Not far from Napeague Bay in Amagansett, NY, this home was designed as a primary residence for a NYC-based couple to transition from city-life to Hamptons-life. Located in the flood zone, the house is required to be raised above grade; though, we lifted it higher than required to create a shaded living space, carport, and single car garage underneath the house. The beautiful coastal surroundings came with wetlands all around the property, which drove the home’s footprint. The plan was carefully developed to accommodate the client’s program while working within the wetlands setbacks on all sides of the property. And even still, the project required lengthy special approvals to proceed.

From the rear facade, the house reads as two cedar planes floating above the undulating landscape. The structural steel undercarriage of the one-story house, while substantial, feels light in the way it minimally touches down on the undulating, sandy site. Slender steel outriggers support cantilevered wood decks that wrap around the house, enhancing the house’s buoyant quality. The underside of the house and decks, clad in cedar, shelters the ground level living area, which includes a masonry fireplace. From the approach, the tongue-and-groove cedar siding is accented with a modern interpretation of cedar shakes on the vertical planes, speaking to the local vernacular.

The clients sought a modern home with very clean details that would serve as a warm backdrop to daily life, along with a carefully curated selection of furnishings and artwork – largely collected from their time living abroad. The rather restrained palette was developed to favor warmer sandy to brown tones over more trendy grays. On the exterior, cedar is paired only with a soft gray in the powder-coated aluminum windows and infill panels. On the interior, there is very little white painted wall, as most of the walls and cabinets are a natural white oak. While the fireplace volume and bathroom walls, ceilings, and vanities are a luxurious ‘greige’ limestone with a graining pattern similar to wood.

Once on the main level, large triple-pane sliding glass doors wrap the house and open up the living room, dining room, kitchen, and primary suite to the wraparound decks, creating a fluid connection inside to outside. Glass railings maintain views out to the surrounding pine trees from all angles. The kitchen and dining rooms are connected but separated with a limestone-clad fireplace volume. The open kitchen was the client’s dream kitchen by Bulthaup. A sandy aluminum cabinet finish was picked for the island, while the full height cabinets are a light brown, keeping with the earthy palette.

Off the kitchen, the master suite is also wrapped in full height glass. The bedroom includes white oak cabinetry to one side, upholstered paneling behind the bed, and a white-oak-paneled wall to the bathroom. The focal soaking tub sits opposite a double vanity in the same limestone that clads the walls and shower floor. Behind the vanity a toilet and a shower are tucked away, each with a large skylight flooding the space in natural light. Beyond the shower is a jewel box of a dressing room, fully lined with custom millwork, complete with integrated lighting and hidden door details.

From the left side of the kitchen a hall is lined with cabinetry to house additional clothes and coat storage and a hideaway home office nook. Beyond is a stunning laundry room with a full height window to the landscape. The bay window sits opposite an open TV room lounge, complete with built-ins for the owner’s vinyls and record player. At the end of the wing is a compact guest suite, just large enough for a short stay, but not large that guests overstay their welcome in this compact coastal oasis. Last, from the open living area, sliders lead to a roof deck stair tucked behind the cedar shake wall at the front of the house, which leads to a roof deck with views to the bay waters beyond.