Paris by the Sea

A Designer Decorates a Hamptons Beach Cottage with a Dash of French Razzle-Dazzle.

How do you decorate a beach house in East Hampton without making it look like a typical beach house? That was the challenge the interior designer Emma Beryl Kemper set herself when a young couple with a child engaged her to design the interiors of their three bedroom one-story cottage in the hamlet of Springs.

Their primary residence was in Brooklyn, in a space that skewed industrial. For their second home, an unpretentious structure with a front porch and a gravel driveway, built in 2017, they yearned for rooms that were “brighter and more colorful than those in their Brooklyn home,” and also “funky, artsy, creative, and inspiring,” Kemper says. They wanted, they told her, ‘Parisian beach chic.’ A good designer must also be a skilled interpreter of desires and Kemper took that confounding phrase – Parisian beach chic? – as metaphor.

“They gave me a bunch of French images and we pulled up our own and we started to define that phrase for ourselves,” says Kemper, whose first book, ‘House Rules: 100 Ways to Feel at Home’ (Union Square & Co.) came out in January. “We decided to add furniture that was architectural in form but nothing super-serious or matchy-matchy.”

It was fortunate that no structural work needed to be done and that the homeowners don’t much care about formal interiors. They like the semi open-plan layout and that the front door opens into the living and dining areas. A formal entrance hall would have seemed out of keeping with the casual nature of the cottage anyway. “It’s meant to be a beach shack,” agrees Kemper, who observes that it’s the kind of house in which a surfboard or a wetsuit just beyond the threshold, propped next to the front door, “adds to the fun.”

Still, a vibrant beach shack it was not – or at least it wasn’t until Kemper took on the project. “My job was to bring warmth and character to a space that was extremely plain,” she recalls. “And to add a bit of razzle-dazzle.”

This she achieved and then some through the strategic use of pattern, color, and form. She furnished the house with pieces that bring a sense of lightness and whimsy to the interiors, with funky rattan chairs from the Citizenry, a pair of Jacques DeNeef slouchy iconic N701 sofas, cylindrical velvet ottomans, and a travertine-topped coffee table. “We were really trying to convey this idea of beachiness without being too literal,” says Kemper. “We chose pieces and finishes that were relaxed and a bit playful.”

She also maximized the 1,700-square-foot cottage’s inherent attributes such as its high ceilings and capacious rooms. Consider, for example, the fireplace wall in the main sitting area, which she covered in a clotted cream-yellow limewash. “It’s the focal point of the space,” she explains, “and the color added a ton of ambiance. When it was white it was just a giant white wall among other giant white walls. I’m not a big accent-wall person but having one in this room made a lot of sense.”

If the project has one central unifying element, it is color – from the pale pink, lavender, and russet Berber rug that anchors the living area to the floral cushions on the banana-fiber dining chairs. Kemper says she isn’t wild about neutrals but she doesn’t go in for what she calls “super-saturated, super-bright” shades either. Instead, she prefers warm hues which she employs in a lovely, painterly way. “I think color can act as a neutral if you scatter it throughout a space so that it blends into the overall scheme of a room. I’m not suggesting using ‘pops of color’ – I hate that phrase – or any explosion of bold color, for that matter, which can feel unsettling, like a visual ‘boom’.”

Thus, in the kitchen, just off the dining area, she painted the island a pale yellow “so as not to compete with the fireplace wall,” she says, “but to tie everything together.” She also replaced a builder-grade kitchen backsplash with one of iridescent tile that evokes the pearly interior of a seashell.

But that hint of marine life is subtle, so subtle in fact that it would look right at home in a Parisian apartment. By the beach, naturally.

Photography by Nick Glimenakis