American designer David Netto's interiors bring endless summer to a rare architectural jewel in Amagansett
For Breck and Georgia Eisner, the owners of this house in Amagansett on the Long Island coast, their introduction to the property came via spotty Wifi on Facetime. During the pandemic their friend the designer David Netto, who has a house nearby, had been made aware that the family of the original owners had decided to sell. He toured the house before it went on the market and told the Eisners, who live in LA, that so rare was the opportunity to buy a property by the postwar American architect Alfred Scheffer - referred to as the dean of East Hampton architecture - that it would likely sell immediately, but that if they bought it and didn’t like it after a year he would buy it back from them. They purchased without visiting, and needless to say David, who has subsequently redesigned the property for the family, has never had to come good on his promise.
‘It's wonderful to have the trust of my clients. I identified with the scale and enchantment of this particular project and it now has a very special place in my portfolio.’ Only a handful of these prized Scheffer houses from the 40s and 50s remain, tucked well into the dunes of eastern Amagansett. David describes Scheffer houses as, ‘perhaps the last great moment of beautiful wooden house design.’ They offer a special way to live at the beach on the East Coast, in an area now synonymous with much larger properties. The house is made up of three intimate shingle cottages, reminiscent of the architecture of Cape Cod, arranged in a U-shape around a central outdoor ‘living space’ connected by wooden boardwalks, close to the beach.
‘What I love about the house is that it’s tiny, but the living space is massive. The U-shape configuration of the buildings and resulting courtyard make you live in nature because you have to go outside to cross from one to another,' says Gerogia. 'When you need the air-conditioned space, or you need to sleep, or you need the shade, you’re inside - but the doors are always open and you’re always wandering outside, between buildings, walking on a path in the sand. So it feels very connected to the natural environment.’
David describes a Scheffer house as, ‘a smaller just for the summer type of place,’ and to grasp the interiors one must understand the conversation the buildings were designed to have with their setting, so ably plotted by Scheffer himself. The three buildings are now connected by landscape architect Ahmad Sardar-Afkhami’s raised wooden boardwalks. David calls the garden a big surprise; ‘a most sensitive piece of landscape design which includes wildflowers in clumps with grasses and paths that float above the sand.’
During the 11 month renovation architect David Hottenroth of Hottenroth & Joseph paid close attention to both the humility of the original architectural details and the way each building was inhabited. ‘I had seen David Hottenroth do another project that was almost like this in scale, a series of small cottages whose intimacy and simplicity was celebrated. No compromises because of their plainness, instead finding ways, because of there being ‘less,’ to somehow make things more elegant. I knew he would do a great job with us here.’
Inside, the interiors sing of summertime. Rattan seating with cheering botanical Josef Frank prints and loose slipcovered chairs in the dainty living room extend towards the screened-in porch with its translucent, corrugated ceiling devised by Georgia.
David wanted to throw some unexpected ‘bombs’ into the mix, ‘something reckless to bring a big idea into a smaller house.’ The kitchen's blue and white tiles by the artist Ruan Hoffman are a nod to the family’s heritage of drawing, animation and storytelling, while in the master bathroom a glorious Calacatta marble wetroom has been placed just steps from an outdoor shower. David describes both as being ‘moments of decadence for the client’; the beautiful large-scale stone and the opportunity to step through it and shower out of doors, which shows ‘you know how to live in this place.’
The dining room also acts as a sort of entry hall right off the kitchen with a table under the ‘Bouillotte’ rattan pendant light from David’s collection with Soane Britain. The main bedroom was created by combining two rooms into one. Scheffer’s ceilings were often left soaring to the rafters, so an airy metal canopy bed is easily accommodated and accented by brilliantly-coloured foliage strewn Peter Dunham fabric on the sofa and headboard. A wallpaper from Lake August in a child’s room is reminiscent of a summer garden scattered with naive illustrations of nasturtiums and trailing vines. An inherited wisteria plant was carefully looked after during the building project so that it could take up its original rightful place over the front door for the arrival of the Eisners for their first summer.
Today, the remaining Scheffer houses in Amagansett aren't particularly in danger of being overrun by water or tides, but rather by demolition. They are completely unprotected by any restrictions so when they trade to a new owner its key that they go to good stewards. It is likely comforting to know that if the Eisners ever want to sell the house, they have a ready buyer in their designer, someone who will also revere what Alfred Scheffer intended in the simple, modest sensibility and way of life this house and now the design delivers. David admits, ‘there is something special about a project you would want to live in yourself. It’s a little emotional. You’re making something for someone that feels a little confusing to give away. But I do love watching people fall in love with this part of the world, and these people especially, I wanted to have the best. When you do a good job, you can come back and drop in anytime.’
‘This place has what I’ve heard you call the Deep Magic,’ reads Breck and Georgia’s letter to David printed in the home’s pages in his eponymous book. ‘Plus, we’re closer to your house! I’m sure you love that part too.’
‘David Netto’ by David Netto is published by Vendome Press and available to buy now
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Tria Giovan1/15Designer David Netto’s palette for the house is captured here - self described as one of lightness and optimism.
Tria Giovan2/15The dining room is actually set in the entry hall, so the table from Rose Tarlow Melrose House is given double duty, sometimes for dining and other times as a hall table. The first Bouillote rattan pendant designed by David for his collection for Soane Britain hangs above.
Tria Giovan3/15A successful effort was made to introduce a moment of ‘wow’ in each room. Georgia Eisner suggests the large scale Ruan Hoffman tiles in the kitchen, sourced by David, make even a rainy day palatable with their cheer. Cabinetry painted in Webster Green by Benjamin Moore.
Tria Giovan4/15A kitchen island is clad in pine, reflecting a common material in this part of Long Island.
Tria Giovan5/15Architect Daniel Hottentroth worked to retain the character of the buildings by re-using original hardware and materials wherever possible and blending new selections to make sense, here, extra-wide bleached heart pine boards for the flooring. A grouping of fish illustrations were from the Eisner’s collection brought from LA.
Tria Giovan6/15The wet room, wrapped in Calacatta marble leads into the house from an outdoor shower, shower fixtures by Dormbracht and sconce from Original BTC.
Tria Giovan7/15A freestanding tub from Waterworks in the primary bath, just off the wet room.
8/15Alfred Scheffer houses are known for being tucked into the land, in this case the dunes of Eastern Long Island. Landscape architect Ahmad Sardar-Afkhami.
Tria Giovan9/15A decades old wisteria inherited from the previous owners was carefully tended to during the 11 month long renovation.
Tria Giovan10/15An original light fixture hangs outside an entrance.
Tria Giovan11/15Tria Giovan Photography
Tria Giovan12/15Tria Giovan Photography
Tria Giovan13/15Tria Giovan Photography
Tria Giovan14/15One of two outdoor showers - for bathing en plein air. David explains “the house has no pool, so we had to compensate!”
15/15A second outdoor shower also boasts a basin.
