Beach houses are often outfitted with white linen upholstery, sea blue accents, and lots of nautical stripes, but ’s clients requested something totally different for their East Hampton, New York, getaway. “They described it as ‘Parisian beach whimsical,’” says the Brooklyn-based interior designer. “They’re very artsy. They wanted the home to feel laid-back, family-friendly, and colorful. They wanted there to be a very obvious sense of place, but not too literal.”
Emma avoided coastal clichés in the bungalow by opting for a warm, summery palette of yellows, pinks, and greens. She incorporated a bevy of floral prints and natural materials like rattan and wood. And though she did pepper the place with shell motifs, most of them—aside from the realistic in the primary bedroom—are understated. “Scallops are sprinkled all around,” she notes.
In the living room, Emma made the fireplace into a focal point using a coat of butter-toned limewash. She then furnished the relaxed space with rounded , sculptural from The Citizenry, and a wiggly travertine . “We paid a lot of attention to the shapes of the pieces,” she explains. “Everything is funky or interesting or different. There’s really nothing standard.”
A woven seagrass stretches from the sitting area into the dining zone, where Emma upgraded banana leaf fiber with custom cushions in playful fabrics. “I went to the D&D Building [in NYC] with the client and it was fun to mix and match a ton of patterns and not really overthink any of them,” she shares. “That’s kind of the theme of the house: Just lay back and have fun.”
