6 minute read
First Impressions
Written by Jessen O’Brien / Photography by Alise O’Brien
Shake siding, a sloped roofline, and an asymmetrical layout may put you in mind of the Hamptons upon arriving at the Slavin residence. But there’s a saying about first impressions -- and there’s far more to discover here than can be revealed at first glance.
“I’d been wanting to do a shake house for a long time,” says homeowner Bobby Slavin. A desire for a new style and a slightly smaller home had him transforming a spec house into a space that would be just right for his family of four. Typically, Slavin builds and designs homes for others in his role as owner of Slavin Homes and Slavin Realty -- homes which are quickly snatched up by fans of his signature style, which is anything but cookie cutter.
Part of the joy of collecting things over time is that every piece comes with a story, from the dining room buffet -- a French piece picked up while on vacation in Aspen -- to the chairs, found in L.A.
“I try to do something different, that’s very specific to the lot with every house I work on,” Slavin says. “This house was originally a bit more of a Craftsman home than the style I really wanted. So my wife and I went to Southampton multiple times that summer, toured houses, and took a million pictures. I then hand drew the details that I think make the house very special -- like a true shake house that would be seen in Southampton.”
While the entryway -- with its shiplap walls, transitional light fixtures, and octagonal tile floor -- feels in keeping with the Hamptons’ aesthetic outside, that impression doesn’t last. “You’re not surprised when you walk in the front door. But then, you walk onto the wood, and things take a dramatic turn,” Slavin says.
Classic shake elements quickly give way to a much more modern interior, beginning with a hallway lined with an abstract, hand-painted silver-and-white wallpaper by Porter Tello. In the living room to the immediate right, a vintage French light fixture bursts like champagne bubbles from the blue-lacquered ceiling.
Slavin dressed up the country kitchen with new fixtures and pendants.
Below, a red-and-blue oriental rug, a pair of plush grey couches from B&B Italia, and a built-in window seat flanked by plaid Gucci pillows form a lounge that’s far more SoHo than Southampton.
“We wanted it to be a very cool, funky room with plenty of personality that you really want to hang out in. To make it all work took a lot of trial and error; there’s a ton of pattern in that room,” says Slavin. “I think all houses should have a flow where there’s some uniformity, but at the same time, you do different things in different rooms.”
Quite a lot, as it turns out. Both looks have a certain casual, uncluttered cool to them. And, Slavin is careful to tuck details that would be typical to a shake house throughout the interior to create a sense of connection -- while giving them just enough of a spin. Take the lounge, whose would-be beachy shutters are painted a sleek black, or the dining room just opposite, where a shiplap ceiling sets off the two Rosie Li pendants that hang from it like gilded ginkgo branches.
Other stand-out items in the dining room include the table -- a custom piece made in the style of George Nakashima -- and the eight vintage wood-and-leather Brazilian chairs that surround it. Kate Moss and Dua Lipa look on from two large-scale black-and-white photos taken by Slavin’s friend, Greg Williams. Even the air vents -- woven brass, commissioned in London -- have a cool factor.
The bar blends Hamptons’ simplicity with French chic.
In fact, there’s plenty of glamour throughout the entire home -- the kind that makes you think that you could stumble into a fabulous party at any minute. “I want all of these rooms to be places that you want to have a cocktail in, rather than being a room you don’t want to go into,” notes Slavin.
Another central tenet of the Slavins’ design philosophy is to slowly accrue pieces rather than filling up a space all at once. “As you live in these homes, they grow on you, you get a feel for how to use each room, and then you decorate around that. I would rather have fewer things than an overcrowded home,” says Slavin. “In terms of accessories, it’s a never-ending search. It makes your home have a richer, more traveled feel when you collect things over time; there should be a presence among your accessories that brings weight to those items.”
Two of the Slavins’ favorite pieces of decor can be found in the bar: a pair of solid brass lamps found in Palm Beach. “The shades are the same material, which is pretty incredible, so they weigh a ton,” says Slavin. Here, the floor picks up the same black, octagonal tile from the entry. Shiplap walls provide another layer of visual continuity in contrast to the shelves, built from brass piping and marble countertops.
Modern furniture sits side-by-side with antiques, adding extra richness to the stylish master bedroom.
“The doors of the cabinets feel like they’re out of a country house. But then the hardware, which we added, dresses it back up,” Slavin says. “You can change the look of pretty much any room by changing out the hardware.”
In the nearby scullery-style kitchen, the Slavins hung two historical industrial pendants encased in wire netting above a large island. A butler’s hall connects the kitchen to the dining room; this, they tiled, while the swinging door between the two rooms is painted black. “We painted all the doors black when we moved in to bring in a cooler, more transitional feel, especially in areas like the kitchen and hearth room where we needed to balance out the Hamptons’ casualness,” Slavin says.
Around the corner and down the hallway, things get decidedly more mod in the powder room, whose banana leaf wallpaper is the same as that in Palm Beach’s iconic The Colony Hotel. Palm green extends to both the trim and the ceiling, the latter of which is lit up by the kind of striking, oversized vintage pendant you’d expect to see in the entry. “That’s what makes it so great,” says Slavin, who has a flair for exactly these kinds of twists and turns.
One of Slavin’s favorite pieces in the living room is the Jacques Adnet end table, whose tartan plays off the plaid of the Gucci pillows.
Just when you think the house has revealed all of its surprises, you come to the backyard. “It even took me by surprise,” says Slavin. “The lot was overgrown, so you really couldn’t imagine what was here. But when everything was cleared, you could see how special the backyard was.” The rolling hills make the neighbors disappear, as if you’ve somehow escaped into the country in the few minutes it takes to travel there from the home’s entrance. With such a view, it’s no wonder the Slavins have built an outdoor fireplace and living room and have plans to add a pool house.
Ultimately, the magic of this lot is what sold Slavin on it being the ideal spot for his family. It’s the same motivation that drives him to help others create their own dream homes. “Finding the right lot and making it work, then creating just the right home for it -- there’s just nothing more important than that,” says Slavin. “That’s what I love doing.”
