If you’re building your new home and looking for an interior design style, one of the most popular is Hamptons. While inspired by the luxurious beachside holiday homes of Long Island in New York, Hamptons is an extremely popular interior design style no matter where you live. So, even if you don’t live by the sea, you can bring a little bit of beachside luxury to your new home with Hamptons style.
What is Hamptons style?
The Hamptons is a luxurious, laid-back coastal area in New York’s Long Island, which is where the name for this particular interior design style comes from. The place itself is thought of as a luxury getaway for those lucky enough to afford it, and the interior design style seeks to capture the essence of what it means to holiday in the Hamptons.
The overall vibe you’re trying to create with Hamptons style is a cool, laid-back, beachside feeling. Typically, Hamptons includes a lot of cool blues, whites and other casual designs that remain sophisticated while also being quite relaxed.
So, let’s look at some design tips for getting the perfect Hamptons style in your home.
Choose your shade of white
There is a lot of white in the Hamptons style, and unless you have some type of whitewashed floor, you’ll probably want to use white on the walls. This is a great starting point and sets the tone for the rest of the design features. White helps to make the space feel more open and breezier, especially if you have plenty of natural light flooding into your home.
However, you don’t need to go for the brightest white you can find. On the contrary, an off-white is often better. If you choose one with very subtle blue or grey undertones, you create a nice cool feeling while still keeping the walls predominantly white.
Luxurious furniture
Of course, you don’t need to spend a fortune on luxury furniture to attain the Hamptons look in your home. However, if you can at least imitate the look of luxury while still being super-comfortable, you’re on a winner. Timber furniture is often common in Hamptons style housing, and the timber can even be painted white.
Make sure your couches and lounge chairs exude a classic beauty while still being comfortable to sit in. For bench stools or other seating, timber and even rustic types of rattan or wicker furniture can be the perfect fit for a Hamptons home.
Accent with colour
We’ve talked a lot about white, but you’re not trying to create a sterile laboratory environment. So, adding splashes of colour will help to break up the room and give it that beachy feeling you’re going for. The most popular colours to use are blues and greys, but you can also incorporate natural, earthy yellows.
There are a lot of ways to accent your design with colour, including floor rugs, throw rugs, beach-themed decorative pieces and artwork, plants, cushions and even the type of linen on your bed. These colour accents are what really bring a room to life and give it that breezy beachside feeling.
Decorate, decorate, decorate
This aspect of the Hamptons style can be quite a difficult line to tread. Naturally, you don’t want your home to look cluttered and messy, but you don’t want it to be too bland and minimalistic either. So, decorating the room is important as long as you don’t go overboard.
It’s all about creating layers that catch people’s eye, and this can be done with a variety of different decorative techniques. You might want to play with furniture that sits at different heights and make it even more visually appealing by adding throw rugs and cushions. Side tables with classic, beach-inspired decorations are also a good option.
Overall, you don’t want clutter, but you do want layers of eye-catching decorations that all match together nicely.
Feature walls – yes or no?
In classic Hamptons style, you ideally want most of your walls to be in your preferred choice of white. However, if your home is quite large, it can feel a bit stale to have just white surrounding you. Many people choose to use feature walls in the Hamptons style, but you just need to stick to your chosen colour scheme. If you’ve purchased decorations and furnishings in mostly cool blues, for example, your feature wall should be painted in a similar colour.
Want to build your beautiful Hamptons style home?
Here at Stonewood Homes, we offer a huge range of home designs in several different styles. Of course, you may want an interior decorator to assist with furniture, furnishings and other decorative features. But we’ll gladly build your home so that it’s ready for that wonderful Hamptons style you love. Contact us today to find out how we can turn your dream home into a reality.
