Summer House – Martha’s Vineyard

MARTHA’S VINEYARD, MA

Summer House

This distinctive modern house on Martha’s Vineyard was Glenn Gissler’s second collaboration, for some long-time clients, with Bob Miklos of Design Lab Architects. The joy of furnishing this house, which features spectacular double-height glass rooms, was that Gissler had been involved in the project from footprint to finish; the challenge was to create an interior which would mirror the modernity of the architecture without falling into timeworn solutions.

Gissler interiors are notable for their warmth and diversity of material, which here, we combined with clean lines and unusual choices of mid-century and custom furniture. The palette is one of pale earth tones, the colors of sand, seashells and stone derived from the land- and seascapes of Martha’s Vineyard. The result is a softer, very livable Modernist icon.

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In the living room, the massive Japanese-inspired coffee table, by Tucker Robbins, sets the tone for rugged elegance. Towering glass walls and doors are curtained in Perennials fabric from Boston-based Finelines. The Studio sofa, designed by Thomas O’Brien for Hickory Chair, is upholstered in “Meru”, a Sunbrella fabric from Donghia, as durable as it is appealing.

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In the living room, a large sea grass area rug against the bluestone floors, along with the massive dry-stack stone wall incorporating the fireplace, set the scene for use of pale earth tones and subtly textured fabrics. Mid-century furnishings in the room reveal the softer side of modernity through the rendering of streamlined forms in wood: a pair of vintage mid-century lounge chairs designed by Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb.

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Pristine white-lacquered millwork in the kitchen catches the abundant natural light, accented by natural bamboo blinds.

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In the Sunroom, driftwood-toned wicker chairs complement the bluestone floor and natural timber ceiling.

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Old earthenware olive oil vessels line this hallway leading to the living room.

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Glazed doors invite the outdoors into this bedroom, smartly furnished with twin beds dressed in blue and white stripes. A perforated steel chest of drawers echoes designs of the Machine Age.

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Bird’s-egg colors–brown and pale grey–infuse the repose of the master bedroom.

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A bright yellow glazed ceramic vase contrasts with a modern monoprint the color of a morning glory.

Senior Designer Craig Strulovitz
Photos by Gross & Daley

Summer House – Hamptons

Remsenburg, NY

Summer House Hamptons

For a large, newly-built house near Westhampton Beach, our challenge was to forge dimension, texture and style through a sequence of architectural interventions. By adding more windows we created a symmetry to the elevations which had been missing; replacing sliding doors with French doors augmented the atmosphere with dignity.

Our goal was not to encrust a contemporary house with period ornament, but to lend it the time-honored language of understated architectural detail, a way of accentuating and humanizing space.

The floors of the house were originally surfaced in a variety of materials, including tile, which made the rooms feel “chopped up.” To create an unbroken sense of flow–and warmth– from room to room, we installed dark wood floors throughout, using sea grass and sisal area rugs to further unify the rooms.

The double-height living room had a rather blank fireplace with a sheetrock surround. Using Connecticut fieldstone, we built a floor to ceiling surround using the “drystack” building method, in which no mortar is visible; the rough effect added shadows and texture to the space. A massive 19th-century wooden chandelier brings human scale to the 18-foot ceiling.

With the house itself thus reimagined, furnishing became a delightful enterprise of layering English and American 19th century antiques with pieces from South America, the Far East and India, including colonial styles. Warmth, materiality and restrained rusticity became the keynotes of this house, which now appears rooted and timeless, inside and out.

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The blue-grey of the house’s exterior shingles is complemented by the use of bluestone surrounding the swimming pool, punctuated, in turn, by small gridded metal lamps.

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An old chest harbors a collection of objects evincing texture and interest, including the lamp, which we had cast, and an 18th century architectural engraving of an obelisk.

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An 18th century Italian armoire, ten feet high, sheathes the family’s entertainment center and balances the fireplace on the opposite side of the living room.

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Dark wooden floors carry through into the kitchen, contrasting crisply with finely crafted millwork lacquered in off-white, and the taupe window frames of the double-height dining area.

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The double-height drystack fireplace, its hearth and mantelpiece made of slabs of bluestone, is a dominant organic element in the room, suggesting the earth tones of the upholstery fabrics: grey plush velvet, antique linen and leather. A heavy coffee table, a relic of the Raj, is counterpointed by a delicate William Morris Sussex chair. Traditional Shaker doors and moldings are painted a soft taupe.

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Regency rules in the master bedroom, with a caned bench at the foot of the bed. A comfortable armchair upholstered in maroon and white stripes and printed curtains of the same color heighten the 19th century atmosphere of the room.

Senior Designer Craig Strulovitz
Photos by Gross & Daley