white pine paneling; custom banquette in a Le Manach print; vintage French bamboo-and-glass coffee table; flatweave rug by Christopher Farr.

Art: © Richard Smith Foundation. All Rights Reserved, DACS / ARS 2025. Mark Lancaster/Jenna Burlingham Gallery. Daisy Cook/Jenna Birlingham. Roger Hilton/Jenna Birlingham.

Benjamin Moore’s Seapearl colors the mudroom; floors of natural-cleft bluestone.

“You don’t get the full picture at the front door,” adds Schafer, a founder of the AD100 firm Schafer Buccellato Architects. “I love that kind of stealth.”

This artful deception nearly didn’t happen. When London-based homeowners Claudia Blumberg and her husband purchased the property in 2019, they were on track to build something far more conventional. “We wanted something beachy that could accommodate lots of friends and family, with one large room where we could all gather,” says Claudia. What they did not want was “a sprawling McMansion” with overly formal rooms they’d never actually use. In search of a sympathetic collaborator, Claudia cold-called London-based interior designer Rita Konig, whose relaxed, collected style she admired. “She was so approachable, and I felt like she got us.”

In a small vestibule, a Henning Kjærnulf Razor Blade chair with a turquoise leather seat pulls up to a vintage bamboo desk. Madagascar wall covering by Crezana.

The AD100 designer quickly diagnosed the problem. “What you need is a pretty house that feels added onto, which gives you the big room you want but still feels like a small house,” she told the couple. “I don’t know how to do this, but Gil does.” Konig rang up the architect, made the introductions, and soon the assembled team was off and running.

The two AD100 talents have worked together on multiple projects over the past decade, developing the kind of creative shorthand that grows from shared beliefs: comfort, the emotional pull of classical forms, the idea that a home should feel evolved rather than decorated—even a weakness for well-stocked bookcases. “We both love a house with books,” Schafer says. Konig agrees: “In this house there are books everywhere. They’re not for show.”

Faux Bois wallpaper by Nobilis wraps a son’s room in which a Marcel Breuer chair pulls up to a midcentury desk; bench by Rupert Bevan, dhurrie rug from Guinevere Antiques.

Art: Lauri Hopkins.

In the living room, a sofa by Rita Konig wears China Seas’ Bali Hai and is lined with bespoke cushions.

A window seat in the bunk room is cushioned with Schumacher’s Lewis Stripe fabric.

Their vision for the Blumbergs’ home took shape as a sort of architectural palimpsest. “We made up a kind of mythology about the way the house grew,” Schafer explains. “It starts with this modest front cottage that was added onto, with each addition reflecting a slightly different moment.” That narrative logic guided every design decision, from the crisp Federalist detailing at the entry to the more relaxed articulation at the back, including a level change upstairs where the house makes its L-shaped turn—like a farmhouse extended over generations. “These moments of transition add a lovely quirkiness and also stop the enormousness,” says Konig.