This Designer’s Ground-Up Hamptons Home Was a Complete Labor of Love
When interior designer Damon Liss set out to build his own home in the Hamptons from the ground up a couple of years ago, the pressure felt high. “It will be scrutinized on a pretty intense level by our clients and our friends,” he recalls thinking at the time, “so I agonized over everything.” Although the endeavor was stressful, it was also a labor of love that now holds some of his most treasured possessions, pieces of furniture that he and his wife had collected over the past two decades. And it gave him an opportunity to work closely with esteemed friends and collaborators, people like lighting designer Lindsey Adelman and landscape architect Michael Derrig.
It all started when a property came up for sale near the snug house in East Hampton where he and his family had vacationed for many years. The plot was less than a quarter of an acre, and the existing construction would have to be torn down, but the halcyon sycamore-lined street was hard to resist.
“We embarked on a journey of researching what style of home we wanted, and decided on some version of a cottage,” says Liss, who lives between an apartment in Manhattan, near his eponymous studio, and the new house in the Hamptons. “While we don’t usually do the exterior architecture, we do have those capabilities and drew the plans in-house.” Liss and his team imagined a traditional coastal property with a pitched roof and wood siding, then modernized it with clean right angles and an open-concept layout on the ground floor. “The street just begged for that style, there are so many sweet cottages on it,” he adds.
The interiors of the 1,850-square-foot, four-bedroom residence have a cool, casual vibe that sometimes belies a zealous attention to detail, seen in the hand-cut butterfly joints of the oak flooring, the delicately hammered texture of the built-in bookshelves, or the custom wood-and-grasscloth frame around a mirrored TV. With few exceptions, every piece of furniture is vintage, rare, and meaningful: In the main living area, there’s a a beech-and-lacquered-metal round coffee table by Rationalist Italian architect Ignazio Gardella from 1941; an iconic K10-10 Paavo Tynell floor lamp, manufactured in Finland in the 1950s; and a low armchair by Paolo Buffa, made in the 1940s and likely one-of-a-kind, with a straw seat and a carved wooden back.
“We are active collectors,” says Liss. ”All of these pieces are special, and from all over the world.” One of the couple’s favorite finds is the dining table, made in Brazil in the midcentury by Austrian designer Martin Eisler. With its sienna wooden frame and a glass top backed by flaxen cane, it’s a real standout. As varied in provenance and materiality as these pieces are, they all coexist in complete harmony within the space, owing to Liss’s curatorial eye and to a palette of dusty pinks and muted mauves, used in fabrics and accents.
This mellow yet youthful color scheme extends to the covered porch in the garden, where the couple and their two teenage daughters have alfresco meals almost year-round (there are ceiling-mounted heaters). In the end, Liss needn’t have worried so much about scrutiny. “Many people have come and thanked us for creating such a nice addition to the community,” he says. “We [designers] are our own harshest critics.”
1/17Manhattan-based interior designer Damon Liss built his family’s second home, a four-bedroom cottage in East Hampton, from the ground up. While his studio could have gone in many different directions, they decided to hew closely to the area’s vernacular architecture and build a traditional cottage, yet with cleaner, more contemporary lines. Landscape architect Michael Derrig planted holly, boxwood, and hydrangea shrubs along the façade.
2/17Lucy, the family’s dog, peeks out from the kitchen, where the Ilve range was painted in a custom off-white color. The entry foyer is covered in Josef Frank’s Eldblomman wallpaper, chosen by Liss’s wife, Lisa. It plays nicely with the colors of the light fixture, an Angelo Lelii Honolulu chandelier from 1959.
3/17A look inside the kitchen.
Art: © Ron Gorchov4/17“We went back and forth a ton of times,” says Liss about the layout of the ground floor. “Given the way we live, it made more sense to have one big open space, which also allowed us to have four exposures.” A custom-made sofa was paired with a beech-and-lacquered-metal coffee table by Ignazio Gardella and a wood-and-straw armchair by Paolo Buffa. Above the kitchen peninsula in the back are two cherry bomb pendants by Lindsey Adelman, a friend and collaborator.
5/17The main seating area has a distinctive fireplace framed with jurassico travertine stone, with peach, coral, and black hues. Above it hangs a well-concealed mirrored TV. The floor lamp next to the chair is Paavo Tynell’s iconic K10-10 model, and the small brass side table is by Osvaldo Borsani, both from the 1950s.
Art: Camilla Reyman/Jacob Bjorn Gallery. © 2023 Claude Lawrence / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.6/17Another sitting area in the main living space has a rare Finn Juhl sofa model B064, paired with a Martin Eisler wood-framed lounge chair, and contemporary custom coffee tables by furniture maker Kieran Kinsela. The artwork above the sofa is by Claude Lawrence, and the one above the chair is by Camilla Reyman, both chosen with the guidance of Pettit Art Partners.
7/17The home’s dining area holds two of Liss’s all-time favorite pieces: a caviuna wood table designed in Brazil in the mid 19th century by Martin Eisler, with a glass top backed by flaxen cane; and a snowflake chandelier by Paavo Tynell.
8/17The home’s serene dusty pink and mauve palette gets turned up a notch in this powder room, with M. Crow pink satin hex tiles, and a red Paavo Tynell pendant model K2-12, from 1955. The custom vanity, and all of the millwork in the home, was done by VCA.
9/17In one of the girls’ bedrooms, a French modernist sunburst mirror adds glimmer to the built-in desk, paired with a Brazilian caviuna wood chair designed by Martin Eisler and Carlo Hauner. The bed is from De La Espada.
10/17A pair of Hans-Agne Jakobsson V180 sconces in brass and glass cast a pink glow in one of the girls’ rooms. The side table, in wrought iron and travertine, is by Design Frères.
11/17In the primary bedroom, an Angelo Lelii eight-arm chandelier from 1955 steals the show. The soft pink grasscloth wallpaper is from Elizabeth Dow.
12/17Matte travertine floors and glossy Provencal tiles from Ann Sacks create a mix-and-match textural feel in the primary bathroom. The wood stool was designed by Etel Carmona for Espasso in 1993.
Art: Carla Weeks/Uprise Art13/17A custom double vanity with travertine stone sinks and weathered bronze faucets from Studio Ore. The sconces are from Allied Maker.
14/17Designer Damon Liss, his wife, Lisa, and one of their daughters, Lillian, enjoying some downtime on the home’s covered porch. The daybed swing is from Thomas Hayes Studio, and the overhead lighting, which doubles as a heater, is from Bromic.
15/17“We embarked on a journey of researching what style of home we wanted, and decided on some version of a cottage,” says Liss, who lives with his family between an apartment in Manhattan, near his eponymous studio, and this new 1,850-square-foot house in the Hamptons, which has a covered back porch and a garden with a pool.
16/17The garden was designed by Michael Derrig, who planted Little-Leaf Linden trees in this allée behind the pool.
17/17An allée of trees is yet another feature of Michael Derrig’s work.
