Beachfront House in Southampton

Today dear readers I'm taking you to see this beachfront house in Southampton, New York. It was decorated by Mariette Himes Gomez, while architect John Mayfield redesigned the interiors although the main architecture of the house was not modified.

Splendid views with the Atlantic on one side and ponds on two others. The house is also sited so that you see the sun coming up and going down, and you don’t see any neighbors.


The pool faces a pond, instead of the ocean.


Five rocking chairs in this minimalist porch.


A Dutch door opens onto a landing, leading to stairs to the public spaces on the second floor and the private spaces on the first. “It’s an upside-down house,” Gomez remarks. Jasper Johns’s 1968 Black Numeral Series, lines the walls.

In the living room, as throughout, Gomez chose a palette of multiple whites. A 1960 Sam Francis lithograph is above a sculpture by Brine, an investment manager turned artist and owner of this house. A 1977 work by Frank Stella is at right.

The dining room chairs were designed by Gomez. Joseph Stella’s Hibiscus Flower, a 1944 watercolor, hangs above the mantel.

“It looks like something out of the Adirondacks and makes for another mood,” Gomez says of the family room. Mayfield sourced the structure from a barn company, built it backwards and then inserted it into the already constructed house.

Pains were taken not to obscure sight lines with draperies and instead many windows were left uncovered. The kitchen looks over the rear porch to the ocean.


Love this painted four-poster bed. Geometric-patterned wallcovering in the guest room.

A pine cabinet in the master bedroom giving the room height and balancing the windows.

Except for the dining room, every room has a crowded bookshelf and stacks of books on almost every table. The bedroom has no fewer than five different shades of white.

Photography by Durston Saylor

All images and information from Architectural Digest.